Utilizing transit-oriented communities in Central Florida

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — More than 1,000 people move to Central Florida every week. This creates a strain on workforce housing availability and congestion on the roads.

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The newly opened Weston 4 Hundred apartment complex in Kissimmee aims to combat both of those issues.

“It’s convenient to save gas, to not have to be on the road all the time, it’s just a little bit easier to walk around if I need to,” Jacey Rachels, a resident at Weston 4 Hundred, said.

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Rachels has lived in Osceola County all her life and has witnessed the traffic build-up on area roadways.

Now living at Weston 4 Hundred, she can get her son to school and herself to her business in Downtown Kissimmee without ever getting behind the wheel.

“Whenever I want to be able to get him to school without driving, I’m able to walk him there,” Rachels said. “I’m also able to walk to work when I need to.”

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Weston 4 Hundred is a transit-oriented community that is located less than a block away from the Kissimmee Sunrail station.

“Sunrail can take people into Downtown Orlando, north of Downtown Orlando, or south as well,” Ryan von Weller, the COO of Wendover Housing Partners, said. “You can live here and work downtown and never have a car.”

He said the 205-unit complex uses a design that focuses on connecting people with public transport and the places where they work all while keeping an affordable price in mind.

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“We have one, two, three-bedroom units that are all priced below the competitors in the marketplace,” von Weller said. “In this community you’re seeing the ability of people to not just work in Osceola County but to have mobility into other counties without having to drive. It’s easier to take a 30-minute train ride than an hour and a half drive into North Orlando.”

Wendover Housing Partners said the company will continue to monitor Sunrail’s trends with the hope of building complexes like Wendover 4 Hundred near another station in the future.

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