Carter’s Maury L. Carter & Associates has the exclusive listing for the Arnold Groves & Ranch, a 1,750-acre property in Lake County’s Wellness Way area. The site is home to the family-operated orange groves and cattle ranch and abuts the family’s tourist attraction on U.S. 27 known as the Showcase of Citrus, which is not a part of the sale. And it’s 5 miles west of Walt Disney World.

“It’s a smokin’ piece of real estate,” Carter told GrowthSpotter. “It’s world-class property, and there just aren’t that many properties like that close to Disney. So it’s gonna be quite a fun project to work on.”

Carter said he’s already received multiple offers since the listing went active a few days ago, even though the property still has agricultural zoning. That’s not a concern because it’s located in Lake County’s Wellness Way Area, which has a planning overlay that allows a mix of uses, and will be home to the new Orange-Lake Connector, toll road connecting U.S. 27 to S.R. 429 in Horizon West. County Road 455, which will have a full interchange on the toll road, is located within the Arnold property.

“People have a pretty good comfort level that you’re going to get zoning,” Carter said.

The sellers plan to retain 130± acres north of Frank Jarrell Road abutting the Showcase of Citrus property.

To get an idea of the potential price, Canadian homebuilder GT Homes paid $51.5 million in 2021 for roughly 700 acres just north of the Arnold grove that also wasn’t zoned. That property is now under contract to Pulte, which has applied for zoning to build a mixed-use community with 1,635 homes and a commercial center on Schofield Road. Lake County’s Sawgrass Bay community is just south of the property.

Less than two weeks ago, Pulte and land-banking partner Sun Terra Communities paid $33 million for 304 acres in Wellness Way with plans to start construction this month.

“It really is a property that has such appeal to the development community, we’re gonna have a slew of offers on it,” Carter said.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.

A: As part of the process of purchasing a property in a community association, one of the parties, typically the seller, will pay the association a fee to report the status of the regular and special assessments, along with other information about the unit being sold and the community as a whole. This report is called an “estoppel” and is binding on the community. While the property manager usually prepares the estoppel, it is done on behalf of the association.

Because the association account regards the unit more than the seller, the buyer will reimburse the seller for the credit balance at the closing table and will retain the credit balance on their association account.

While you paid the seller, the association does not return the money to you; instead, your unit’s account will have the credit on it.

It is like when you return something to a store, and instead of giving your cash back, they only give you a gift card.

You should ask for a copy of your ledger to ensure the balance is still showing, and only if it is showing, use up the credit by paying less on your following dues payment. However, if the credit is missing from your ledger, you will need to find out why.

Except in a few specific scenarios, community associations have to abide by estoppel reports they issue.

In your case, since the estoppel says there was a credit on your account, the association will need to honor it. Reach out to the property manager again and politely ask to see your ledger to determine what happened to your credit balance.

If the manager blows you off, take the issue up with the board of directors. Be polite, but firm, and you should get the necessary information.

Board-certified real estate lawyer Gary Singer writes about industry legal matters and the housing market. To ask him a question, email him at gary@garysingerlaw.com, or go to SunSentinel.com/askpro. 

When Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle five years ago, it left boats, cars and trucks piled up to the windows of Bonny Paulson’s home in the tiny coastal community of Mexico Beach, Florida, even though the house rests on pillars 14 feet above the ground. But Paulson’s home, with a rounded shape that looks something like a ship, shrugged off Category 5 winds that might otherwise have collapsed it.

“I wasn’t nervous at all,” Paulson said, recalling the warning to evacuate. Her house lost only a few shingles, with photos taken after the storm showing it standing whole amid the wreckage of almost all the surrounding homes.

Some developers are building homes like Paulson’s with an eye toward making them more resilient to the extreme weather that’s increasing with climate change, and friendlier to the environment at the same time. Solar panels, for example, installed so snugly that high winds can’t get underneath them, mean clean power that can survive a storm. Preserved wetlands and native vegetation that trap carbon in the ground and reduce flooding vulnerability, too. Recycled or advanced construction materials that reduce energy use as well as the need to make new material.

