Polk City Development Aims for Affordability

POLK CITY | In this small Polk County town, a new development is taking shape on the southern end of Polk City, and at least one of the model homes on site has already sold.

Fountain Park, a Centex community, is now in the pre-sale phase. With its single-family homes priced from $150,000 up, the development promises to fall within the affordable range during a tough time for the nation's housing market.

As Centex spokeperson Carol-Ann Barody said, 'A substantial proportion of the home-buying comunity is very cost-conscious. They won't sacrifice on quality or features, but they aren't interested in paying 2005 prices, either.'

It was a year later, in 2006, when the once-red-hot housing market began to cool, and both in Florida and nationally, the market may not have hit bottom. Barody said this was factored into the firm's plans.

'When the market began its correction, we retooled our entire production, from site acquisition to model home design to features and amenities in order to price our homes more affordably without reducing quality,' she said.

The Fountain Park site, at the southeast corner of Mount Olive Road and State Road 33, was annexed into Polk City about three years ago, according to city planner Gene Kniffen.

'It was cow pasture when we annexed it in,' Kniffen said.

The company that took the parcel through the annexation and approval process then sold it to Centex. Fountain Park has been in the planning stages for a while.

'Community developments take several years to take shape,' Barody said, 'from purchase to entitlement, to the actual infrastructure development. Fountain Park has been a part of our future vision for the last several years, and we are excited to finally be opening the community and enjoying being the newest member of the Polk City family.'

There are 150 home sites in Fountain Park. Houses are being offered with three, four, five and six bedrooms.

The amount of living space ranges from 1,433 square feet up to 3,514 square feet. A separate commercial retail development, not controlled by Centex, is expected to be built on the west side of State Road 33, across from Fountain Park. That development is still in the planning stage.

Although Polk County has grown at a solid pace throughout this decade, Polk City still maintains a small-town feel, and currently has a population of about 1,850.

[ Linda Charlton can be reached at 352-223-8224. ]