Gainesville’s long-awaited Heartwood subdivision, on Southeast Eighth Avenue just south of Hawthorne Road, has its first model home and planned construction may allow dozens of families to move in by this time next year.
The neighborhood was originally a housing project funded by a federal program dating back to the Kennedy administration, hence its former "Kennedy Homes" name, said Daniel Gil, a project manager with the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area.
Over the years, the project fell into disrepair and had to be shut down in the early 2000s due to code violations and damages from a fire, he said.