I-Drive’s ICON Park maps out plans for complex
Details include 2 hotels, retail and entertainment venue
ICON Park, which has grown dramatically since beginning operations in 2015, could see more expansion in the coming years, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.
An application filed with Orange County on Tuesday revealed plans for a 409-seat entertainment venue, two hotels, and three proposed retail locations totaling over 38,000 square feet.
The plan hints that Orlando Slingshot could be leaving the park a year after the ride operator and ICON Park settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of Tyre Sampson, a teen who fell to his death from another thrill ride at the park in 2022. The company dismantled the Orlando Free Fall drop ride in 2023.
The majority of the retail is proposed for two lots on the northwestern corner of International Drive and Via Mercado. One location, on the site of the Orlando SlingShot, would have 1,500 square feet of space, while an adjacent retail building to the north would hold 31,000 square feet.
An additional 5,827 square-foot retail space is proposed for the ground floor of a parking garage at the northern edge of the Icon Park Property.
The two hotels, with a total of 550 rooms, are planned for a pair of parking lots off of Universal Boulevard on the eastern edge of the park. The northern parking lot would hold a 325-room hotel, while the developer would construct a hotel with 225 rooms on the southern parking lot.
While there aren’t many specific details on the hotels, the plans indicate that there would have to be 367 parking spaces in parking decks located underneath the hotels, and that the buildings could rise to a maximum height of 450 feet.
The hotels are part of a future phase and aren’t part of the latest development application submitted to the county. The main component of that application is an entertainment venue.
The application doesn’t specify the use or layout of the venue, but a site plan indicates that it will be a one-story building built at the base of the Orlando Eye, formerly known as The Wheel at ICON Park.
On Monday, Merlin Entertainments purchased and renamed the Orlando Eye, which they previously owned from 2015 to 2018. The company also owns Madame Tussauds Orlando and the Sea Life Orlando aquarium, both located within ICON Park.
Representatives from ICON Park were not immediately available to comment on the plans for the proposed entertainment venue, or who will own and operate the facility.
Other existing entertainment options at ICON Park include the 7-D Motion Theater, an interactive 7D gaming experience, virtual reality venues Max Action Arena and In The Game Arcade.
Various companies, such as Merlin Entertainments, own and operate individual locations with ICON Park, but Flag Luxury is behind the larger project. In 2012, the developer purchased the nearly 19-acre property for $33.1 million, three years before the park officially opened.
Unicorp National Developments filed the first development plan for ICON Park, then known as I Drive Live, back in 2013. The original plans were similar to the current layout and plans, except for the now proposed entertainment venue.
There are several hotels located adjacent to ICON Park. The closest, a Marriott-branded Element Orlando Universal Blvd., opened in 2020 directly north of the 325-room hotel that is proposed for one of the parking lots on park property.
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