Townhouse community set to break ground in downtown Winter Garden

WINTER GARDEN  If you’ve ever wanted to live in the heart of downtown Winter Garden, the newest opportunity to do so is about to break ground.

Park Place Winter Garden is a new community of luxury townhouses that will be nestled near the southeast corner of Plant Street and Park Avenue. With 32 units and seven different models — ranging in size from 1,800 to 2,500 square feet — homebuyers have a wealth of customizations and floor plans from which to choose.

Sixteen homes will be three-story townhouses, 12 will be two stories, and the remaining units are two stories with lofts. Additionally, six of these units can be converted into 3,000-square-foot units, lead developer Franco Scala said. 

“It’s a neat project, with all the amenities that we have, based on the location,” said Scala, builder/owner at F&J Developers. “We (myself and business partner Jim Heistand) feel that the location is a Class A location. It allows people to live and work there and to enjoy the downtown historic district of Winter Garden. We do have certain units on Plant Street, and seven units there will be used as professional office space.”

The townhouses come with a variety of choices and customization packages, upgrades and more. Scala added that most of the units have elevators and dumbwaiters to assist in bringing groceries upstairs.

“There’s a variety of upgrades if they choose to look at them, or we can apply a different look to the unit,” Scala said. “We’re willing to change a few things upon request from the buyer. The key features are the elevators and dumbwaiters.” 

Each home has three beds and three-and-one-half baths, with options to use the first floor as an office instead of a bedroom. Eight units are designed to have a bedroom on the first floor, with a built-in office space.

Although it is a modern community, Park Place Winter Garden is also designed to fit into the historical charm of downtown Winter Garden. Buildings facing the road are adorned with classic red brickwork, with some units also boasting canopy-shaded porches in the style of balconies. Landscaping is simple and borders the community on all sides, while a decorative fountain faces outward on the east side of the property. All homes also include a two-car garage.

“The unique thing is that it’s in the historical district of Winter Garden, and we have designed the project to go in with what Winter Garden already has in place, as a historical place,” Scala said of the design. “The project’s been designed to accommodate that look as well.”

“The unique thing is that it’s in the historical district of Winter Garden and we have designed the project to go in with what Winter Garden already has in place, as a historical place.” — Franco Scala, lead developer at F&J Developers

F&J Developers are set to break ground on the $10.5 million project Thursday, Sept. 14. And although the official groundbreaking is coming up, Scala said work is already underway at the location for site preparation. They hope to go vertical within the next 60 days, with a ballpark completion date of the third quarter of 2019.

Prices start in the mid-$400,000s as a baseline, before additional options, upgrades and other modifications are added.

“I’m a local, I live in Windermere and have frequented Winter Garden for the last 15 years,” Scala said. “I always had a passion to someday to build a community here in Winter Garden, and the timing and opportunity for us to look at this available land just came up. We decided that it was the right time, and a perfect location for us to look at building in Winter Garden.

“I feel strongly that the community is going to enhance the quaint landscape of downtown Winter Garden,” Scala said. “It fits well within the downtown that they have going on.”

Contact Danielle Hendrix at [email protected].