Want to live where a mall used to be? Affordable apartments coming to this Florida area
A 140-apartment affordable housing complex is planned for the site of a former mall on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
According to paperwork filed with Manatee County Development Services, Desoto Apartments will be built on a 4.8-acre site on the north end of the DeSoto Square Mall property in Bradenton.
The complex will feature 33 one-bedroom, 65 two-bedroom and 42 three-bedroom apartments across two, four-story buildings, according to development records.
One-bedroom units have one bathroom, while the two- and three-bedroom units have two bathrooms.
An applicant’s annual income will determine the monthly rent payment at the affordable Desoto Apartments complex. The average monthly rent is $1,340 with the following range per unit size:
- $513 to $1,522 for one-bedroom units
- $606 to $1,816 for two-bedrooms
- $691 to $2,090 for three-bedrooms
CRJ Bradenton LLC, a company formed by Nashville developer Charles R. Jones and his daughter Lynn Golden, bought 58 acres of the DeSoto Square Mall property for $25.7 million, the Bradenton Herald previously reported.
The mall opened in 1973 and closed in 2021 after the previous owners filed for bankruptcy.
“We have plans for the whole site with the intent of developing it in smaller 8- or 10-acre parcels,” Jones told the Bradenton Herald in 2023.
Second apartment complex under construction
In 2024, Manatee County records revealed a 242-unit garden-style luxury apartment complex was planned for a 7.5-acre site southeast of the mall’s former Sears store.
That complex, called Madison Bradenton, is a Vero Beach-based Inlet Property Company project. According to Madison Communities’ website, the Madison Bradenton complex is under development.
The Desoto Apartments’ application filed was from The NRP Group, a real estate developer headquartered in Cleveland. The NRP Group previously held two other properties in Manatee County: Cirrus at Aqua and Aria at Bradenton. Those two properties are no longer under The NRP Group’s management, according to the company’s website.
Opening dates for both of the apartment complexes planned for the DeSoto Square Mall property have not been publicly announced.
