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Did Orlando finish all 150 Palm Gardens apartments by the end of 2024, as the city said?

The Roadmap Reckoner · Orlando, Orange County, Florida (Palm Gardens Orlando, 929 West Colonial Drive) · last checked 2026-10-20

Verdict	DELIVERED LATE, by about four months
Promiser	City of Orlando (Housing and Community Development; Palm Gardens Orlando Apartments, LLC)
Place	Orlando, Orange County, Florida (Palm Gardens Orlando, 929 West Colonial Drive)
Promised	End of 2024 ("All 150 units at Palm Gardens Orlando are anticipated to be completed by the end of the year", the city's release of May 29, 2024)
Delivered / status	May 2025: the second phase's building permit shows a certificate-of-occupancy date of May 6, 2025 (126 days after Dec. 31, 2024), and the city held its ceremony on May 28, 2025; the city's grant contract had already moved completion to June 30, 2025
Last checked	2026-10-20

Verdict: DELIVERED LATE, by about four months. In its release for the first phase opening, the City of Orlando said: "All 150 units at Palm Gardens Orlando are anticipated to be completed by the end of the year" [C1]. The release is dated May 29, 2024 [C1b], so the year was 2024. The second phase's building permit shows a certificate-of-occupancy date of May 6, 2025 [C16], which is 126 days after December 31, 2024 [the trace]. The city held its ceremony for the second phase on May 28, 2025 [C18c], 148 days after it [the trace]. The city's release for that day says the ceremony would "celebrate completion of the second and final phase of Palm Gardens Orlando" [C18b].

The city's own grant contract had already moved its completion date to June 30, 2025, five and a half months before the promise was made [C13, C11]. Measured against that date, the work finished 55 days early [the trace]. So the entry is late against what the city told the public, and early against what the city's contract required.

Last checked: October 20, 2026.

The promise. All 150 units by the end of 2024 [C1].
The record since. The contract's dates were extended in December 2023 [C13]. The city's release was not changed; its sentence reads the same in the last Internet Archive capture, dated July 12, 2026 [C1c, C1d].
The delivery. Phase two: a certificate-of-occupancy date of May 6, 2025 [C16] and a city ceremony on May 28, 2025 [C18c].
The cost. The city's grant was $4,159,300 [C6]. The release called it "more than $4 million" [C3].

The promise

The City of Orlando's release, "City Celebrates Phase One Grand Opening of Palm Gardens Orlando", said:

"All 150 units at Palm Gardens Orlando are anticipated to be completed by the end of the year, with 149 efficiency and one-bedroom apartments reserved for residents with incomes at or less than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI)" [C1]

The page reads "Last updated on May 29, 2024" [C1b]. The same release said the city would "celebrate the completion of the first 95 units of Palm Gardens Orlando" [C2]. The conversion is of the former Ambassador Hotel at 929 West Colonial Drive, using the city's "Accelerate Orlando" money [the trace].

Before the promise

October 24, 2022. City Council took up the grant agreement. Its cover page reads "For Meeting of: October 24, 2022" [C5]. The council agenda summary described two phases: "Phase 1 will be completed by December 31, 2023 and will consist of approximately ninety-two (92) apartments" [C5b], and "Phase 2 will be completed by December 31, 2024, and will consist of approximately fifty-eight (58) affordable housing apartments, plus certain amenities." [C5c]
The 2022 contract dates. Among the agreement's conditions for paying out the city's second allotment was "Phase 2 Project Completion no later than December 31, 2024, as evidenced by the issuance of a certificate of occupancy or certificate of completion." [C8] Its performance benchmark in Section 7.B reads: "Phase 1 Completion shall be no later than November 30, 2023, and Project Completion shall be on or before December 31, 2024." [C9] The record therefore gives Phase 1 two dates: December 31, 2023 in the agenda summary [C5b], and November 30, 2023 in Section 7.B [C9]. The 2023 amendment later describes the old Phase 1 date as "December 31, 2023" [C13b]. The record read does not settle which date governed [the trace].
The 2022 budget. "The total project budget is $15,140,277. Owner equity will provide $3,250,000. Additional funding sources include bank debt in the amount of $6,230,977. The owner has requested $4,159,300 in Accelerate Orlando funding to fill their financing gap." [C6] The remainder came from impact-fee waivers: "for the remaining balance of $1,500,000." [C6b]

