Rollins College finally received the OK from the City of Winter Park for a faculty and staff housing project after months of controversy and several revisions to the scope and design of the building.

On Tuesday night, the Winter Park City Commission voted to approve the 45,842-square-foot building at 340 W. Welbourne Ave. that will provide 30 attainable residential units, including 6 one-bedroom, 19 two-bedroom, and 5 three-bedroom apartments for Rollins College faculty and staff, according to GrowthSpotter.

Rollins College hasn’t specified what rental rates it will charge faculty and staff — no student renters will be allowed — but representatives from the college have said the costs will be well below market rate.

The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Winter Park is $1,650, RentCafe reports. Rollins College President Grant Cornwell explained that entry-level faculty and staff can’t pay that.

“These units are going to be available to younger faculty just out of graduate school, who right now when they look at coming to Rollins, they say, ‘What an attractive college but look at those rents. I couldn’t possibly afford that with the compensation package that is being offered’,” he explained.

This isn’t the only project that Rollins College wants to build. The college also has plans for a 300-bed, 139,200-square-foot student housing residential village on its campus. That project would replace the 80-bed Holt Hall, an existing public safety office, and six tennis courts on about 3.6 acres directly north of the Alfond Sports Center.

 

The faculty housing project traveled a long road. The project appeared before the Planning and Zoning Board three times and the City Commission twice. The college’s initial proposal was to build a three-story, 80,981-square-foot, 48-unit building. That proposal was redesigned and scaled back multiple times due to public opposition.

Finally, on August 7th, the project received approval from the Winter Park Planning and Zoning Board. But it had one final hurdle to clear: widespread concern over Rollins’ request that the development be exempt from property taxes.

After the meeting, Rollins College agreed to a program in which the college would be exempt from most of the property taxes but pay the City of Winter Park an annual fee of about 2 mills, or $2 per $1,000 of assessed value. Assuming an assessed value per unit in the low $300,000’s for a project with 30 units, that would mean Rollins would pay the city an annual fee of roughly $20,000. Some members of the community and City Commission wanted the college to pay more, but Commissioner Kris Cruzada voiced support.

“In the affordable housing sector, it’s very difficult to get investors to do low-income, affordable housing without some type of subsidy or some type of tax exemption. I applaud Rollins for saying we’ll pay [something] because investors and developers that go into public housing often don’t pay. [Rollins] has come forward from January to now to really accommodate the residents, accommodate the city staff, and accommodate our requirements,” he said.

The project will include 60 parking spaces and a pocket park on the corner of Welbourne Avenue and Virginia Avenue. It passed by a vote of 4-1, with Commissioner Todd Weaver casting the only vote against it.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)607-8160 or TyWilliams@GrowthSpotter.com. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.