A person’s home is one of the biggest ways they can reduce their individual carbon footprint. Buildings release about 38% of all energy-related greenhouse gas emissions each year. Some of the carbon pollution comes from powering things like lights and air conditioners and some of it from making the construction materials, like concrete and steel.

Deltec, the company that built Paulson’s home, says that only one of the nearly 1,400 homes it’s built over the last three decades has suffered structural damage from hurricane-force winds. But the company puts as much emphasis on building green, with higher-quality insulation that reduces the need for air conditioning, heat pumps for more efficient heating and cooling, energy-efficient appliances, and of course solar.

“The real magic here is that we’re doing both,” chief executive Steve Linton. “I think a lot of times resilience is sort of the afterthought when you talk about sustainable construction, where it’s just kind of this is a feature on a list … we believe that resilience is really a fundamental part of sustainability.”

Other companies are developing entire neighborhoods that are both resistant to hurricanes and contribute less than average to climate change.

Pearl Homes’ Hunters Point community in Cortez, Florida, consists of 160 houses that are all LEED-certified platinum, the highest level of one of the most-used green building rating systems.

To reduce vulnerability to flooding, home sites are raised 16 feet (4.8 meters) above code. Roads are raised, too, and designed to direct accumulating rainfall away and onto ground where it may be absorbed. Steel roofs with seams allow solar panels to be attached so closely it’s difficult for high winds to get under them, and the homes have batteries that kick in when power is knocked out.

Pearl Homes CEO Marshall Gobuty said his team approached the University of Central Florida with a plan to build a community that doesn’t contribute to climate change. “I wanted them to be not just sustainable, but resilient, I wanted them to be so unlike everything else that goes on in Florida,” Gobuty said. “I see homes that are newly built, half a mile away, that are underwater … we are in a crisis with how the weather is changing.”

That resonates with Paulson, in Mexico Beach, who said she didn’t want to “live day to day worried about tracking something in the Atlantic.” Besides greater peace of mind, she says, she’s now enjoying energy costs of about $32 per month, far below the roughly $250 she said she paid in a previous home.

“I don’t really feel that the population is taking into effect the environmental catastrophes, and adjusting for it,” she said. “We’re building the same old stuff that got blown away.”

Babcock Ranch is another sustainable, hurricane-resilient community in South Florida. It calls itself the first solar-powered town in the U.S., generating 150 megawatts of electricity with 680,000 panels on 870 acres (350 hectares). The community was also one of the first in the country to have large batteries on site to store extra solar power to use at night or when the power is out.

Syd Kitson founded Babcock Ranch in 2006. The homes are better able to withstand hurricane winds because the roofs are strapped to a system that connects down to the foundation. Power lines are buried underground so they can’t blow over. The doors swing outward in some homes so when pressure builds up from the wind, they don’t blast open, and vents help balance the pressure in garages.

In 2022, Hurricane Ian churned over Babcock Ranch as a Category 4 storm. It left little to no damage, Kitson said.

“We set out to prove that a new town and the environment can work hand-in-hand, and I think we’ve proven that,” said Kitson. “Unless you build in a very resilient way, you’re just going to constantly be repairing or demolishing the home.”

The development sold some 73,000 acres (29,500 hectares) of its site to the state for wetland preservation, and on the land where it built, a team studied how water naturally flows through the local environment and incorporated it into its water management system.

“That water is going to go where it wants to go, if you’re going to try and challenge Mother Nature, you’re going to lose every single time,” said Kitson. The wetlands, retention ponds, and native vegetation are better able to manage water during extreme rainfall, reducing the risk of flooded homes.

In the Florida Keys, Natalia Padalino and her husband, Alan Klingler, plan to finish building a Deltec home by December. The couple was concerned about the future impacts global warming and hurricanes would have on the Florida Keys and researched homes that were both sustainable and designed to withstand these storms.

“We believe we’re building something that’s going to be a phenomenal investment and reduce our risk of any major catastrophic situation,” Klingler said.

“People have been really open and receptive. They tell us if a hurricane comes, they’re going to be staying in our place,” Padalino said.

