Gateway North is the newest luxury apartment complex in Largo, a city that is encouraging more large-scale residential projects with a moratorium on parkland fees.
The fees generally are collected from developers to offset the city's costs for upkeep and additional park amenities to accommodate residential growth. The moratorium is scheduled to end in May 2016.
Gateway North likely would not have been built without the moratorium and the savings to developers of about $1 million in parkland fees, says Anthony Everett, director of Central Florida's division of the Atlanta-based
Pollack Shores Real Estate Group.
"It was forward thinking of the city to take this positive step and prime the pump to get something going," Everett says.
Gateway North, at 2681 Roosevelt Blvd., offers 342 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments ranging in monthly rents from $945 to $1,619. The complex is the first large-scale, market-rate residential complex to open in Largo in at least the past decade. The economic downturn in particular put the brakes on residential development.
Amenities include a 2-acre lake with jogging trails, business and fitness centers, a resort-style clubhouse and pool, and trolley stops for the Clearwater beaches.
The complex offers access to shopping, entertainment, businesses and bus stops, off nearby U.S. 19. Among options are a new Walmart Super Center, WaWa's convenience store and gas station, the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport and quick access to Tampa Bay bridges.
Pollack Shores Real Estate Group, which developed Gateway North, anticipates the residential community will have broad appeal to young professionals as well as people working in nearby county offices or in proximity to the airport.
At least 120,000 vehicles travel past Gateway North and area businesses daily.
"I'm sure 300 people would prefer to live close to where they work," Everett says. "It's going to be a very convenient place to live."
Largo is looking at additional residential construction that in total could put up to 1,200 apartments into the market.
Among current projects are The Boulevard, a 260-unit, market-rate apartment complex at 2098 Seminole Blvd., north of Largo Mall. The site is former home to an RV park. Broadway Apartments will have 288 market-rate apartments on 66th Street, near Ulmerton Road. And Bay Isle Landing is a project of 96 town homes on Roosevelt Boulevard near the Bayside Bridge.
"These are high quality market rate apartment projects," says Robert Klute, Largo's assistant community development director. "That's something we very much want to see."
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