HTG Opens 96-Unit Affordable FL Community

By Laura Calugar

The Freedom Gardens in Brooksville, Fla.

Housing Trust Group celebrated the grand opening of Freedom Gardens, a 96-unit, $18.5 million fully affordable housing community in Brooksville, Fla. Freedom Gardens is the first phase of a two-phase development. The second phase, due to begin in 2018’s first quarter, will deliver an additional 94 units. Freedom Gardens achieved a green building certification under the National Green Building Standard. 

Located at 932 Freedom Way, the garden-style resort community includes high-quality, affordable apartments. According to Yardi Matrix data, the asset features 32 one-, 32 two- and 32 three-bedroom units. Amenities include:

• 4,806-square-foot clubhouse
• 1,000-square-foot swimming pool
• after-school care
• laundry facility
• exercise room
• walking path
• central community gathering area
• pet park
• jogging path

Need for affordable housing

Freedom Gardens will serve the much-needed housing market for working families with rents ranging from $400 to $880 per month. The asset was 100 percent leased upon opening.

“There is a dire need for safe, clean and affordable housing in Brooksville and throughout the Tampa area, where skyrocketing rents are putting people with low and middle incomes at a great disadvantage. Freedom Gardens will ease the burden on 96 families, making it possible for them to set aside money for education and other vital needs,” said HTG President & CEO Matthew Rieger, in a prepared statement.

HTG has four other affordable housing communities under construction in Florida, including Park at Wellington Phase I and Phase II in Holiday, Arbor View in Margate and Covenant Villas in Belle Glade. Two market-rate developments outside Florida are also underway—Forest Cove in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Aviva in Mesa, Ariz.

Image courtesy of Housing Trust Group