___

The location of the Padalinos’ home has been corrected to the Florida Keys, not the Panhandle. This story also corrects the name of the Pearl Homes development Hunters Point, its location and site elevation, based on updated information from the company.

___

Associated Press video journalist Laura Bargfeld, in Mexico Beach, and photographer Gerald Herbert, in New Orleans, contributed.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The home on North Park Avenue in Winter Park needed a lot of work. Instead of renovating, the owners tore it down and put the land up for sale. The 1.94-acre lot on Lake Maitland sold earlier this month for $6.85 million, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

“We listed it originally at $10.8 million but the problem it was a big home, 20,000-square-foot under air and 25,500 under roof, but sadly, it had no value,” said listing agent Brian Mitnik of Re/Max 200 Realty. “Everybody that looked at it felt it should be torn down. So we tore the house down and at that point got a tremendous amount of interest.”

Mitnki said he believed it was the highest-priced residential lot ever sold in Winter Park. “A lot of people told me I would never get more than five and a half million dollars for it,” he said.

The property was the family home of homebuilder Charlie Clayton’s parents, Joan and Charles Clayton. She died in 2021, and her estate just sold the home.

In 1978, the elder Clayton purchased the original home for $180,000. That structure dated back to 1938. 

The family added to the house in 1999, giving it a total of eight bedrooms, nine full bathrooms, five half baths, three kitchens, two garages, huge closets, and more. 

“If you look at the pictures, the house from the outside was beautiful, but it was so expensive to renovate, three to four million, and for just another million or two, you could build a new home,” Mitnick said. 

Public records show Charlie Clayton submitted the demolition permit application on May 8 and the city approved it on July 17. 

The home had some historic stained glass windows, chandeliers, and other items inside.

“Anything that had any kind of value like that was pulled out of that house prior [to demolition,]” Mitnick said. “I don’t know where all of it went, but [Clayton] was very sensitive to saving anything in there that had any kind of value.”

According to public records, the buyers are Mark and Chloe Daley, and as of now, no other permits have been filed for possible construction on the property. Because the lot is on the Winter Park Chain of Lakes, any new permits must be approved by the planning commission.

Michael Rasmussen with Daven Real Estate represented the buyers, who Mitnick says bought a lot in a great location. 

“It’s nearly two acres on the most sought-after lake, on Park Avenue, and in walking distance to Park Avenue shops,” Mitnick said.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at Newsroom@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.

The average rate on 30-year fixed mortgages remained at generational highs this week, climbing to 8.01%, up from 7.99% the previous week, according to Bankrate’s weekly national survey of large lenders.

The average rate on 30-year home loans hit its highest point since August 2000, according to Bankrate research. That was before the Sept. 11 terror attacks led the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates, and well before the Great Recession spurred the Fed to keep rates low throughout the 2010s.

The current run-up in mortgage rates reflects a variety of factors: a resilient U.S. economy, the Fed’s ongoing war on inflation and, more recently, a sharp rise in 10-year Treasury yields, which serve as an informal benchmark for 30-year mortgage rates. The 8% barrier stands as just one more unwelcome milestone in the upward trajectory of borrowing costs.

“We’ve seen a tremendous run-up in rates,” says Tom Wind, head of Consumer Lending at U.S. Bank. “It’s kind of a shock.”

What happened to mortgage rates this week

The 30-year fixed mortgages in this week’s survey had an average total of 0.33 discount and origination points.

Over the past 52 weeks, the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has averaged 6.89%. A year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 7.12%. Four weeks ago, that rate was 7.55%. The 30-year fixed-rate average for this week is 1.74 percentage points higher than the 52-week low of 6.27%.

As for other loans:

—The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage was 7.23%, up from 7.19 from a week ago.

—The 5/6 adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) was 7.38%, down from 7.39% a week ago.

—The 30-year fixed-rate jumbo mortgage was 7.72%, unchanged from a week ago.

How mortgage rates affect home affordability

The national median family income for 2023 is $96,300, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the median price of an existing home sold in September 2023 was $394,300, according to the National Association of Realtors. Based on a 20 percent down payment and a mortgage rate of 7.99%, the monthly payment of $2,317 amounts to 29% of the typical family’s monthly income.

