The Jacksonville Armada’s half-year of ownership limbo is nearing an end.

The Times-Union has learned that the North American Soccer League is expected to conclude a deal, to be announced Tuesday, to sell the league-owned club to the Robert Palmer Companies.

A league executive confirmed that the NASL is helping to "facilitate an ownership change" and that the new ownership group was "committed to staying in Jacksonville."

Palmer, 37, is the chief executive officer of RP Funding, a direct mortgage lender based in Maitland, just north of Orlando. He would become the second owner of the Armada, which was founded in July 2013 and began NASL competition in April 2015.

A native of Lakeland, Palmer owns a home in Neptune Beach and served as a member of the Jax Chamber board of directors in 2016. He is also the host of a radio show, Saving Thousands, and heads several other businesses related to the real estate industry under the Robert Palmer Companies umbrella.

Armada chief operating officer Marshall Happer confirmed that a "major announcement" is coming Tuesday, but declined to elaborate further.

Ryan Julison, an Orlando-based spokesman representing the Armada, also confirmed the club would make an announcement Tuesday but did not discuss specific details.

Palmer, however, has already updated his Twitter profile, which now pictures him in an Armada shirt and holding a stuffed version of the team mascot, Squid Vicious.

At Wednesday night’s spring season home finale against Puerto Rico FC, multiple Armada fans noted that representatives of RP Funding sponsored refreshments for the pregame tailgate party of fan club Section 904, building connections with the fan base.

The Armada has been run with funding from the NASL office since January, when original owner Mark Frisch sold the franchise back to the league. The team had incurred heavy financial losses during its first two years of play, including significant expenses in converting its former home of the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville from baseball to soccer and back.

The club has since moved its home games to the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium, drawing an average of 3,044 fans in its eight home games in 2017. That’s a decrease of about 13 percent from last year.

Despite severe budget limitations, which have sharply reduced the club’s front office and forced head coach Mark Lowry to field the smallest squad in the league, the Armada has posted its strongest campaign to date in the NASL’s spring season. Jacksonville is in third place, pending the results of this weekend’s concluding round of games.

Palmer has recently grown his involvement in professional sports.

Earlier in 2017, he became a founding partner of basketball’s Lakeland Magic in the G League, the NBA’s developmental circuit.

He also reached an agreement in May for arena naming rights at the former Lakeland Center, now the RP Funding Center, a deal reportedly worth $5 million.

Palmer has also spread his business footprint from central Florida into Jacksonville in recent years, including the opening of an RP Funding office in the Baymeadows area.

A purchase would resolve some of the uncertainty surrounding the Armada as well as the eight-team NASL. The league, which nearly collapsed at the end of 2016, is seeking to stabilize and expand to at least 12 teams to bolster its chances of retaining Division II status with the United States Soccer Federation.