A national developer that specializes in attainable workforce housing is opening new apartment communities in Davenport and Minneola.
Hillpointe, a Winter Park-based company, is one of the most active and prolific apartment developers in the country. In their view, the U.S. isn’t producing nearly enough attainable housing to fill demand, and that’s shaping their ongoing strategy.
“We’re highly focused on attainable multifamily housing, and it’s for that missing middle — for a segment that developers haven’t been able to build for in a very long period of time,” said Joshua Draughn, the company’s senior vice president of marketing & centralized operations. “Obviously, anyone’s approved to move into our communities, but if you had to describe a target audience, it’s the people that build our communities. It’s the teachers, the police force, the firefighters — really, the hometown heroes.”
Hillpointe is wrapping up construction of two apartment complexes in Central Florida, adding nearly 750 units of workforce housing west and southwest of Orlando.
In Davenport, it’s currently opening Pointe Grand Champions Village, a 445-apartment community located at 2010 Celsius Way, along U.S. 27 just north of Interstate 4 and the Ronald Reagan Parkway.
Hillpointe mostly builds apartments in the exact same template – two-bedroom, two-bathroom units that take up 1,170 square feet. That’s one way it saves money. “That’s 90 percent of our portfolio,” Draughn said. However, in Pointe Grand Champions Village, Hillpointe is mixing that up a bit, adding three-bedroom, three-bathroom townhomes that range from 1,400 square feet up to 1,590 square feet. It’s also adding small, one-bedroom cottages with 888 square feet, Draughn said.
Rent for the two-bedroom units, which come in different sizes and different floor plans at Pointe Grande Champions Village, ranges from $1,699 to $1,819. Rent for the three-bedroom townhomes starts at $2,100. Rents for the one-bedroom cottages haven’t been set yet.
“We opened Champions Village a couple of weeks ago, delivering in three different phases,” Draughn said. “The project’s about 50 percent complete and will be done in the next 90 days for full occupancy.”
Not far away, Hillpointe previously completed and opened Pointe Grand Davenport, a 288-unit apartment development southwest of the intersection of Ronald Reagan Parkway and U.S. 17-92.
Currently, Hillpointe’s other local project underway is Pointe Grand Hills at Minneola, which is Lake County’s first Live Local Act housing development. It will add 300 apartments to the Lake County community just west of Orlando, one of the hottest spots for new residential development in the nation. Located on U.S. 27 at Sullivan Road near the Minneola Turnpike interchange, the community straddles nearby retail and commerce centers as well as scenic country areas surrounding Lake Apopka.
“These are going to be the standard two-bedroom, two-bath units that we’re known for delivering in Florida,” Draughn said. Rents will range from $1,650 to $1,819. “Those are going to be delivered sometime between Sept. 9 and Oct. 10. We’re currently 7% pre-leased.”
As Lake County’s first Live Local Act community, it will target renters who earn between 60% to 120% of the area median income, or roughly $50,000 to $85,000 annually.
Both of these new apartment complexes in Davenport and Minneola feature the full suite of resort-style amenities that come standard in every Hillpointe community. That includes a large pool with cabanas, a clubhouse with a 24-7 fitness center and yoga room, a dog park and grooming center, valet trash service, a co-working lounge and coffee and tea station. The apartments themselves have the same level of finishes as many luxury projects, like quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, tile backsplashes, kitchen islands, wood-style flooring and smart technology.
Hillpointe says it’s able to deliver new apartment communities for about two-thirds the cost of a typical Class A asset because it uses one building prototype and repeats the same project over and over again, sourcing its own materials and using its own in-house construction crews.
“Because we’re vertically integrated, we’re able to cut costs everywhere. We’re managing the full life cycle from site selection and design through construction, leasing and ongoing operations,” Draughn said. “We own our own trucking company, we own the general contractors, we own the whole process, so we can pass that savings on to our customers.”
Aside from the new apartment communities in Davenport and Minneola, Hillpointe is also in the leasing or preleasing stage for three other new apartment communities it’s building elsewhere in Florida:
- Pointe Grand Lakeland delivers 288 homes to Polk County, one of the fastest-growing regions in the state.
- Pointe Grand Town Center brings 264 homes to Palm Coast in Flagler County, reinforcing Hillpointe’s continued investment in high-growth markets across Northeast Florida.
- Pointe Grand Fort Pierce introduces 252 homes to Florida’s Treasure Coast, expanding access to attainable housing in a region experiencing sustained population and economic growth.
According to its website, Hillpointe has been involved in the development, construction and management of more than 18,000 apartments with a capitalization in excess of $3.2 billion. The company currently owns and operates 12,075 units across 45 properties. Aside from its Winter Park headquarters, it also has offices in three other major U.S. markets – Atlanta, Charlotte and Denver.
Hillpointe currently ranks fifth on the National Multifamily Housing Council’s list of Top 25 Developers in the country and seventh on NMHC’s list of Top 25 Builders, based on the number of new units started in 2025.
“We’re looking to hit 10,000 unit starts this year. That would put us at the top of the National Multifamily Housing rankings as the number one builder,” Draughn said. “That’s our goal. We really want to be the leading operator, builder and manager of multifamily housing, and we’re trying to break the mold.”
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