The sharp rise in mortgage rates has squeezed affordability and sparked a slowdown in home sales. First-time buyers are especially challenged by this market. Home prices haven’t fallen significantly, and values are unlikely to decline, given the shortage of homes for sale.

“Higher mortgage rates have a dual impact on the housing market: reducing affordability for buyers and strengthening the rate lock-in for sellers,” says Odeta Kushi, deputy chief economist at First American. “The combination of reduced affordability and increased strength of the rate lock-in effect is likely to continue to suppress home sales because you can’t buy what’s not for sale, even if you can afford it.”

Will mortgage rates go down?

The sharp run-up in rates has caught the housing industry by surprise. The Mortgage Bankers Association forecasts the 30-year fixed rate to fall to 7.2% by the end of the year — a prediction that’s nearly a full percentage point above its forecast from last month.

“The Fed’s hiking cycle is likely nearing an end, but while Fed officials have indicated that additional rate hikes might not be needed, rate cuts may not come as soon or proceed as rapidly as previously expected,” Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said last week during the group’s annual conference.

Economists expected to see mortgage rates decrease by the end of 2023, but the strength of the U.S. economy has thrown a wrinkle into those predictions. So has the jump in 10-year Treasury yields.

Many in the industry expect rates to peak at 8%. “I think they’ll touch the 8% level, and then they’ll come back down,” says Vishal Garg, CEO of lender Better.com.

Mortgage rates are also chained to inflation, a metric the Fed has been moving to control. At its September meeting, the central bank opted to keep rates unchanged. While the Fed doesn’t directly set fixed mortgage rates, it does set the tone of the interest-rate environment — and as the central bank has boosted its policy rate from zero in early 2022 to a range of 5.25% to 5.5% now, mortgage rates have followed suit.

Methodology

The Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders is conducted weekly. To conduct the National Average survey, Bankrate obtains rate information from the 10 largest banks and thrifts in 10 large U.S. markets. In the Bankrate.com national survey, our Market Analysis team gathers rates and/or yields on banking deposits, loans and mortgages. We’ve conducted this survey in the same manner for more than 30 years, and because it’s consistently done the way it is, it gives an accurate national apples-to-apples comparison. Our rates differ from other national surveys, in particular Freddie Mac’s weekly published rates. Each week Freddie Mac surveys lenders on the rates and points based on first-lien prime conventional conforming home purchase mortgages with a loan-to-value of 80%. “Lenders surveyed each week are a mix of lender types — thrifts, credit unions, commercial banks and mortgage lending companies — is roughly proportional to the level of mortgage business that each type commands nationwide,” according to Freddie Mac.

©2023 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Lured by the nation’s highest premiums and new laws making it harder to sue insurance companies, investors see an opportunity in Florida’s broken insurance market. Current and former state officials and others said they are receiving regular inquiries from potential investors looking to make a profit.

“As soon as we were done with the last vote in session, I had a couple of people … including legislators, asking if I wanted to invest in an insurance company,” Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Hollywood, told the state’s insurance commissioner last month.

That includes state Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who has pitched fellow lawmakers on investing in a new homeowners insurance company that projects a 165% return on investment over five years.

Investing millions of dollars into one of the nation’s most volatile insurance markets might seem like folly. Hurricanes and floods are multiplying. Meanwhile, companies have gone insolvent without being hit by either of those threats.

But Florida-based insurance companies employ unusual financial structures that can allow executives to extract considerable profits from homeowners’ premiums.

Those structures, combined with a reduced threat of lawsuits, is an enticing combination, at least to some investors. And Gov. Ron DeSantis and state regulators see it as the solution to the state’s insurance crisis, hoping that free-market competition will eventually drive down rates.

“The market needs green shoots, and it’s exciting to see new companies,” said former state Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, who was a vocal supporter of lawsuit reform in the Legislature.

Pizzo, one of the state’s wealthiest lawmakers with a net worth of $60 million, declined to invest in Gruters’ company. He also turned down nearly a dozen other pitches from investors, he said in an interview.

