New hotels planned near SeaWorld, convention center
Westwood Boulevard — a road that runs parallel to State Road 528 near the Orange County Convention Center and SeaWorld — is poised for new hotel development, with one grandiose high-rise concept recently granted approval and another, smaller-scale proposal in the early planning stage.
A 36-story, 1,000-room hotel and convention center under development by Orlando-based Skorman Construction and its affiliate Westwood Land Corporation received final approval on April 8.
To the east, just two parcels down, New York-based developer GFI Hospitality, LLC has sights set on a 274-unit Hyatt House concept.
With nearly 100 hotels around the world, Hyatt House hotels offer residential-style settings for extended stays, plus everyday comforts and 24-hour convenience, according to its website.
This is a departure from the developer’s original proposal for the 5-acre parcel.
In 2018, the developer announced its intentions to bring Orlando its first Le Meridian hotel.
The developer has since scrapped the 300-room Le Meridian plan, replacing it with the Hyatt concept. The application requesting the plan change was submitted to Orange County on April 15.
“We felt that a Hyatt House would be more appropriate for the market,” Joel Rosen, president of GFI Hospitality, told GrowthSpotter. He noted that the Hyatt name already appears on a large hotel next to the convention center.
Both of these hotel projects slated for Westwood Boulevard would flank the Tru by Hilton on opposite sides. Opened in September of 2020, Tru by Hilton has 259 rooms and about 2,000 square feet of conference space.
The not-yet-named Skorman-led hotel project would cover 995,000 square feet and rise 36 stories tall.
It would feature three restaurants, with one on the roof offering views of four theme different parks.
“You can be on the roof and see all of the fireworks” from theme parks, said Kevin Skorman, Vice President of Skorman Construction. “This is single-handedly the best piece of property in Orlando right now.”
Kissimmee to get distribution center
A newly formed development firm in Texas will enter the Orlando market this year with plans to build a major distribution center in Kissimmee at Florida’s Turnpike.
Constellation Real Estate Partners has a purchase contract and is seeking a zoning amendment to allow just over a million square feet of new industrial uses on 114.25 acres of undeveloped land right at the Osceola Parkway-Turnpike interchange.
The vacant land, known as the Ramona Mixed-Use Planned Unit Development, is owned by the heirs of the late Wendell “Jock” Spears, who was the original developer of the adjacent Walmart-anchored Gateway Commons shopping center.
The property spans both sides of Osceola Parkway and is divided among three parcels. The owners amended the MUPUD in 2019 to allow for a variety of uses, including additional retail,apartmentsandtownhomesandahotel at the interchange.
CREP has hired Poulos & Bennett for the latest application, which cites the proximity of the property to the turnpike interchange as a factor that makes it ideal for the proposed use.
“A successful warehouse facility of this size relies on a regional roadway network to facilitate the movement of goods throughout our state and the nation.”
The developer would build an extension of Bill Beck Boulevard through the property with a signalized intersection at Osceola Parkway, further enhancing the transportation network, according to the application.
Constellation was founded earlier this year by Jeremy Giles, a longtime executive with Prologis, and Hien Le, who spent 14 years as an asset manager for J.P. Morgan. The company closed its first deal in March in Houston, where it plans to build 426,000 square feet of speculative industrial product on 33 acres.
Osceola County has lagged behind other
counties in Central Florida as a market for large industrial developments, but it also has the lowest vacancy rate in the region at just 1.4 percent. A handful of new projects are underway that will make a dent in the category.
EastGroup Properties has filed development plans for the next phase of its Horizon West Logistics Park on Old Lake Wilson Road. That project, launched in 2020, is approved for 1.5 million square feet of Class A, shallow bay business distribution space.