Developer revives its Monarch tower plan
The longtime owner of a downtown site previously approved for a 24-story luxury condo tower filed a new master plan with the city of Orlando for a mixed-use residential tower with retail and a fullservice luxury hotel component.
The Monarch name and the height are about the only things that weren’t changed in the plan by The Jaymor Group.
The new plan calls for a luxury apartment community and fullservice lifestyle hotel with shared amenities and services. The initial concept, developed by Baker Barrios, allows for up to 380 rental apartments.
The hotel could be a boutique concept with up to 130 rooms or a national brand with 200 rooms. It will have a restaurant on the main floor and the roof level, meeting and banquet space, a spa and at least one pool.
The Toronto-based developer acquired the 0.9-acre site at 322 E. Jackson St. 15 years ago and has held onto the property as values around it soared.
“I never planned on hanging onto this for this period of time,” Jaymor President Fab Lucchese said. “It just seemed to work out that way. Our plan obviously was to buy the land and take it to development, and successfully sell it out as a condominium project back in the day.”
The Monarch project was shovel ready in 2006, approved for 179 condos with a small amount of ground floor retail use, when Jaymor pulled the plug on it just before the real estate market collapsed.
Oviedo project proposed
Atlanta-based commercial real estate firm Brand Properties wants to develop a mixed-use project in Oviedo.
According to construction plans recently submitted in the St. Johns River Water Management District, the developer is seeking to build an apartment community with up to 297 multifamily units and 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
Brand Properties is assembling about 12.4 acres of vacant land on the southwest corner of Clara Lee Evans Way and East Mitchell Hammock Road for the development. Currently, the five-parcel site is owned by four separate property owners.
The address for the project is listed as 264 E. Mitchell Hammock Road. The vacant site sits just east of Alafaya Trail, about 10 minutes directly north of the University of Central Florida.
The proposed apartment community consists of five buildings, with at least two featuring groundfloor retail fronting East Mitchell Hammock Road. Features include a dog park, clubhouse and fitness center.