“I just don’t want to be directly involved with profiting off of what I think is less restrictive, or more favorable, conditions for insurers,” Pizzo said.

To the public, the optics of lawmakers forming insurance companies right after passing legislation affecting those companies “probably aren’t great,” he said. But he doesn’t begrudge Gruters for trying.

“If he gets them affordable policies, I don’t think they’ll care,” Pizzo said.

‘A unique and lucrative opportunity’

To solve Florida’s insurance crisis, DeSantis and lawmakers tried to stop people from suing insurance companies, which insurers have blamed for rapidly rising premiums.

Although lawmakers and regulators haven’t proven that lawsuits were driving up rates and causing insurers to go out of business, they passed legislation in December that stopped requiring homeowners insurance companies to pay attorney’s fees when plaintiffs sue and win. This year, they extended that to all insurance companies.

The legislation hasn’t yet had a meaningful effect on homeowners’ premiums, which the industry now says will not go down in the foreseeable future because of factors such as climate change.

But it has sparked immediate interest from investors looking to put their money into insurance companies.

Barry Gilway, the former head of state-run Citizens Property Insurance, said he’s fielding calls from investors at least every two weeks. The reduced threat of litigation and the potential to get started by pulling thousands of policies out of Citizens has them interested, he said.

“You have a number of different investors that are looking at this … as a real potential opportunity,” he said.

Gilway said the market was so active that he’d consider joining one of the companies.

“If the right opportunity came along, I’d get serious about jumping back in,” Gilway said.

One of the new companies is Village Protection Insurance, led by a former executive with the reinsurance broker firm GuyCarpenter, according to the trade journal Inside P&C.

In May the company announced it was raising $75 million from investors, the publication reported. In August, it reported the company changed that target to $55 million. The minimum to start up an insurance company in Florida is $15 million.

Gruters’ role is unclear

It’s unclear what role Gruters, an accountant by trade, has with the company. His involvement has not been previously reported, and he did not respond to calls and text messages for comment.

In a pitch to investors sent by Gruters, company leaders wrote that “there lies a unique and lucrative opportunity for investors” as Florida’s insurance market “undergoes a transformative disruption.” They tout an experienced leadership team with “fresh perspectives” to meet the demands of consumers and investors.

The pitch directs potential investors to a spreadsheet of financial projections showing that the company would take 20,000 policies out of Citizens next year. By 2028, the company would grow organically and be writing $475 million in premiums across 99,596 policies, for an average customer premium of $4,775.

The current statewide average is around $6,000, according to industry groups.

The pitch directs investors to one category of the financials in particular, involving the company’s “managing general agent,” which is an affiliate company. Village Protection Insurance’s managing general agent would charge the company 28% of all premiums, plus a $25 charge for every new policy, typical rates for Florida-based insurance companies.

Most of that money would go to pay a contractor to perform Village Protection Insurance’s business, according to Inside P&C: everything from underwriting to claims management to reinsurance and customer service.

After paying those expenses, tens of millions of dollars would be left over each year to repay investors. By 2028, the company would show a cumulative return on investment of the managing general agent of 165%, the document shows.

“We firmly believe that this venture presents an extraordinary chance to achieve exceptional returns in an environment of change and growth,” the pitch states.

Gruters voted for the December 2022 legislation requiring homeowners to pay their attorneys’ fees, along with other senators who work in the insurance industry. Senate rules require senators to vote on bills unless senators know they would experience a “special private gain or loss” from the measure. In those instances, senators have to disclose why they were abstaining from the vote.

Gruters also voted for this year’s legislation shielding all insurance companies from paying attorneys’ fees in most situations, but he bucked most of his party by voting for an amendment that would have watered down the bill. The amendment failed.

The Pickleball Club is under contract for a 3.4-acre parcel at 1427 N. Semoran Blvd. between Orlando and Winter Park and east of Baldwin Park. The company will file plans with Orange County for a 33,800-square-foot climate-controlled facility with 12 indoor pickleball courts, 130 parking spaces and a Players’ Courtyard with two outdoor pickleball courts and two bocce ball courts.

