The developer of a new apartment project near Walt Disney World has seen enough success to warrant expanding the project.
Timberlock Partners LP, an entity related to Baldwin Park-based MMI Development Inc., completed the first 272 units on its Windermere Cay apartments on Reams Road and is getting ready to start construction in March on the next 108-unit phase of the project.
But the developer isn’t stopping there. Thanks to demand from Disney cast members — the project sits near the employee entrance to the Magic Kingdom — the developer submitted an application to Orange County to bump up the total project from a planned 504 units to more than 1,200 units, said Angel de la Portilla, the developer’s representative. The Orange County Commission is expected to have a final say on that request in May.
The estimated $14.6 million next phase would create about 150 temporary construction jobs, sources said.
If approved, the project would add many new workforce units to an area that sees a high population of service-industry workers. It also adds an affordable option for housing in an area that is seeing an explosion of single-family, upscale home sales.
Winter Park-based Walker & Co. is the project general contractor on the first two phases; Altamonte Springs-based Forum Architecture & Interior Design Inc. was the architect.
The developer in 2010 had planned to expand the project to 900 units, but did not go forward with that plan at the time.