Casselberry breaks ground on Terracotta Terrace 55-plus community

Casselberry added another 55-plus housing option to State Road 436 when officials and business partners broke ground on Terracotta Terrace at 1398 S.R. 436. The five-story project is planned for 152 units and is being built with amenities that include a pool, fitness center, theater, dog park and outdoor gathering spaces.

United Group of Companies said it secured construction financing from Amerant Bank for the development and described Terracotta Terrace as its sixth 55-plus active-adult community in Florida. The project is being positioned as a market-rate, luxury community with one- and two-bedroom apartments, penthouse floor plans, private balconies and patios, and about 12,000 square feet of amenity space.

That profile matters in Seminole County, where the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population at 494,605 in 2024 and said 17.3% of residents were 65 or older. The county also had a 66.2% owner-occupied housing unit rate and a median gross rent of $1,783, numbers that frame the pressure facing older residents who want to stay nearby but may be weighing whether to rent, downsize or age in place.

Terracotta Terrace will add supply, but it is not likely to be the kind of low-cost housing that quickly eases the squeeze for seniors on fixed incomes. Because the project is being marketed as market-rate and luxury, it appears aimed more at older adults with room in their budgets than at renters looking for the county’s cheapest options. That still gives Casselberry a meaningful new product in a market where age-restricted housing is part of the real demand.

The project also fits into Casselberry’s broader housing pattern along the Lake Howell and State Road 436 corridor. The city’s Community Development Department handles planning, zoning, development review, future land-use amendments, building permits and inspection of construction projects, giving local officials a central role in how new housing moves from proposal to reality. Casselberry has also already absorbed major multifamily growth, including Jefferson Apartment Group’s 384-unit Jefferson at Lake Howell delivered in 2020, while Summerloch Green remains an active 55-plus mobile home community in the city.

For Seminole County, the Terracotta Terrace groundbreaking is less about ceremony than supply. It signals that Casselberry is still courting new residential development for an aging market, even if the bigger question remains whether this kind of project broadens housing choice enough to matter for seniors trying to stay in the county.