More on Orlando Glades
Orlando, Fla., officials tout development plan as vital to convention center The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Nov. 10--On land once considered an environmental wasteland, a former Universal Studios executive and his partner are building an unusual $1 billion resort that could transform the area around the Orange County Convention Center.
The developer of the 1,800-acre project expects it will more than double the number of hotel rooms near the convention center in the next five years.
Tourism officials have long blamed a loss of convention business on the lack of nearby hotels. They said the project would give much-needed ammunition in battles against other large convention cities such as Las Vegas and Chicago.
"It's vital. What those folks are planning is just vital," said Tom Ackert, convention center executive director.
What they are planning is this: a major business-traveler-focused resort -- working title "Orlando Glades" -- with a unique naturalist twist. Once complete, current plans call for more than 10,000 hotel rooms, more than 6,000 condolike rental units and high-end commercial development that would sit on the doorstep of the convention center. Currently, 7,600 hotel rooms sit within a mile of the center.
And, in something uncommon for Orlando's high-energy tourist corridor, they plan to install working agriculture as a backdrop -- small orange groves, horse and cattle ranches -- and large wetland areas for kayaking and fishing.
They also are planning to build a center promoting the region's high-tech industries.
The resort will showcase the "past, present and future" of the region, said Marc Watson, the Orlando developer who is spearheading the project.
He expects it to be 85 percent complete by 2009, though he said some parts would open by October 2005. County land rules could allow for theme parks on the property, though Watson would not say whether they were part of his plans.
The project, which the developers estimate at between $1 billion and $1.2 billion, will rise on land once owned for decades by Lockheed Martin Corp. and its predecessors. The defense contractor used the land to store and assemble anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.
When they sold the property in 1998 to Universal Studios for about $79 million, they left six dumps on the property, containing barrels of industrial sludge, explosive materials and contaminated groundwater.
Universal immediately sold part of the site -- 230 acres -- to Orange County for the new convention-center complex and later sold land to Hyatt and Hilton for future hotels, the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort and Shingle Creek Golf Club, and the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management.
Universal had considered building a new theme park on the property but abandoned those plans -- in part, to avoid pouring more than the $30 million already invested in an environmental cleanup of the property.
In December it sold the property to Watson, who had been in charge of developing the site for the theme-park giant, and a partner, Atlanta shopping center and retail developer Stan Thomas, for an undisclosed sum that one source estimated to be $70 million. Orange County land records show their company has a $64 million mortgage on the property.
In total, Watson estimates his company -- Fourth Quarter Properties XLIX, LLC -- will have spent $100 million to scrub the land of chemicals, clean up the groundwater, create new wetlands and install roads and sewers by 2010.
The company is working with other developers and hoteliers to complete the project. In the past year, it has sold about 110 acres adjacent to the new convention center for more than $94.5 million to Intrawest Corp. and Pulte Home Corp.
But it's unclear whether the development will proceed on the time schedule Watson laid out. For example, Watson is counting the Hyatt and Hilton projects in his hotel-room count. But after Sept. 11, 2001, both companies put on hold plans to build on their sites. A spokeswoman for Hilton said Tuesday that the project was still on hold, and a Hyatt representative could not be reached for comment.
The land has been at the center of a tax dispute. In 2002, Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan pushed to strip an agricultural exemption that he said cost the county $1.4 million in taxes, arguing that pine trees grown on the property were not bona fide agriculture. Watson disagreed. An Orange Circuit Court judge ruled against Donegan in July, but the case is on appeal.
The land sits in unincorporated Orange County, but Watson is in advanced talks with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer to annex the land into the city. "This is a world-class project, and we want to be a part of it," Dyer said.
The annexation discussion has nothing to do with the agricultural tax case, Watson said. Because the property will be high-density, he said the city was better-suited to provide the necessary level of police, fire and other services.
If the annexation goes through, Donegan estimated it could cost Orange County government -- and give the city -- nearly $120 million in tax revenue during the next six years.
County Chairman Rich Crotty and Watson are expected to meet today to discuss the annexation. Crotty said it would be easier for the project to be built in the county than the city, though he would not offer specifics late Tuesday.
"This looks like a financial land grab" by the city, Crotty said.
