Apartments finally being built in Winter Haven after decades of no availability

Mary Maulsby has noticed all of the new apartment complexes being built in Winter Haven, something she hasn’t seen since moving to the area over a decade ago.

“They’re building everywhere, and they just completed some apartments on 21st St. NW & Havendale Blvd.,” Maulsby said.

Bruce Lyon, president of the Winter Haven Economic Development Council, said because of the lack of available apartments, Winter Haven had a 100% occupancy rate for three years.

“The last major new apartment complex was built in 2002. Since then, we had about 15 years that there was no new construction of apartments of any scale,” Lyon said.

Now, the construction of multifamily housing is starting to emerge. More than 100 apartments just finished in downtown Winter Haven, and an additional 1,400 are under construction.

“Some true affordable housing that has been built and that’s open and operating. We have an old motel that has been converted into workforce housing. We have several hundred units there. Then we also have several new complexes that are conventional market-rate housing,” Lyon said.

Lyons said that, with no place to rent, it was challenging for employers to recruit from outside the area. New workforce housing and apartment openings will play an important part in stimulating the local economy.

“For a lot of our larger employers, AdventHealth, BayCare, and our industrial employers, it gives them much better access to recruit new employees into the area that have specialty skills, that previously didn't have places to live. So it should ease the employment process for employers themselves," Lyon said. "While it brings more people to town, it also frees up a lot of latitude for existing residents to move around."

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