Construction Begins on 201 New Rental Townhomes in Rockledge
Stellar Communities has begun transforming the former Rockledge Airport site into a 201-home build-to-rent neighborhood backed by $47 million in construction financing.
A former Brevard County airstrip is beginning a second life as housing.
Stellar Communities and its financial partners have broken ground on Stellar Townhomes at Space Coast, a 201-home rental community planned for the former Rockledge Airport property at 3795 Flypark Drive.
The nearly 22-acre site stopped operating as an airport in 2015. After years of uncertainty—and a substantially revised development plan—the old runway is now slated to become a neighborhood of build-to-rent homes.
From an airfield to 201 homes
The project is planned as a collection of two-, three- and four-bedroom townhomes rather than a traditional stacked apartment building. Earlier project descriptions also emphasized private outdoor space, one of the features that distinguishes many build-to-rent communities from larger multifamily complexes.
Stellar Communities acquired the property in 2025. According to Multi-Housing News, the developer has now secured equity from Lenox West Capital and $47 million in construction debt arranged by JLL Capital Markets.
The site sits less than two miles from Interstate 95 and U.S. 1, placing it within an easy drive of employment centers in Rockledge, Cocoa, Melbourne and the Cape Canaveral area.
The plan changed after public pushback
The townhome design was not Stellar's first proposal for the property.
An earlier plan called for a three-story, 318-unit multifamily development. That version drew community concerns and was rejected during the Rockledge approval process in late 2025. The developer returned with a lower-density plan containing 201 rental townhomes.
That history is an important part of the project. It shows that the development now moving forward is the result of a public review process rather than the first concept presented for the land.
The final project may still evolve as construction advances. Current public reporting has not established a first move-in date, final rent range or a complete list of amenities, so prospective renters should treat those details as pending until Stellar opens an official leasing page.
What it could mean for Brevard renters
Two hundred and one homes will not solve Brevard County's housing pressures by themselves. They do add a meaningful block of new rental inventory, including larger floor plans that may appeal to families or workers who want more space than a conventional apartment offers.
The project also puts a long-idle piece of property back into use. Former airport sites can be complicated to redevelop because of their size, previous infrastructure and surrounding neighborhoods. In this case, the final plan is trading runways and hangars for streets, yards and front doors.
There are still useful questions to watch as the work continues: when the first phase will open, what monthly rents will look like, whether any visual trace of the former airport will remain and how traffic will be managed near Flypark Drive.
For now, the clearest update is that financing is in place and construction has started. A property where planes stopped landing more than a decade ago is finally moving toward its next use.
Sources and useful links
Claire Szewczyk
Claire has called Florida home for a decade, but her love of the Space Coast goes back further — to the beat-up Kennedy Space Center coffee table book she found in a thrift store when she was five. She writes about the people, places, and history that make Brevard County great, and those stories are where Brightside Brevard began.
