ORLANDO, Fla. — Officials with the Creative Village affordable housing project in Orlando say they are having to make cuts due to rising construction costs.

The mixed-income housing project, called "The Beacon at Creative Village,” was originally set to have 194 units, but developers say they will have to cut 88 of them.

Oren Henry has lived in Orlando for a decade and says he’s seen the growth and the increase needed for cost-effective housing. Now he’s working on various housing projects with the city.

"We wanted to make sure with this new development that there was housing and that it was affordable for our citizens," Henry said. "There’s a lot of market-rate housing, but we wanted to make sure the people that lived in Parramore still had access to affordable housing."

Henry is talking about the Beacon at Creative Village. Back in 2021, the city approved a 194-unit mixed-income affordable housing apartment project. But now, with the rise in construction costs, the developer is cutting 88 units.

"We’re always looking for more opportunities to add more units," Henry said. "You start out when you look at a project a lot of the times it works, but sometimes it doesn’t. A lot of the time it depends on finance — in this case it was an issue with the financing."

Henry told Spectrum News that while there will be fewer units available for this project, the city continues to maintain current affordable housing projects, as well as look for additional opportunities to add cost-effective living areas.  

Henry said the city is working on some new affordable housing projects within Orlando, which will be announced at a later date.

Spectrum News also reached out to Creative Village about cutting the units, but have yet to receive a response.