Developers planning futuristic community
Old Flea World plans include apartments and commercial space
A Fort Lauderdale company plans to build a futuristic community on the old Flea World property in Seminole County that promises high-rise apartment buildings with rooftop food gardens, landing pads for drone deliveries and machines that capture drinking water from the air.
It also has so many miles of pathways that the developer thinks residents will want to ditch their cars for bicycles or self-driving shuttle buses.
“This is very starry-eyed, future exciting stuff,” Seminole Commissioner Lee Constantine said at a recent county meeting. “It seems at some point we’re going to have the Jetsons running around here.”
Known as Parkside Place, the new development is slated for the now leveled, weed-filled 110 acres that recently was the site of what was long billed as “America’s Largest Flea Market” on U.S. Highway 17-92, west of Ronald Reagan Boulevard.
The proposed development would feature 4,828 apartments in 10-story high structures, 1.4 million square feet for shops, offices and restaurants, a 250-room hotel, an independent living facility along with parks and recreational trails, according to plans submitted to the county by Palmeira Holdings LLC.
Palmeira officials also are considering building a pedestrian bridge spanning busy U.S. 17-92 that would give residents access to the nearby Seminole State College and county government complex – that includes the criminal courthouse and Sheriff ’s Office.
“We want to create a new lifestyle,” said Karim Ismail, Palmeira’s co-founder and co-CEO. “Think of it as a pop-up town. We saw the ability to have life, work, play, shopping all together in one location.”
If development plans are approved by state and county officials, Ismail expects shovels will go into the ground in 2020 and the entire development completed in phases by 2032, “give or take.”
Attorney Hal Kantor of Orlando, who represents Palmeira told commissioners Parkside Place will be one of the largest development projects in the county’s history and generate annual property tax revenues of as much as $29 million. The construction alone could draw as many as 5,700
jobs, he said.
“This is something,” Kantor said. “This is something.”
Palmeira officials said the development will be constructed with as much as $2 billion of private equity from investors.
“It’s exciting to see that someone wants to plop that much money in Seminole County,” commission Chairman John Horan said.
Horan and other county officials pointed out that the old Flea World site was long earmarked by Seminole as a “catalyst development site” or an area for high-density development that would attract additional commercial growth to the corridor.
In fact, Seminole in February 2017 gave then Flea World property owner Syd Levy and his company 17-92 Five Points LLC $740,000 to help pay for bulldozing Flea World’s old vendor booths, go-cart track and ticket counters. County officials said it was a way to eliminate the old eyesore and encourage new development.
“It’s right at the center of our county,” Horan said. “We’ve been pretty religious about developing in areas where we have services, rather than in our rural area. It’s a plan that Seminole County has had since the early 1990s.”
County senior planner Danalee Petyk said Parkside Place is part of a larger trend among developers to create “walkable, city-like places” rather than the more common “car-dependent neighborhoods” in suburban areas.
Before it closed in 2015 and the rickety go-cart track was bulldozed, Flea World was one of Seminole’s main attractions.
Hundreds of booths offered bargains on just about everything — including $5 watches, camouflage pants, Fred Flintstone bobble heads, shock absorbers, kitschy portraits of Jesus painted on black velvet, and plates of greasy food as big as car tires.
There was an Elvis impersonator, a dentist to clean your teeth, a lawyer to give you legal advice and even an undertaker on hand.
Levy died Jan. 29 and the property was placed in a trust.
Rizwan Jessa, whose office is adjacent to the property, said he looks forward to the new development.
“It’s been an eyesore,” Jessa said of the site. “But I see a lot of positives [with Parkside Place]. It would rejuvenate the area. This would really bring in a wow to the whole area.”