Orlando-area commuter rail line draws developers

A 19-month-old commuter rail service in Central Florida is attracting new developments along its 61.5-mile line connecting Orlando to northern suburbs.

The SunRail system runs 36 train trips per day, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays, from Orlando to satellite cities as far north as DeBary and Sanford.

Developers are building hundreds of new apartments and advancing other projects at locations near the SunRail line, which extends north from Orlando to Winter Park, Altamonte Springs, Longwood, Maitland and Lake Mary.

Next to the SunRail station in Maitland, for example, Epoch Properties has city-approved plans to build an 293-unit apartment building. Farther north, in Altamonte Springs, Picerne Development plans to build 102 two- and three-bedroom apartments about a third of a mile from the SunRail station there.

In DeBary, at the northern end of the SunRail line, a development company headed by Charles Lichtigman, owner of Charles Wayne Properties Inc., plans to develop a card room and horse track near the city’s SunRail station.

In addition, a 208-unit rental development called Weston Park is under construction near the Longwood station, and contractors are building Station House, a 200-unit apartment building, near the Lake Mary station.

According to its website, SunRail is set for a Phase 2 extension of its service and rail line to five additional cities, including one north of Orlando and four to the south. [Orlando Sentinel] — Mike Seemuth