Ranch Lake Apartments near completion

EAST COUNTY — Continuing to fulfill a need for multifamily housing in East County, the latest apartment complex to come off the ground has begun leasing.

Interested renters can move into Ranch Lake Apartments, a housing community on 48 acres off a winding road behind the State Road 70 Walmart, starting in March.

The entire complex, which will include 336 units inside 14 three-story buildings, will be finished by mid-June.

Three buildings with 72 units will be available for move-in by the end of March.

As of Jan. 21, Ranch Lake had leased 20 apartment units.

Sarasota-based CORE Construction, the contractor building the apartments, is working on the interior of the three buildings.

Boston-based Forest Properties officially purchased the site, as well as plans for the surrounding property, in December 2012 from Village Partners, a venture between Investors Realty and Carr Investment.

“Things are really moving along,” said Dan Sterner, director of acquisitions in New England and Florida for Forest Properties. “We’re excited for the community to see and feel what we’ve been working on.”

Although Forest Properties owns and manages 400 apartment units in Sarasota, Ranch Lake Apartments is the company’s first from-scratch development in Florida.

Once finished, Ranch Lake will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom units, and it also will include 24 detached garages and amenities such as a clubhouse and pool, fitness center, tennis and basketball courts and a putting green.

Kitchens in the apartment units will have granite countertops and the bathrooms are tiled black and white. The buildings are sand-colored, with a white trim and brown paint at their foundations.

Walking trails and trees make the community feel secluded. Of the property’s 48 acres, CORE has built on less than half of them.

The community is gated, with two entrances and exits accessed by a card.

Ranch Lake modeled the look after Bella Apartments Orlando, which shares the same architect, Owen G. Carr.

“People will feel like they’re in the middle of nature,” Sterner said. “What you’re getting is classy and subtle and not crazy, but you’re getting a lot for this type of budget.”

There’s also a fireplace under a covered lanai outside the clubhouse by the pool.

The clubhouse, set to open in this month as leasing picks up, has a clock tower, an aesthetic quality also used at Bella Apartments Orlando.

Until the clubhouse opens, leasing will be handled at a temporary office in the Lakeview Professional Center at 9114 58th Drive E., Bradenton, also off State Road 70.

The community opens at a time when two other Lakewood Ranch apartment projects — The Venue at Lakewood Ranch, across from Lakewood Ranch Main Street, and Creekside Apartments, the second phase to Lost Creek Apartments, off Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, are under construction.

In frequent trips to East County from Boston, Sterner has studied the competition.

“We know the market inside and out,” Sterner said. “We were excited about the market before we knew about the Mall at (University Town Center). Once we knew about it, we thought, ‘We have to do this.’

There’s so much stuff going on and we are right in the middle of it.”

At Ranch Lake, apartments will cost from $1,000 to $1,600 per month.

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].