Builder Briefs
M/I Homes has opened a new model home at Windy Ridge, a 176-lot, single-family community located off? C.R. 452 and Apiary Road in Grand Island.? Windy Ridge homes are priced from $209,990 to $289,990. An amenities center with a swimming pool, a cabana and a community park are planned. ... Students at Astatula Elementary School will have it made in the shade, thanks to the LandMar Group’s donation of a maturing live oak transplanted from the neighboring Sugarloaf Mountain community. More than 150 students participated in the replanting of the tree. LandMar plans to relocate hundreds of live oaks to more suitable sites throughout the commuity, including the perimeter of the golf course, in parks and common areas and along sidewalks and roadways. ... Ryland Homes is now taking reservations for homesites at Waterside Pointe, the company’s newest gated community located in Groveland off S.R. 50 west of U.S. 27. Waterside Pointe will feature 104 townhomes, priced from the $200s, and 319 single-family homes priced from the $220s, all boasting neo-traditional designs.
ORANGE County
ABD Development has opened a new $1 million condominium model at Vizcaya, its community overlooking Big Sand Lake on Sand Lake Road and Dr. Phillips Boulevard in southwest Orlando. The decorated three-bedroom, two-bathroom model offers 3,000 square feet of living space and spectacular views of the lake. ... Lake Nona’s Town Center will be a 1-million-square-foot, open-air regional mall featuring retail, restaurants, offices, a Cineplex and a hotel as well as tie-in with the new UCF Health Sciences campus. The Town Center is expected to break ground in early 2008 with a spring 2010 opening. ... Oakland Park, a traditional neighborhood development in Oakland by Castle & Cooke, has opened its sales center. Homes in the community are priced from the $400s.
OSCEOLA?County
Mercedes Homes has announced plans to develop Casa Bella, a 76-homesite community on Ham Brown Road in Kissimmee. Single-family homes in the community will be priced from the low $200s. Mercedes will also develop Waters of Paradise, a 200-unit townhome community overlooking Lake Tohopakeliga on John Young Parkway near Pleasant Hill Road. Two- and three-bedroom townhomes will be priced from the $200s.
SEMINOLE County
Brentwood Custom Homes has recently opened its Elan Design Studio in the Uptown Altamonte area. The 3,500-square-foot facility will serve Brentwood’s buyers as well as other custom-home builders and individual clients. The finest luxury appliances, fixtures, counters, cabinets, windows, floors and wall and ceiling treatments will be on display. ... Two of the $1 million-plus penthouses in Tower One of Uptown Altamonte’s Emerson Plaza have been sold by Kathy Beaulieu, vice president/managing broker of Emerson Real Estate. Homes in Emerson Plaza are priced from the low $500s to over $1 million.? Tower Two is currently under construction. ... Centex Homes has opened two new communities in Lake Mary. Timacuan Park offers three-story townhomes with two-car garages and a community pool priced from the mid-$200s. The Villas at Chase Groves offer one- and two-story designs priced from the high $100s to the mid-$200s. Also, the final single-family homesites in Centex's Legacy Park now are available. Home prices start in the upper $200s.
POLK County
Avatar Properties and its new TerraLargo community have won a Beautification Award from the City of Lakeland. Avatar and its 640-acre, gated community overlooking 29-acre Meadow View Lake were recognized for “the outstanding contribution made to the beauty of Lakeland.” The amenity-rich, Tuscan-style community is planned for 618 single-family homes priced from the mid-$200s to more than $400,000 ... ABD Development recently started design work for a second phase at Providence, located off U.S. 17-92 and C.R. 54 in the Loughman-Davenport area. The new phase will encompass more than 3,000 new single-family homes and townhomes. ... Centex Homes has opened Magnolia Ridge in Lake Alfred, where 1,400- to 3,500-square-foot single-family homes will be priced from the high $100s to the mid-$200s.
VOLUSIA County
Beazer Homes has opened two new two new single-family model homes at Victoria Park, located just off Orange Camp Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard in Lake Helen. Beazer plans to build 179 new three-, four- and five-bedroom single-family homes in the community, with prices starting in the $250s. ...Mercedes Homes has started presales of 72 single-family homes at Live Oak Estates, located off Doyle Road and Providence Boulevard in Deltona. The three-, four- and five- bedroom homes will range in size from 1,400 to 3,400 square feet of living area, with prices starting in the $250s.
PROGRESSIONS
Cristina Quintana has been named division president for Mercedes Homes’ Orlando division. Quintana previously served as the division’s vice president of sales. ... The Orlando Regional Realtor Association has appointed Laura Haag as vice president of communications and marketing. Haag previously served as ORRA’s marketing manager. ...Levitt and Sons has appointed Douglas Guy as division executive of the company’s Central Florida division and Katie Millikan as regional director of marketing.
AWARDS
Rick Caccavello, owner of Central Kitchen & Bath, has been named to Remodeling Magazine’s prestigious Big 50 list in the Movers & Shakers category. ...Victor Farina, owner of Farina & Sons, has also been named as one of Remodeling Magazine’s Big 50 in the Fine Design category. ...Avatar Holdings has been ranked among the country’s top 50 homebuilders by two national magazines. The parent company of Avatar Properties, with divisions in Central Florida, Tampa and Rio Rico, Arizona, was ranked 41st in Builder magazine’s Builder 100 and 47th in Professional Builder magazine’s Giant 400. In Central Florida, Avatar is developing the master-planned communities of Poinciana, Solivita, Bellalago and the Isles of Bellalago.?
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