Flagler Commissioners Increasingly Nervous Over Long-Delayed Phoenix Crossings Affordable Housing Project

Phoenix Crossings is a planned 28-unit apartment complex on North Bay Street in Bunnell for young people aging out of foster care and for very low-income individuals and families. It’s the first project of its kind in Flagler County. It’s the work of Abundant Life Ministries and Sandra Shank, its CEO. 

“It’s the first of its kind. It is our first try at this, so we’d like to see it succeed,” Commissioner Greg Hansen said. Commissioners Andy Dance and Leann Pennington are no less enthusiastic. 

They’re also all getting terribly nervous about it.

The project has been in the talking stage since 2023. Not a grain of sand has yet turned over on the 8-acre property. Two groundbreaking dates last summer and fall were postponed. 

Abundant Life, a nonprofit, got the bulk of the $11 million project cost appropriated through the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, the state agency that underwrites affordable housing projects. 

The nonprofit has had to pursue several extensions to close on the funds from the corporation, the last one granted a few weeks ago, if deceptively so: Abundant Life Ministries claimed to the corporation that it had received approval from the County Commission to amend the county’s portion of financing through the State Housing Initiatives Partnership known as SHIP. 

That is not true. 

Three county officials, without an Abundant Life Ministries representative among them, appeared before the County Commission only yesterday to ask to restructure the SHIP grant, a $500,000 contribution by the county for the project, $170,000 of it part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act known as ARPA. The federal government distributed ARPA funds to help local governments weather the Covid downturn. Both ARPA and SHIP dollars have restrictions and spending deadlines. Since Phoenix Crossings is late, the county’s agreement must be rewritten to keep the money eligible. 

Assistant County Attorney Sarah Spector–one of the three officials appearing before the commission at a Monday workshop–told the commissioners that a rewrite of the agreement was important in part to remove a “cloud” from hanging over the closing, now scheduled for no later than April 30. 

“They noted several delays in their project development and completion, and hence have requested the extension,” Joe Hegedus, the county’s director of health and human services, said. ARPA funds had to be spent by June and are not eligible for an extension. Hegedus said all but $20,000 of those funds were spent on permitting and such pre-development matters, so the money will not be lost. 

That’s not what Pennington is worried about. She’s worried about the whole project going “sideways” and the spent funds being lost. 

“This is now, to me, a risky project,” Pennington said. “I’d like to know how we plan on recouping ARPA funds should it not go through?” She added: “As much as I love the project, love the person behind the project, you tell me how we’re going to recoup our funds securely if this doesn’t go through.” She may not approve the new agreement when it is submitted to the commission in two weeks unless the county has the ability to secure ARPA funds, through a lien or other means. “Those things will influence my final decision at the actual meeting,” Pennington said. 

“I don’t think my support has changed,” Dance said. “But I am curious that we have gotten to a point where we have enough time to complete the project,” Dance said. 

“I 100 percent can understand that,” Shank, in an interview today, said of the commission’s nervousness. “It is a process you have to understand.” She said the delays have been unexpected. “It’s definitely been a minute, especially when you’re dealing with state and fed funding. It’s not the same.” But she said she expects the closing to be imminent, and the apartment complex to be ready for occupancy in September 2027. 

“I’m grateful for the support of the county commission, the school district, the city of Bunnell, so it seems like an insignificant amount,” she said of the $500,000 local contribution, “but it’s also what they said, the relationships are vital.” 

The county had three years to spend the $330,000 in SHIP funds awarded Phoenix Crossings. That money won’t be lost if it is not spent in time on Phoenix Crossings, County Housing Program Manager Devrie Paradowski told the commissioners. It can be shifted to other projects. A new SHIP agreement with Phoenix would make that unnecessary. 

“How did this happen? This was planned years ago. I’ve heard this going on for, I want to say, about four or five years, this project alone,” Commissioner Pam Richardson said. “How have they gotten their direction on getting through this and still not in the maze?”

“They have legal counsel that was not involved back when we were doing our financing,” Spector said, referring to the Nelson and Mullins law firm handling the closing. “So had that legal counsel been involved, he would have been able to say, you need to put the brakes on the county financing. Meanwhile, we were hearing this needs to be done yesterday, so that’s why we were pushing it through.” Phoenix Crossings also has the services of Flagler Beach attorney Dennis Bayer, who handles local land use issues for the nonprofit. The Bunnell City Commission approved a rezoning for the 8 acres only last June, after initially rejecting it in the face of some public opposition. 

“Have we looked at the construction schedule? Is there a GC that’s been hired?” Commissioner Andy Dance asked, referring to a general contractor. “Have you looked and verified that this is viable to be completed in the remaining timeline?”

“That’s a good point. I don’t believe we’ve seen all of that information from them, no,”  Hegedus said. “Thinking back on what they provided us, I don’t believe so. We can request it, of course.”  

“We need a timeline. We need to know that they can get this done,” Hansen said. 

There is, in fact, a general contractor, Shank said–Park and Eleazer, based in Clearwater. The firm is still committed to the current project cost, Shank said, despite worries about inflation. “We have a full team. We meet every Monday, we’ve been in the closing process with all of the attorneys,”  Shank said. 

The administration will bring back a new SHIP agreement for the commission’s approval in two weeks.