WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. — A townhome development is only a few years old, but the walls are already crumbling away. A developer abandoned the project called Jesups Reserve on SR-434 in Winter Springs more than two years ago, and the half-finished work has turned into an eyesore.
Molded fragments of the townhome have rotted away over time and fallen to pieces.
"Three years. It must've gotten under your skin," WFTV reporter Q. McCray said to resident Jim Gallagher.
"It's there. What am I suppose to do, buy a stick of dynamite and blow it all up?" Gallagher said.
Homeowners Jim Gallagher and Peter Durnell have learned to live with the eyesore. Jesup's Reserve has unpaved roads, vacant lots and the piping sticking out of the ground.
The development was supposed to be a buyer's dream, full of upscale homes. It's been more of a nightmare for residents.
The project was ditched, half-finished by its original developer and sold to the Bank of America. The city was forced to use $76,000 in public funds to repair the private development.
Property values plummeted. Homeowners' hopes for a solution were crumbling along with the building.
WFTV asked officials with the Winter Springs Buildings Department what they planned to do to clean things up, whose going to pick up all of the stucco, and finally pave the gravel road.
Dr. Horton Inc. recently bought the unfinished section of the property.
"Now that Dr. Horton's involved, they'll take care of that and they said they'd get it finished first," Durnell said.
It's just a matter of time now before all the untreated wood is picked up, the lots have new homes and property values started rising again.
Dr. Horton Inc. is in the process of getting permits to start construction on the unfinished part of at Jesup's Reserve. They hope to have the entire complex complete by mid-2012.
WFTV