The Orlando location will also feature a 3,900-square-foot Players’ Lounge mezzanine overlooking the courts, the company’s own restaurant, Pickle’s Café, and Dink’s Pro Shop.

The club is expected to break ground in June 2024 and open in summer 2025. This would be the company’s eighth location.

“We’re really excited about the Orlando location,” founder Brian McCarthy said. He told GrowthSpotter the company is already scouting locations for additional clubs. “We’re looking to do two or three clubs in Orlando.”

The Pickleball Club’s first location is now open and operating in Sarasota near Lakewood Ranch, with close to 600 members.  Other locations under development include Port St. Lucie, which is currently under construction, Bonita Springs, Fort Myers, The Villages, Pinellas Park and Venice.

The company also announced plans for a ninth club in Green Acres in Palm Beach County also scheduled for a 2025 opening.

Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. and is quickly becoming a standard amenity for new subdivisions and apartment communities. Margaritaville Resort is adding a dozen courts to its recreational offerings.  Winter Springs is currently building what would be the largest complex dedicated to the sport in Seminole County with 14 courts capable of hosting tournaments, leagues, and perhaps even a professional team.

The growing popularity of the sport has made it an attractive tenant for second-generation retail space. Earlier this year Crush Yard Pickleball Club signed a lease for the former 50,000-square-foot Winn Dixie store at Formosa Gardens on Osceola County’s W192 corridor. Last month, SC Advisors applied to the City of Orlando for a conditional use permit to open an indoor/outdoor pickleball facility, also with F&B, in a recently-completed 18,900-square-foot flex warehouse in SoDo.

The Pickleball Club’s strategy is to take advantage of the significant unmet demand for a quality indoor sports experience dedicated to pickleball. Each of the company’s clubs are designed to be 34,000 to 50,000 square feet with 12 to 16 indoor pickleball courts, multiple outdoor courts, an outdoor activity center, Dink’s Pro Shop, Pickles Café, luxurious locker room facilities and ample space for socialization.

“I wanted to develop a club concept that caters to people who play frequently,” McCarthy said. The courts will be reserved exclusively for members, but the club will offer youth and adult teaching clinics — Pickleball University — that are open to the public.

Memberships cost $1,000 to join plus $125 per month for individuals. For families, the rates are $2,500 to join plus $250 per month.

McCarthy said each Pickleball Club is designed with 28-foot ceilings, upgraded HV/AC systems that purify the air, enhanced LED lighting and acoustics and cork floors.

“The floors are very expensive,” McCarthy said. “But it’s important because you want it to be the same experience inside and outside to get a consistent bounce. Bounce is really important. The ball doesn’t bounce the same on a gym floor as it does on cork.”

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.

A: The reason there are many different types of mortgages is similar to why a mechanic needs an entire toolbox to fix your car: Not every issue can be resolved using the same tool. Reverse mortgages, or any other type, are neither intrinsically good nor bad — what matters is using the best financial tool for your situation.

In a typical reverse mortgage, a homeowner age 62 or older can receive funds to pay off their current mortgage and supplement their retirement. The loan does not need to be repaid as long as the borrower or their spouse is living in the house.

Once the borrowers no longer reside in the home, whether due to moving out or passing away, the loan must be paid in full or face foreclosure.

The proceeds from the loan are not taxable and generally do not affect your Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Reverse mortgages are “non-recourse,” meaning that the lender can only take back the house in repayment and cannot seek the deficiency from you or your probate estate. This means you will no longer have to make a monthly mortgage payment and can live in your home as long as you want to.

Of course, you will still need to pay your property taxes and hazard insurance.

While reverse mortgages have advantages, they are not for everyone because the up-front costs are high, and the interest eats up your home’s equity.

If you only plan to remain in your home for a short time or want to leave your house to your children, a reverse mortgage may not be the best choice.

Regardless of the type of loan you decide on, carefully review the paperwork before signing, asking questions until you get answers that make sense to you.

Board-certified real estate lawyer Gary Singer writes about industry legal matters and the housing market. To ask him a question, email him at gary@garysingerlaw.com, or go to SunSentinel.com/askpro. 

