The 62-year-old venue that put Arcadia on the national rodeo map is for sale by owners who hope for multi-family housing on the site.
Owners of the seven-acre complex, the Arcadia Rodeo Association, are keeping fingers crossed they can interest a residential developer in the land at 124 SW Heard St. They’ve put a nearly $1 million price on the property that they vacated in a 2018 move of the All-Florida Championship Rodeo and their other events to the 7,000-seat Mosaic Arena on Roan Road.
The parcel can be rezoned for up to 200 apartments and utilities are available, said Mac Martin, broker for Gulfland Real Estate, the Arcadia brokerage handling the sale.
Martin said the $999,500 price tag gives proximity to schools, shopping and medical services.
“This is a great opportunity for the Rodeo Association to offer this location for needed housing which will be a benefit to the community,” Martin said in a press release.
Still on the grounds of the circa 1959 complex are covered seating, concession stands and the ticket office. Since the Rodeo Association’s departure, the grounds have been leased to the DeSoto County Fair Association for events and parking.
The difficulty of finding suitable locations in DeSoto County for multi-family housing should make the Arcadia parcel especially attractive, according to Martin.
The property is plenty appealing to the Arcadia Housing Authority but would be a large undertaking for the local housing assistance agency. It is in the early stages of a joint project with Palm Beach County developer Smith & Henzy Advisory Group to build Cypress Garden, a two-floor complex of 58 duplex apartments planned for city blocks of Cypress Street, 11th Avenue, Hickory Street and 12th Avenue. The combined parcels are almost five acres, said Becky-Sue Mercer, Housing Authority executive director.
The Smith & Henzy Advisory Group specializes in securing and using state and federal tax credits to offset as much as three-quarters of the cost of building below-market rental units.
A project done without federal assistance would have to rent the 200 units at market rates in a county whose 11,000 households saw an average income decline from 2017 to 2018 of 1.07 percent, falling to $35,057 from $35,435.
“I would be hard-pressed to say they could do all of the units at market rates.” said Mercer, who is entering her 12th year as head of the housing agency.
Arcadia, where renters occupy 42.3 percent of the housing inventory, has 10 rental complexes built through low-income housing tax credits and offering rental rates below market: Jacaranda Trail 1, Oaks Trail, The Oaks, McPine Apartments, Desoto Landing, Wood Park Point Apartments, The Palms, Arcadia Oaks, Casa San Juan Bosco and Casa San Juan Bosco Phase II.
Some consolidation in the future would help, Mercer said, adding that right now units are scattered over 32 acres on 11 different streets.
Development of the rodeo grounds for below-market apartment rentals would meet a definite need, Mercer said in an interview.
“It would be a big boost to the community to have the availability of 200 units,” especially in keeping workers in the county, she said.
Such a result “can be within reach,” Mercer said, with the right developer and the right public-private partnership. And as it happens, she added, “We’re a safe bet to partner with.”
The first step is to obtain the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit through the Florida Finance Housing Corporation to subsidize the acquisition of the property and construction of the project. Investors can attain the tax credits over a 10-year period. Developers often sell the credits to corporations wanting to lower their tax bills.
Tax credits can be either 9% or 4%.
“The 9% tax credit tends to generate around 70% of a development's equity while a 4% tax credit will generate around 30% of a development's equity,” Mercer noted. “The smart thing to do is go for the competitive 9%. If successful there, the 4% is like a walk in the park.”
The Arcadia Housing Authority won its Cypress Garden tax credit as the only applicant in the small-to-medium market competition category, according to Mercer.
Martin, the DeSoto real estate broker, said he expects “some sort” of subsidized housing will go on the seven acres. Land acquisition would represent about $5,000 a unit, a sum Martin says “seems to be a reasonable value for this property."
The price “definitely is a starting point,” added Martin, indicating flexibility. “It is based on a calculation of how much the cost of the land would be relative to the scale of the development.”
Mercer said the rezoning process on such a project can be long and difficult. Martin said the Rodeo Association will help on the rezoning.
Expect cooperation from Arcadia officials as well, Martin said.
“The city was very positive in their reaction to the announcement that the property would be offered up for housing.”
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