M/I Homes will offer seven floorplans at its new Bay Lake Farms subdivision, which is next to Harmony West in Osceola County. (VHB)
M/I Homes helped close a gap in its portfolio this week by acquiring a new residential subdivision just south of Bay Lake in Osceola County.
The Ohio-based homebuilder paid $5.33 million for the 60-acre subdivision next door to Harmony West. The seller, Titan Properties, has submitted a Site Development Plan to Osceola County for 206 detached home lots to be constructed over two phases.
M/I Homes is calling it Bay Lake Farms.
Titan Principal Dell Avery told GrowthSpotter he would finish out the permitting, which aligns with the Preliminary Subdivision Plan that was approved in 2017. The PS pre-dated Osceola County’s recently enacted stricter subdivision standards, so Titan was able to submit the SDP with all 50-foot, front-loaded lots.
“We were fortunate we got it approved back in 2017,” Kaiser said. “We’ve been working on this deal with M/I Homes for a while now. They’re a great partner.”
Daniel Kaiser, VP of Land for M/I Homes, said the company hopes to have all the approvals by the end of the month and intends to start construction in June. The first phase begins at Old Melbourne Highway, while the second phase would connect Phase 2 of Harmony West, now in development by Forestar Land Company and D.R. Horton.
Kaiser said M/I would offer seven floorplans ranging in size from 1,500 to 3,120 square feet. The site plan creates a 3.4-acre neighborhood park, and M/I will build a pool and cabana on the site. The builder also will offer a selection of inventory homes in the community during the opening next spring.
“Plans will be similar to what we’ve offered at our successful closed-out locations of Sunset Groves and Narcoossee Del Sol,” Kaiser added.
M/I Homes currently has a dozen active communities in Central Florida, but they are all north and west of Orlando. The builder has more Osceola sites under contract for townhouse communities on Cyrils Drive and on Narcoossee Road.
M/I, which is active in 15 markets across 10 states, is coming off a banner year in 2020 with $3 billion in total revenue and a record-breaking first quarter of this year. The company ended the first quarter with nearly 5,500 units in backlog, with a sales volume of $2.4 billion across all markets. The average sale price of backlog units $433,000, compared to $399,000 in 2020.
The number of contracts year over year grew by 49%, and the company’s quarterly revenue increased 43% to $828.8 million.