Lee Vista apts to have flex work from home spaces
Orlando-based MMI Development has filed plans to build a 435-unit apartment community at the Conway and Judge roads in southeast Orlando that will offer premium features unique to the Orlando market.
“We’re going to call it Progress on Lee Vista,” MMI President Mike Wright told GrowthSpotter. He said the project would consist of four-story buildings with elevators, air-conditioned corridors, and surface parking. The developer plans to offer optional covered carports and enclosed garages.
Wright said he tweaked his standard multifamily design in response to space demands from tenants during the pandemic. The community will offer a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom floorplans, and each will have a separate flex space that can be used as a dedicated workspace.
At nearly 60 square feet, the flex space can be closed off from the main living room with french doors hung on barndoor hardware.
“Tenants use those for pets, for home offices. We’ve actually had a couple set up a home theater in there. They’ve done all kinds of things,” Wright said. The apartments also have walk-in closets in all the bedrooms and side-by-side washer/dryer units, both of which add to the feeling of spaciousness.
The decision to design more square footage into each floorplan was calculated because so many people are working from home.
“Yeah, these are pretty big, and we’re trying to make it more flexible,” he said. “If you have to stay in your house a lot longer, you’ve got more rooms to get to, more doors, more privacy. Things like that.”
A recent survey of more than 220,000 renters by the National Multifamily Housing Council found that 25% of renters who moved in the past 18 months did so because they were working from home.
“We want to make this a place where people move into it instead of moving to a different and better apartment,” Wright said. “They will not find a different and better apartment. We don’t want them moving to another apartment — we want to keep them in this one.”
Inspiration townhome sales are hot
The Inspiration luxury mixed-use project in Ocoee is grabbing some high prices in its marketing phase.
According to a recent city project status report, pre-construction sales for the 90-lot townhome community have reached approximately 30%, with reserve prices for townhomes starting at $630,000. At that rate, the minimum sellout price for the townhome portion of the mixed-use project is over $56 million.
Townhomes feature two-car garages and brick driveways. Buyers can choose between three- and four-bedroom floor plans with custom add-on options including artificial turf in the backyard, a “smart” pool with automated pool maintenance applications and a designer garage, among others shown in online marketing material.
RPM Investments Holdings LLC, led by businessman and real estate developer Ray Veloso, is representing a large group of investment companies that are helping put together the mixed-use community now taking shape directly west of Maguire Road and south of Florida’s Turnpike.
The townhomes are part of larger plans that include four commercial buildings west of the residential neighborhood that will consist of a 13,681-square-foot preschool, in addition to nearly 60,000 square feet of new office and retail development.
The largest of the commercial buildings (Building 3) will feature 42,350 square feet of office/retail space across two floors. Meanwhile, the other buildings are single-story with one containing 12,600 square feet of office/retail space and the other containing 3,591 square feet of retail space.
So far the only announced retailer is the pre-school operator Amazing Explorers Academy, which is a franchise Veloso helped create. The pre-school specializes in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics and currently has a location in Lake Nona’s Laureate Park Village Center.
This is a sampling of stories from GrowthSpotter, a premium subscription service from the Orlando Sentinel that focuses on the early stages of real estate development. To subscribe, go to GrowthSpotter.com