Citizens had 1.325 million policies as of Friday, down from 1.412 million policies two weeks earlier, according to data from the state’s insurer of last report.

The drop came as five private insurers assumed 99,773 Citizens policies in mid-October as part of a state effort known as “depopulation” to shift homeowners into the private market. It also came after three years of explosive growth at Citizens, as private insurers shed customers and raised rates because of financial troubles.

State Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky last week told lawmakers that private insurers taking Citizens policies is not “the end-all, be-all” of having a healthy insurance market. But he also indicated it is encouraging.

“I think the biggest takeaway from this is that we’re seeing that private interest come into the state,” Yaworsky told the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee. “It’s generally a good sign of where the market is going.”

Under the state’s depopulation program, private insurers can seek approval from regulators to offer coverage to Citizens customers.

Those carriers are Slide Insurance Co., which assumed 46,694 policies; Safepoint Insurance Co., 24,110 policies; Florida Peninsula Insurance Co., 18,594 policies; Southern Oak Insurance Co., 5,346 policies; and Monarch National Insurance Co., 5,029 policies, according to Citizens data.

Many state leaders have long sought to move customers out of Citizens into the private market, at least in part because of the risk that policyholders across the state could be forced to help pay claims after a major hurricane or multiple hurricanes.

But officials say Citizens often charges lower premiums than private insurers, reducing the incentive for customers to leave Citizens.

Trying to help spur depopulation, lawmakers in December approved a change that required Citizens customers to accept offers of coverage from private insurers if the offers are within 20% of the cost of Citizens premiums.

But data released Tuesday by Citizens indicated many customers targeted by the five companies for October takeouts remained eligible to stay with Citizens, as they received offers that would have exceeded 20% rate hikes.

As part of orders issued in late September and early October to allow seven insurers to assume as many as 168,000 policies in December, Yaworsky said they could not seek to raise rates more than 40% for policyholders coming from Citizens.

“We saw where some companies were making takeout offers to consumers that exceeded 300 to 500 percent of the cost of what they were paying with Citizens,” Yaworsky told the House panel last week, adding that because of what is known as an “opt-out” system, “if the consumer happened to not be noticing that that was going on, they would wind up paying up to 300 percent more for their insurance.”

The 1-acre site includes two parcels: 170 E Washington St., which was previously approved for a Cambria Hotel project, and 137 Wall St., which has a parking lot and condemned office building for St. George Orthodox Church, which was built in 1926.

Scott Stahley, executive vice president of Lincoln’s Florida office, filed an Appearance Review Board application last month hoping to get on the board’s October agenda for a courtesy review but later withdrew the request and renderings with plans to resubmit in a few months.

Graham Oakley with Baker Barrios is the lead designer and described the project as a 305-foot tower that would combine 364 residential units with a hotel and commercial space.

The Orthodox church recently received a demolition permit from the city to raze the office building. The property on Wall Street includes a parking lot with 38 spaces. It’s anticipated that any deal between Lincoln and the church would include parking and potentially replacement offices or other church space.

Currently, the lot at Washington and Rosalind Avenue is vacant. In 2018, a joint venture between California-based Stratus Development Partners and Sunny Isles Beach-based developer HB Capital Group, purchased the lot for $3 million with plans to build the 155-room Cambria hotel.

Orlando’s Municipal Planning Board approved plans for the eight-story hotel in 2017. About a year later, the joint venture revised design plans. They tweaked the design a third time in 2019 but never moved forward with the project.

Officials with Lincoln declined to comment on the Lake Eola tower. The company is on track to break ground in the first quarter of 2024 on The Edge, another collaboration with Baker Barrios. It’s the second phase of the Church Street redevelopment that Lincoln started with its award-winning Truist Plaza.

At 32 stories, the Edge tower is bigger and taller. It will have 234 luxury apartments, 200,000 square feet of office space and a 10-story parking garage and some ground-floor retail in the lobby.

It will rise on the site of the former Church Street Ballroom and will incorporate a restoration of the adjacent Orchid Garden as a 20,000-square-foot food hall. Lincoln demolished the ballroom earlier this year, taking care to salvage as much of the building and its fixtures as possible.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.