Could clause in EA’s lease set up a move to Orlando?

Leadership of downtown’s Creative Village says it is targeting digital media companies

Electronic Arts could break its lease in Maitland as early as Oct. 31, 2021, thanks to a clause added five years ago, potentially setting up a move to Creative Village downtown.

To do so, the video game developer would need to provide notice between nine and 12 months in advance and pay a termination fee of $1.85 million, according to its lease.

If it does not, the company also has the option of doing so by Oct. 31, 2022, for a lease that expires Oct. 31, 2025.

Creative Village project leaders have said that they plan to target digital media companies – and video game makers, specifically – as tenants in what is expected to eventually be a $1.5 billion project downtown.

Electronic Arts officials would not comment.

Creative Village leaders, meanwhile, said no deal is imminent with Electronic Arts.

“They have been a target for downtown for 10 to 15 years,” said Craig Ustler, president of Ustler Development Inc., the team behind Creative Village. “But they are not specifically a target any more than anybody else. There is nothing specific to announce but, of course, anyone of EA’s type and scale is a target. We have wanted them here but there is nothing behind door No. 3 right now.”

In 2004, Electronic Arts turned down a $36.9 million incentive package to anchor a digital media center downtown. That same year, the Legislature approved $4.2 million to help launch UCF’s video game school, the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, which has its offices and classrooms near Creative Village.

Last week, Electronic Arts’ Maitland-based Chief Operating Officer Daryl Holt said the company has been discussing the future of its Central Florida offices.

“We are in the midst of real estate planning, but we’re not making any announcements about those plans today,” he said.

Electronic Arts has been the highest-profile video game company in Central Florida since it acquired the small, 52-employee Tiburon studio in 1998 for an undisclosed sum. EA now employs more than 700 in its 128,000-square-foot

RICARDO RAMIREZ BUXEDA/ORLANDO SENTINEL Creative Village will be home to a cluster of video game companies. Electronic Arts sits squarely on leaders’ target list.