TWO MULTIFAMILY PROJECTS ON KISSIMMEE'S OLD VINELAND ROAD BEING REDESIGNED

The Miami-based developer who recently bought land with permits for 210 vacation rental townhomes is going back to the drawing board to redesign the Kissimmee site.

MAS Development paid $4.8 million for the 14.4-acre site on Old Vineland
Road, north of U.S. 192. The proposed Solamar development on Old Vineland Road had been owned by the same Houston developer, Fahad Al-Turki, since 2005. He had secured site development approvals from Osceola County for the project in early March but sold it to MAS Development later that month.

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“We had building permits ready to be pulled,” said Dawn Michele Evans-Hall, with the planning and design firm Evans Group. “They are not proceeding with our plans. They are redesigning the project. I think they want to go smaller.”

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Evans-Hall said MAS intends to construct a mix of one- and two-story units instead of the recently approved plan. “They’re from South Florida, so they feel like they have a different understanding of the market,” she said.

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Attempts to reach officials at MAS were unsuccessful.

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The Solamar site is one of two projects on Old Vineland Road going through a redesign.

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Carlton Land President Jitendrakumar Patel, owner of the 7.2-acre site, had presented a high-density mixed-use concept to the county’s Development Review Committee last summer. The original vision called for up to 450 dwelling units, a mix of multifamily and age-restricted units with structured parking and 20,000 square feet of retail and commercial fronting on Old Vineland Road.

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Earlier this month the design consultants from MEI Partners requested a new pre-application meeting to discuss a revised concept that calls for a surface-parked apartment complex with 274 units. The consultants noted that they had completed a market feasibility study, which didn’t support the higher density product or the retail use.

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Farmer Architecture has submitted new renderings, showing the building height reduced from five stories to four. The new site plan also eliminates a stormwater pond in favor of an underground retention system.

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Old Vineland Road has seen a spate of development activity recently, with the completion of the 377-unit Vineland Landings community in 2018 and final phase of Park Square Homes’ Veranda Palms resort community. The Solamar property is across from Vineland Landings, which has a mix of three-story apartment buildings on the southern half of the property, and a mix of two-story carriage house units and/or single-story villas on the northern half.

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Dominium, a leading developer and operator of affordable housing, is in construction plan review for 330 units of affordable senior housing next door to Vineland Landings.