Unicorp owner hopes to build 13 homes on Butler Chain

SOUTHWEST ORANGE – Real estate on pristine lakefront property usually comes at a high value, considering its high demand and scarcity — more so if located on the Butler Chain.

But the $18 million price tag of a 16-acre property located west of Hubbard Place and east of Lake Tibet-Butler wasn’t enough to discourage Chuck Whittall, owner and president of Unicorp National Developments Inc.

Whittall, whose company has built about 100 projects in Central Florida, including the Dellagio Town Center in Dr. Phillips, the Orlando Eye and the upcoming Westside Shoppes in Windermere, submitted a future land use request to Orange County to build 13 single-family homes on the 16-acre property — one of which he aims to live in himself.

“This is a somewhat small project for our company, but I got involved in it because I thought it was a great piece of property, and I would personally like to buy a home on it, as well,” Whittall said. “So I’ve got a very vested interest to make sure it turns out very well.”

Whittall’s request — as he explained during a community meeting held Nov. 29 at Dr. Phillips Elementary School — is to change the property’s current designation from rural/agricultural to low-density residential. 

Although a designation of low-density residential technically would allow 52 homes, he plans to stick to his proposal of 13 homes to preserve as many trees as possible and maintain the property’s natural beauty. 

“The trees are what makes the property so beautiful, so we do want to save the trees,” he said. “Most of them are around the perimeter of the property and we can’t mess with that area anyhow, so those will remain. But yes, we’re going through extensive preservation measures because these are 150-year-old oak trees, and they add to the allure and beauty of the property, so I think it’s important for us to keep them.”

Area residents who attended the community meeting inquired where the new children would be zoned and what would be done about traffic. 

Whittall said because he only plans to build 13 homes, he expects any addition to traffic would be minimal and does not believe there would be enough school-age children generated to negatively impact the zoned school’s capacity. However, he is willing to work with Orange County Public Schools if it comes to that, he said.

To date, Jones Clayton Construction has been chosen as one of the homebuilders for the yet-to-be-approved community, and Unicorp is in discussion with Windermere-Based Stonebridge Homes. 

“Our goal is to make it the nicest, the most luxurious residential property in Central Florida,” Whitall said. “We plan to put brick roads and have super plush landscaping, the street lights are being made in Venice, quality homebuilders for quality homes — we’re going to build the best of the best.”

The first public hearing in front of the Orange County Board of County Commissioners is anticipated to take place Jan. 23, 2018, with the second public hearing scheduled in June.