Feb 15, 2021
Winter Park developer Jerome Henin is planning a 146-home subdivision in Tavares called Seaport Village.
He also plans a future apartment complex as a second phase of the project.
Henin Group has filed construction plans for the subdivision on property near Slim Haywood Avenue and State Road 19.
Although landlocked, the 37-acre project will be known as Seaport Village as an homage to Tavares’ branding as “America’s Seaport City.”
The 20-acre adjacent property is yet to be named.
Henin said he has not determined how many apartment units would be developed there, but that the number is somewhere between 300 and 400 units.
He added that any apartment complex would be a place where “people don’t pay rent as an obligation, but as a choice.”
The apartment complex would be gated with amenities but the single-family development will not be gated.
The Preliminary Subdivision Plan submitted to the city does not create an amenity site for the subdivision.
Henin said a decision about what to build and the number of units for the 20-acre site will be made in February, and that he is currently looking at design options.
“We have options for single-family, but we are also discussing an entire build-to-rent subdivision,” Henin said of the second phase.
“The entire subdivision could be rental properties. By February we will have decided whether we’re going to have single-family or make the entire subdivision for rent.”
Henin said demand for housing in Tavares is particularly high because it is seen as a desirable and still-developing area.
As a result, projected prices for single-family and rental housing in the development have begun to rise.
“The homes are much higher in price than we thought they’d be,” Henin said.
“Seaport Village was designed to be in the lower $300,000s, but we are already closer to $400,000s because of the trend toward increasing prices.”
“I always look for cities that are offering a lot of social life with markets and shops and a nice downtown. Tavares is working hard to create that sense of community.”
Completion of Seaport Village is expected by the end of 2022 or early 2023.
Gary Beverly of Civil Design Solutions, Maitland, will be the engineer and project manager for the single-family development.
Rob Bock of BBA Architects, Winter Park, will design the apartment development.
Henin is also the developer of Elmwood, a single-family community with 115 homes in Tavares