Crescent Communities to Proceed With Apartments in Its Mixed-Use Development

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Altamonte Springs, Fla.—Crescent Communities has unveiled plans for the 249-unit Crescent Gateway, an apartment property on land the company has owned for more than a decade. When completed in 2015, the property will be part of Gateway, an 80-acre, mixed-use development in Altamonte Springs, which is in the Orlando MSA.

Previously, Crescent’s commercial group developed Gateway’s Publix grocery store on the site in 2000, and then in 2011, built the Adventist Health System headquarters. The company’s multifamily group will now use eight acres of the property to develop Crescent Gateway; according to Whit Duncan, president of Crescent’s commercial group, that’s been the idea all along.

In fact, it’s been nearly 15 years ago since Crescent Communities outlined plans for Gateway, and even then residential was part of the goal. Since then, the company has been patient, and now that the demand for apartments is high, its plans are moving forward. “We waited for the right time to bring a development to this area, and that time is now,” says Duncan.

The new apartment property will include elevator-served, four-story buildings with studios and one- and two-bedroom apartment units. Three-bedroom units and two-story townhouses with attached garages will round out the unit mix. Amenities will include a pool courtyard with outdoor cabanas, as well as an indoor/outdoor café, yoga lawn and dog park.

Crescent Gateway is financed by an equity investment from Crescent and CNL Financial Group Inc. and construction financing by PNC Bank. In addition to Crescent Gateway, the company’s current plans for expansion of the master-planned property include 300,000 square feet of office, retail and potentially a hotel, all of which will create more of a neighborhood for the area, and raise its Walk Score.