- February 17, 2026
After demands to show Palm Coast the public benefit, ICI Homes has announced that it will be donating its Easthampton development to a nonprofit that helps essential workers become homeowners.
ICI Homes' Nika Hosseini attended the Feb. 17 meeting to announce the offer to donate the property to FBH Community’s Homes Bring Hope program. Hosseini said should the Palm Coast City Council approved ICI Homes’ request for 71 residential units that approval would be contingent on ICI donating the development.
The Palm Coast City Council approved the application, contingent upon the donation, in a 4-1 vote. Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris was the only dissenting vote.
“It’s not in the best interest of the city,” Norris said. “It just adds to the total that are already in the queue.”
The idea stemmed from the Feb. 3 meetings’ demands for ICI Homes to show the public benefit. Hosseini said other jurisdictions are also looking for affordable housing for essential workers, veterans and first responders.
Easthampton, located just south of Eric Drive, north west of the State Road 100 and Belle Terre Boulevard Intersection, is a 37-acre development in the E Section that is owned by CP and HG Residential Lots LLC, a subsidiary of ICI Homes.
The development has the entitlements to build 58 homes but had applied to extend that to 71 homes, with lot sizes ranging from 5,500 square feet to 8,250 square feet.
In the Feb. 3 Palm Coast Council meeting, ICI Homes Vice President of Land Development Dick Smith told the council point-blank that it would be cost-prohibitive to build the approved 58 homes, which would each need to be sold at around $600,000 because of the overhead costs. The 71 entitlements would drop the costs to around $450,000.
But the council needed a public benefit. Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri also said the lots needed to meet Palm Coast’s minimum standards of 6,000 square feet.
On Feb. 17, ICI Homes offered their changes: instead of a minimum 5,500 square feet, they have the minimum 6,000 square feet. For public benefit, they added an open-space walking trail around the stormwater pond, connected to the internal sidewalk system.
And, to alleviate concerns about a future “break through” road being built to connect the E Section to State Road 100, ICI also confirmed a 1-foot, non vehicular access easement for Palm Coast along the south end of the property.
But the real public benefit offered is the donation of all 71 homes to FBH Community.
FBH Community is the Hosseini family’s nonprofit, Hosseini said, and through its program Homes Bring Hope, builds affordable homes for essential workers.
FBH Community founder Forough Hosseini said the homes are ICI-quality level homes, attainable at the lower costs through service, property and financial donations with local contractors and partners.
“It is not a stick home. It is not a cheap home,” Forough Hosseini said. “It is a wonderful, affordable home that your teachers, your veterans, your law enforcement officers would not be able to afford otherwise.”
Pontieri said this is how the city creates affordable housing opportunities without subsidizing the costs through taxpayers.
“This relies on a nonprofit to do what we don't want our residents to pay for,” she said.
Hosseini said the homes, once donated to FBH Community, could only be bought by essential workers through a restricted covenant placed on the properties.
Despite the offer from Hosseini and ICI Homes, almost none of the residents who attended the Feb. 17 meeting were swayed. Many were still adamantly against the smaller lot sizes and the additional 13 units.
Other residents questioned the logic of the proposal of ICI Homes was going to donate it and make no profit after just saying in the previous week that the request for more homes was to break even.
“If they're willing to give up their profit and donate this land,” E Section resident Greg Norton said, “then what's the harm of going back to the 58 houses instead of 71 houses?”
Nika Hosseini said the need for 71 homes is still to meet cost requirements. Even with the discounted services and prices, nonprofits still need to to close the gap on developmental costs.
“A nonprofit can't lose a significant amount of money, or they would...not exist as a nonprofit,” Nika Hosseini said.
FBH Community also has programs to educate and help those in need, Forough Hosseini said. Qualifying purchasers are charged as much as they are approved for in loans with as little as $500 deposits, she said.
“Had it not been for our program,” Forough Hosseini , “these families [would] have never become homeowners; 90% of our clients pay less in their mortgage than they paid in their rent.”
Pontieri said she felt “very disappointed” in many of the public commentors who said they did not want affordable housing in their community. These are firefighters, nurses, teachers and other essential workers can not afford to live in Flagler and Palm Coast, she said.
Pontieri asked, for those who say affordable housing doesn’t fit “us:” Who is us?
“Is ‘us,’ not our firefighters? Is ‘us,’ not our police officers? Is ‘us,’ not our teachers, is ‘us’ not our nurses? Is ‘us’ not the guys that we depend on to dig out our swales?” Pontieri said. “To me, that’s ‘us.’”
Pontieri said this is not low-income housing, but a way to support the frontline workers in the community.
“We as public officials have our community to look for ways to make our workers of this nature able to afford to live in our communities without costing our residents additional taxes,” Pontieri said. “I believe that we would be derelict in our duties to not move forward with this.”
