Aug 25, 2023
NC Developer to Break Ground This Year on New Florida Apartments
GrowthSpotter
North Carolina-based Evolve Companies will start construction this year on new apartment communities in Fruitland Park, Wildwood and Palm Coast. (Handout courtesy of Evolve Companies)
Greensboro-based Evolve Companies plans to break ground by the end of the year on a new 222-unit apartment community in Fruitland Park right next to the new AdventHealth medical campus.
Development Manager John McDonald told GrowthSpotter the new Evolve Fruitland Park on Miller Boulevard (County Road 466-A) is part of a major expansion by the company into Central Florida.
“This would be one of our first projects in the Florida market,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of others, and in particular, we really liked The Villages and the growth that it’s seeing. We feel that this area is underserved when it comes to multifamily development, so we found this property a year or so ago and worked to have it rezoned and annexed into the city of Fruitland Park.”
The site plan creates two commercial outparcels on County Road 466-A plus a new 222-unit apartment community with nine buildings overlooking a new central pond. (Site plan by Upham Inc.)
Evolve purchased the 19.5 acres in April for $4.5 million and recently filed construction plans with the South Florida Water Management District. Next door, AdventHealth recently paid $9.4 million for the 27 acres with plans for a freestanding emergency room that will break ground in early 2024 and open in 2025.
AdventHealth announced the plans on Aug. 10 for the medical campus, noting that future development could include outpatient medical facilities, such as a surgery center or medical office building for physician offices, as well as outpatient services ranging from imaging to labs.
“We learned about it, I think, when everyone else did,” McDonald said. “I believe it was originally planned to be a grocery-anchored commercial development that may have included a hotel and outparcels. And either way, they’re both great neighbors for us.”
Evolve’s standard amenity package includes a pool, clubhouse, fitness center, dog park, hammock park, and pickleball courts. (Courtesy of Evolve Companies)
The company has engaged Upham Inc. for civil engineering and Planworx Architecture. In addition to Fruitland Park, Evolve has new projects ready to break ground soon in Wildwood (248 units) and Palm Coast (256 units). HPA Design Group will take on the comprehensive Interior Design on both Fruitland Park and Wildwood developments
“We expect all those to start around the same time,” McDonald said, adding that the builds will take 18-24 months. Each Evolve community offers a robust amenity package that includes a clubhouse with a fitness center, pool and cabana, outdoor grilling station, playground, hammock park, dog parks and pickleball courts.
The 4,000-square-foot clubhouse at Evolve Fruitland park includes a state-of-the-art fitness center. (Courtesy of Evolve Companies)
“We offer high end finishes throughout the clubhouse and the unit finishes, as well as some of the exterior finishes,” McDonald said. “And we want the clubhouse in particular and the grounds and the units to really speak for themselves and to be a showstopper. And when potential prospective residents come and visit the location, we want them to leave remembering us for that reason when they go home that night, and start thinking about their options.”
Though it’s just outside of the nation’s largest retirement community, Evolve Fruitland Park will be designed to appeal to tenants of all ages.
“We’re not age-restricted on this project, and so our plans are to be open to anyone who’s looking for some flexibility in their housing options,” McDonald said. “They may be some of those 55+ individual who are kind of known for living in that area, but certainly also younger families and younger workforce-type tenants who maybe work in the medical industry or in the service industry within and around The Villages.”
The site plan calls for nine 3-story garden apartment buildings overlooking a new drainage pond in the center of the community. The clubhouse and leasing office will be situated just off Miller Boulevard, and two new commercial outparcels, each 1.3 acres, will front the boulevard.
The Miller Boulevard corridor has also drawn developer interest from Orlando’s Intram Investments, which has approvals from the city for a mixed-use PUD called Miller Park. The 68.55-acre parcel at Miller and Timbertop Lane featuring a combination of multifamily rentals and fee-simple townhomes, commercial retail and institutional office uses for medical.