Affordable housing being built in historic Sanford neighborhood

Community leaders believe revitalizing the neighborhood begins with making sure there are affordable homes because Central Florida is currently in an affordable housing crisis.

SANFORD, Fla. - Historic Goldsboro in Sanford is getting its first large-scale development in more than 20 years. Officials hope it will be a catalyst to revitalizing the neighborhood.

Wendover Housing Partners partnered with the Orlando Housing Authority and the Sanford Housing Authority to build a 16.3 million dollar affordable housing complex in the neighborhood.

The Monroe Landings apartment complex located at 375 S. Oleander Avenue is expected to open in late 2021 or early 2022. Initially, 60 units will open, followed by an additional 80. The complex will be about 300 units when finished. Rent is expected to be around $700 for a one-bedroom apartment and around $800 for a two-bedroom.

Wendover Housing Partners Managing Director of Development Ryan von Weller said the complex will be outfitted with amenities. He said, "there’ll be a fitness area, obviously, a place for management, a place for social gatherings we have a computer lab we have after school programs for children."

The complex is being built on the site of a former public housing community that was condemned and torn down in 2013. Hundreds of people had to be relocated when that happened and will get the first chance to live in the new community.

Wendover Housing said it will be reaching out to hundreds of people who were displaced and offer them the opportunity to live in the new housing community.

"It’s going to be a great shot in the arm for Goldsboro," said long-time Goldsboro resident Kenneth Bentley. "I’ve seen Goldsboro go from a black wall street to almost nothing. The community was thriving. African-Americans owned all the businesses but when integration came everything just changed."

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"That is something that we take great pride in, is to create a project and a community that will also help incentivize redevelopment," von Weller said. "What we found is that once you bring in one of these communities, and keep in mind, these are anywhere from a $16 million to a $30 million investment. It really helps change kind of the character of the surrounding areas. you start seeing other things start to occur around it."

"If you want to bring in the developers they have to see where they’re going to benefit from, so we know that this is going to be a big catch to the eye for that," said Sanford Commissioner Kerry Wiggins (District 2). He said there are plans to bring in new restaurants and businesses and the LYNX bus system. "People are going to be able to see that they can come in with their businesses because we’ll have more citizens that they’ll be able to service and lynx being the major one it’s going to be able to help out.

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