Plans are in the works to build three apartment complexes and as many as 91 homes in De Soto across from the city’s Athletic Complex.
Platinum One Properties, owned by Adam and Autumn Johnson, purchased 53 acres of undeveloped land at 801 Vineland School Road for $592,000 from the city of De Soto in 2024.
The city purchased the land in 2017 for $280,000, with the intent to use it for a park.
“Due to the topography – it’s kind of a gradual slow hill like everywhere else in De Soto – it wasn’t very good for building new fields, so the city decided to put it up for sale,” City Manager Todd Melkus reminded the City Council on July 20.
This March, the De Soto City Council approved a zoning change from M1 (light manufacturing) to R4 (multi-family housing) and then, on July 20, the council unanimously approved the Johnsons’ subdivision request.
Adam Johnson expects the project to be completed in four phases, beginning with the construction of three 24-unit apartment buildings and then three phases of home building.
He said he hopes to break ground on the apartments this fall. He said those will be higher-end apartments.
“There are no nicer apartments in De Soto,” he said. “They’re all HUD or government-assisted stuff. De Soto deserves it.”
Johnson hopes to start building houses in the middle of next year.
“There’s just nothing in De Soto right now as far as a big development,” he said. “I wanted to stay in the city because they’re so much easier to work with as far as restrictions and regulations. They work with you. They want progress.”
Johnson said there are 91 home lots along Vineland School Road, but that number could be lower “depending on how we do our stormwater detention.” He said he is unable to say what price range the homes will be at this time, but they will be above starter homes.
The Johnsons built Platinum Hill Estates on Armbruster Road just outside De Soto.
“It was the highest per acre sold in the ZIP code, which was $14,000 an acre a couple years ago, which was kind of unheard of at that time,” he said. “It was higher-end homes.”
In other business, the council unanimously approved the donation of property from Chris and Katherine Meyer at 421 Deno St., which is in the floodplain.
Melkus said the house is in poor condition.
“They asked me about remodeling the structure and after I explained that they would have to meet the floodplain requirements (which includes elevating the property), they asked if it would be an option to donate the property to the city,” he said. “I informed them that I would have to get approval from the council to accept the property and that we would then demolish it to remove it from the floodplain. The house is in very poor condition so I do think it would be a benefit to the city to have it removed.”