Apopka mayor asks state agency to strip project of affordable housing money
City, developer at odds over property in City Center
After Apopka was sued for denying an affordable housing project, a judge sided with the developer and determined that the city was violating state statutes by not allowing it on land reserved for its city center.
In the months that followed that December court ruling, the city still has not granted permits to Wendover Housing Partners for its 192-unit Southwick Commons project, and the mayor has launched an effort to strip the project of its state funding. Now, the Altamonte Springs-based developer is threatening more litigation, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.
The Florida Housing Finance Corporation approved $10.8 million in loans and tax credits in 2020 for Wendover’s Southwick Commons project. That included
$7 million from the State Apartment Incentive Loan
(SAIL) program. According to state documents, the project calls for five units to be set aside at 22% of the Area Median Income, 30 units at 30% of the AMI, 120 units at 60% AMI, and 45 units at 80% AMI.
The loan commitments were set to expire on Dec. 29 but Wendover was granted a six-month extension to complete the underwriting because of delays from the city. Now the June 29 deadline is coming up, and Wendover can’t get their loans without a permit.
“In order to meet our funding deadline, we need permits prior to June 15, 2023,” Rebecca Wilson, an attorney representing Wendover with the Lowndes Lawfirm wrote in an April 7 email to city planning staff. “If the city continues to delay and deny the (master development plan) we will have no choice but to add damages caused by delay as an additional claim to this litigation.”
On April 25, Mayor Bryan Nelson sent a letter to the state housing agency asking that they “do the right thing” and deny Wendover funding for its project.
In the letter obtained by GrowthSpotter, Nelson points to a development agreement the city inked with the Taurus Apopka City Center LLC, led by Craig Govan, that calls for luxury amenities, such as “non-subsidized, market rent” residences. Nelson said in the letter that Wendover purchased the land from Taurus a full year after going under contract to buy the property. “Wendover had the opportunity to look at the Developer’s agreement and the luxury amenities that are required. They either failed to read the document or worse figured they could intimidate the city into caving on the luxury amenities that are spelled out in the developer’s
“If the city continues to delay and deny the (master development plan) we will have no choice but to add damages caused by delay as an additional claim to this litigation.”
— Rebecca Wilson, an attorney representing Wendover with the Lowndes Lawfirm, in an email to city planning staff
agreement,” the letter reads.
It continues: “The City Center is our crown jewel of Apopka with restaurants, shopping, and even an upscale supermarket in the planning stages for this 34-acre site. Wendover could flip the property to one of several luxury apartment builders eager to build on this site and pocket more than a million-dollar profit.”
Nelson states in the letter that the city lost in court on the issue of subsidized housing but the rest of the developer’s agreement which includes luxury amenities remains intact.
The developer asked to change the language of the developer’s agreement to allow Southwick to move forward, but the commission denied the request by 3-2 vote.
“We in Apopka fully support Affordable Housing and we are working with Orange County to bring a 103-unit single-family and duplex community to the Apopka community,” Nelson wrote. “We are just asking that you, the Florida Housing Authority, do the right thing and deny Wendover Housing the funding for this project if they continue to whittle away at the design elements which could result in an inferior product in the city under the guise of affordable housing.”
Ryan von Weller, chief operating officer with Wendover Housing Partners, used public comment time during Wednesday’s city commission meeting to reference the letter and lambast city leadership for stalling the approval process for the project.
Von Weller called the mayor’s letter to the state housing authority an example of “outlandish and egregious” overreach.