City officials want to demolish another vacant former apartment building to make way for new affordable housing, but they say acquiring the property might prove challenging.
Titusville Planning and Growth Management Executive Director Courtney Barker has her sights on a 38-unit, two-story multifamily building at 1350 S. Deleon Ave., which the city is working to condemn.
Because the property at one point was converted to condominium units, it has 35 owners, so acquiring the building on the 2.55-acre site could be “extremely difficult,” Barker said.
Using federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds, the city earlier this year tore down a nearby vacant apartment building on a 2.16-acre site at 1520 S. Deleon Ave., called Inspiration Point. It hopes to work out a deal with a developer to put affordable housing there.
Barker thinks demolition at 1350 S. Deleon Ave. would make both sites more attractive for private development.
The Rev. Glenn Dames Jr., senior pastor at St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church, told the city council he supports Barker’s plan, which is designed to lead to new affordable housing for the neighborhood.
“I am excited about the opportunity to revitalize a neighborhood that already is on the rise,” said Dames, who also is president of the North Brevard branch of the NAACP. “This is a wonderful opportunity to clean up Titusville. It is the new hope of the community.”
Barker said 1350 S. Deleon Ave. — also known as Deleon Village — is blighted, uninhabitable and “severely dilapidated,” missing many windows and doors, and needs “to be removed to make any revitalization project in the area successful.”
