{"id":254631,"date":"2026-05-01T22:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T22:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/254631\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T22:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T22:55:09","slug":"wendover-mark-construction-of-affordablesenior-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/254631\/","title":{"rendered":"Wendover mark construction of affordablesenior community"},"content":{"rendered":"

In partnership with the City of Orlando and faith-based community initiative Hope Center West, Wendover Housing Partners<\/a> recently began construction of senior affordable housing community Legacy Place.<\/p>\n

Located on Piedmont Street, just west of John Young Parkway in the Clear Lake neighborhood, the development will include 100 units for seniors ages 55 and older.<\/p>\n

The Altamonte Springs-based developer was joined by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Orlando City Commissioner Bakari F. Burns and Archbishop Allen T.D. Wiggins of Hope Center West<\/a> to celebrate the project with a groundbreaking ceremony Friday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an age-friendly community, the city is always working to make sure we have safe options that are available and affordable to older adults,\u201d Dyer said. \u201cThis guides our development strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OrlandoOrlando Mayor Buddy Dyer speaks at the construction ceremony for 100-unit senior affordable housing project Legacy Place, located on Piedmont Street just west of John Young Parkway, on May 1, 2026. (James Wilkins\/GrowthSpotter)<\/p>\n

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition\u2019s 2026 Gap Report<\/a>, Orlando faces the largest affordable housing shortage in the country.<\/p>\n

For every 100 extremely low-income, or ELI, renter households \u2013 those earning at or below 30% of the area median income \u2013 there are only 13 affordable and available rental units. More than 80% of ELI renters in Orlando are extremely cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than half of their incomes on rent and utilities.<\/p>\n

Utilizing funds from the Orlando Housing Ready Project, the city\u2019s framework for doling out financial resources to increase affordable housing stock, Dyer said the City of Orlando is contributing $600,000 to support development of Legacy Place.<\/p>\n

Orlando-based DeAngelis Diamond<\/a> will handle construction of the project, with financing provided by Goldman Sachs<\/a> and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Wendover COO Ryan von Weller, Legacy Place will receive tax credits from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation<\/a> through Goldman Sachs. The development is Goldman Sachs\u2019 first project in Florida as a tax credit equity investor, von Weller said.<\/p>\n

With the community set to be developed within the Hope Center West footprint, Wendover and the City of Orlando collaborated with Wiggins to bring Legacy Place to life as a reflection of the growing \u201cYIGBY\u201d (Yes In God\u2019s Back Yard) movement that gained further support from the Florida Legislature earlier this year<\/a> for loosened zoning regulations on church-owned land.<\/p>\n

\"AA conceptual rendering of the 100-unit Legacy Place senior affordable housing community, set to rise on Piedmont Street just west of John Young Parkway in Orlando. (Provided by Wendover Group)<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith in action means utilizing our God-given gifts, abilities and resources to build better neighborhoods and stronger communities,\u201d Wiggins, who also serves as pastor of Hope Church, said in a statement. \u201cLegacy Place is a reflection of what is possible when we come together to address the housing challenge and create a place where dignity, stability, and hope can flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the lack of affordable housing, especially for seniors, von Weller said Wendover is excited to fill that niche and provide a home for older adults with families or who may still be in the workforce.<\/p>\n

While a number of future Legacy Place tenants may be chosen from the Hope Church congregation, von Weller said most of the individuals or families accepted into the development will come from a three-mile radius that includes downtown and the surrounding John Young Parkway area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just really felt like this venue for this product type, in conjunction with the church and the church\u2019s congregation, there\u2019s a lot of multi-generational families in this community,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a very tight-knit area. Now there will be places for mom and dad and grandma and grandpa to live now without having to be displaced somewhere else or live with their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legacy Place will be Wendover\u2019s first project built with a steel frame, von Weller said, using a build system from Longwood-based Vitruvian Steel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis product is manufactured in Sanford, so it\u2019s a local company, but [Vitruvian Steel] invested heavily in the machinery to design and build these frames,\u201d he said. \u201cThey come out on a pallet, and they\u2019re basically installed in segments, so it\u2019s supposed to speed up our install in framing. Hopefully, that\u2019ll get the project online earlier and have people move in earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to von Weller, development of Legacy Place is anticipated to cost approximately $35 to $40 million, and the community will be built over the next 12 to 14 months.<\/p>\n

Wendover has around five projects underway in 2026, including Carisbrooke Terrace and Harwick Place in Sanford<\/a>, which are already funded.<\/p>\n

The company is expected to wrap construction later this year on Catchlight Crossings<\/a>, the 1,000-unit mixed-income community built on land donated by Universal, next door to the Orange County Convention Center campus.<\/p>\n

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at jwilkins@orlandosentinel.com<\/a> or 407-754-4980. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook<\/a> and\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In partnership with the City of Orlando and faith-based community initiative Hope Center West, Wendover Housing Partners recently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,28,114,12114,1335,11477,139,141,140,480,11478,22398],"class_list":["post-254631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-multifamily-residential","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-developments","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-developments","tag-senior-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}