The developer of the New Errol project, a proposal with 261 residential units with several amenities intended to revitalize the financially strapped community, said that the project will go before the Planning Commission on February 20 and the City Council on February 27.
Both public meetings will take place at the Apopka Community Center/VFW building, 519 S. Central Ave., starting at 5:30 p.m.
Though the project has been in the works for two years now, its plan has gone through several levels of city review including the City Council, which approved the plan, the rezoning of the 79-acre Errol Estate, and transmittal of the plan to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity on August 22, 2017.
The state approved the plan, and sent it back to the city for the Development Review Committee’s review. That group is expected to submit its comments this week.
The Errol Estate operation, which includes an 18-hole golf course, has been losing between $50,000 and $60,000 per month. Signature H has already spent more than $2.5 million on the project.
Signature H Property Group, the New Errol developer from Celebration, restarted community meetings last week to update residents on the project. The company will hold the meetings for at least three more weeks on Tuesdays, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., and Thursdays, 6-8 p.m., on the second floor of the Apopka Golf and Tennis at Errol Estate clubhouse, where Signature H’s onsite office is.
In addition to the 261 residential homes, New Errol also includes a redesigned golf course, the new clubhouse/lodge area Staghorn Club and Lodge with a 40-room lodge, a community water park, and a senior campus in the form of two adult living facilities with 90 beds each and one building with a 60-bed post-acute rehabilitation center.
The senior campus is what will help underwrite New Errol’s operation and sustainability, according to Helmut Wyzisk III, vice president of Signature H.
“The new Florida Hospital is coming in, and this is going to be one of the nicer, more resort-style assisted living facilities. It’s not a standalone unit,” he said. “When you come to live at Errol Estate – which will be New Errol – when you come to stay at the senior housing, you’ll be tied into all the different resorts you have here.”
In December 2017, Florida Hospital opened its new campus near the confluence of State Road 429, SR 451, and SR 414 complete with 120 beds and four operating rooms.
Some of the 25,000 square-foot clubhouse’s aspects will be fine dining, multiple bars, rooftop terrace, a humidor, and a specialty grocery store with onsite delivery.
The 2-1/2-acre water park will boast of green acres, general pool area, a splash pad, a 50-meter swimming pool designed for laps and for the Wekiva and Apopka high school swim teams to use, a lazy river, four pickleball courts, volleyball, a cabana, and an onsite pool house with a fitness room for residents with a social membership.
To better connect the multiple fragmented neighborhoods within Errol Estate, the master plan calls for recreation trails, parks, and facilities for social events.
If the City Council greenlights New Errol, construction will start later this year. The first phase would include the clubhouse, the lodge, the water park, and the new road and entrance from Vick Road into the neighborhood, as well as the first building of the senior campus, the 66 townhomes on the driving range and 24 club homes. Some of the walking trails will be part of the first phase, too.
The second phase would involve the rest of the residential homes getting constructed at the original sixth through ninth holes.
However, if the project doesn’t get City Council approval, Signature H would be forced to start from the beginning and return to the city with a more standard development plan.
Signature H is now accepting home reservations for the first phase residences. The company will add the ability to reserve homes through its website www.signatureh.com.
This post is a shortened version of the story that appears on page 1A of the Friday, January 19, issue of The Apopka Chief.