Timeline

December 11, 2023. The amendment went to City Council ("For Meeting of: December 11, 2023" [C11]). Its stated reason: "The owner has determined that construction activities will need more time due to some construction material limitations as well as previous Covid related delays." [C12]
- It would "change the date for Phase 2 completion and Project completion from December 31, 2024 to June 30th, 2025." [C13]
- The owner's updated schedule showed "Phase I Completion will occur no later than June 30, 2024, and Phase 2 Completion and Project Completion no later than June 30, 2025." [C14]
January 23, 2024. The application for the phase-two building permit, BLD2024-10669, was filed [C16b].
May 29, 2024. The city's release made the promise. By then council had approved the June 30, 2025 date 170 days earlier [C13, C1b, the trace]. The release page as read on October 19, 2026 does not state the contract's June 30, 2025 date [the trace].
July 3, 2024. The phase-one permit, BLD2023-14189, shows a certificate-of-occupancy date of July 3, 2024 [C15].
December 31, 2024. The promised date passed. The phase-two permit had not been issued yet [C16c].
January 19, 2025. The city's Livable Orlando report said "Palm Gardens Affordable Housing – PHASE ONE COMPLETED." [C17, C17b] A later page of the same report still said the building "will provide 150 apartments once completed in 2024" [C17c].
February 3, 2025. The phase-two building permit was issued [C16c]. That is 377 days after filing [the trace].
May 6, 2025. The phase-two permit shows its certificate-of-occupancy date [C16].
May 28, 2025. The city's release for the second ceremony reads "Last updated on May 28, 2025" [C18]. It gives the event as "Wednesday, May 28, 2025 10 a.m." [C18c].

What changed, and why, in the record's own words

The date in the contract. Section 7.B of the agreement said "Phase 1 Completion shall be no later than November 30, 2023, and Project Completion shall be on or before December 31, 2024." [C9] The amendment replaced Section 7.B with one that reads "Project Completion shall be on or before June 30, 2025." [C14b]
The reason. "construction material limitations as well as previous Covid related delays." [C12]
The date in the public release. The release's "by the end of the year" [C1] stayed in place. It is the same in all 8 Internet Archive captures from September 14, 2024 to July 12, 2026 [C1c, C1d].
The finish. The city called the May 2025 event the "completion of the second and final phase of Palm Gardens Orlando" [C18b].

What it cost

The city's grant: $4,159,300 [C6], which the city's release described as "more than $4 million" [C3].
The 2022 project budget: $15,140,277 [C6]. Its four sources are the owner's $3,250,000, the bank's $6,230,977, the city's $4,159,300 and $1,500,000 in impact-fee waivers [C6, C6b]. They add up to the total [the trace].
Permit valuations are $3,000,000 for phase one [C15b] and $2,400,000 for phase two [C16b]. They are the permit applications' estimates, not the project's cost [the trace].

What is still open

When the 30-year affordability period began. The city's release says it starts "from the date all completed units have been leased." [C4]
How the amended deadline for phase one compared with the record. The original phase-one date is itself stated two ways (see the Before the promise section). The amended phase-one date was June 30, 2024 [C14b]; the phase-one permit's certificate-of-occupancy date is July 3, 2024 [C15]. The dataset leaves the meaning of its COO Date column blank [C16d]. This entry does not treat the three days as a breach.

What this entry did not check

Whether the city released its money on schedule. The escrow records were not read [the trace].
The Affordability Certificate and the owner's annual reports were not found in any public record read [the trace].
Current rents. The 2022 agreement set rent caps, and One Stop Housing's page today lists higher rents. The caps move each year with a state chart that could not be read, so this entry draws no conclusion [the trace].
The recorded copy of the 2023 amendment in the county's Official Records, and the city's permit portal (temporary certificates), were not searched [the trace].

Sources

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