FORT WALTON BEACH, FL - Construction of the city's first large affordable housing project is expected to start early next year. The Fort Walton Beach City Council recently approved the Sound Side apartment complex on Carson Drive near Methodist Avenue. The developer, HomeCorp Affordable Community, plans to file for its building permits in a few weeks.
"It's really starting to get on track," Lloyd Strickland, a principal with HomeCorp, said during a telephone interview from his office in Alabama. "It's on a faster pace than what it's been."
Sound Side will have 200 one- to four-bedroom apartments in eight three- and four-story buildings. A ninth building will house the project's leasing office and clubhouse.
"It's a good project. We're not going to let it go," Strickland said. "There's a huge need for what we're putting up. And the Fort Walton Beach market softened up a little bit last year, but it's come back. The unemployment rate is well below the state average and the national average. It's still a great market down there."
Strickland said work is expected to start in the first quarter of next year with the demolition of the existing Germany Terrace building. While construction is expected to take 12 months, Strickland said buildings will open to renters as they are completed.
Prices for the apartments have not been finalized yet. HomeCorp is having an appraisal completed this week determine what the rents will be. Forty units will be reserved for residents who make 80 to 120 percent of the area's median income and 160 units are reserved for those who make 60 percent of the area's median income. The cost of the project, including financing, is estimated at $20 million.
Source: nwfDailyNews.com