Eustis development to bring major housing changes

EUSTIS, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - It’s the price of progress. Eustis is in for some major housing changes, once construction begins on the Eustis Lake Club. 

In the eyes of the developers, it’s out with the old and in with the new, as the area will be marketed to millennials in an effort to revitalize downtown Eustis. 

“What we hope to bring in its place is 86 single-family homes,” Wendell Husebo of the Managing Partner for Eustis Lake Club LLC said. “Key West-bungalow style, right on the lake, right on the canal, with a pool. It will be right downtown.”

It has created excitement for some in the Lake County community, but not everyone is happy about the new development. 

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet,” Roger Frazier said. 

Frazier and his wife have called Eustis their home away from home for more than 15 years, becoming snowbirds in the winter, as they live out their retirement. However, this sunny respite may be coming to an end for them. 

“It’s kind of bad when you find out you’re going to lose your place,” Frazier said. 

Sharp’s Mobile Park on Lakeshore Drive isn’t just a vacation spot for snowbirds, it’s home. Doreen Bentz worries her elderly neighbor will have nowhere to go. 

“I worry about her,” Bentz said. “She’s older than me.”

The mobile home park will be leveled to make way for the Eustis Lake Club.  In three to five years, homes will be complete, with a price tag into the low $300,000s. 

“The city of Eustis is really hungry for redevelopment down here,” Husebo said. 

The mobile home residents will have six months to find a new place to live and given about $6,000 to relocate. 

“I guess sometimes all good things must come to an end,” Frazier said.