Clarion Hotel plans call for ‘micro’ apartments
Another Orlando hotel is in line to be converted into an apartment community.
The latest redevelopment proposal targets the 50-year-old Clarion Hotel near McCoy and Conway roads, near the Orlando International Airport.
An entity affiliated with Delray Beach-based Lockwood Development Partners acquired the 399-room hotel in May 2021 for $17.1 million. Now, the owner has filed a land-use plan with Orange County seeking to rezone the 8.8 acres of property from C-1 to PD to allow the conversion into an apartment community with a maximum of 444 units.
For the Clarion, built in 1971, some of the units will be designated as “micro-units,” according to a land-use plan submitted by engineering firm Kimley-Horn.
“The existing hotel site is being converted into a multi-family development, which is intended to include a range of unit sizes, the minimum being 240 square feet,” the plan reads.
A unit smaller than 500 square feet will require a waiver from Orange County.
It’s the latest hotel conversion project in the pipeline for the Orlando area.
Austin LaPoten, vice president of hotel investment sales with CBRE, said it’s becoming a more common transition for older, under-performing hotels or motels.
The trend ties to the demand for more multifamily housing, he added.
Orange County alone needs about 55,000 additional apartment units by 2030, according to the Florida Apartment Association.
“I definitely see it as a positive for Orlando,”LaPoten told GrowthSpotter. “You have lowerend products that haven’t been renovated or haven’t performed being replaced with apartment complexes. Some hotel owners are making a land play for a better multifamily opportunity.”
Magic eye entertainment district next
With its new training facility open, the Orlando Magic are once again turning their attention to the long-awaited Sports + Entertainment District across from Amway Center, a $500 million mixed-use project that was shelved in 2020
at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Team President Alex Martins recently told the Orlando Business Journal construction could start in 2023 with a targeted completion date for 2025. Pat Gallagher, director of the SED told GrowthSpotter the team would be releasing more information in the next few months and declined to elaborate.
The team is expected to bring on a new development partner for the 8.4-acre project, which will impact the timing and schedule.
The Magic received city approval in 2020 for a multi-phased project that would include a 23-story
apartment tower, a 300-room hotel with 80,000 square feet of meeting space, 110,000 square feet of retail and a 420,000-square-foot office building, which would house the team’s permanent offices. Finally, a 2,500-space parking garage would be built around a pedestrian plaza that stretches diagonally across the length of the property.
The team and development partner may need to reassess the plans in light of other projects announced in the last year. For example, just down the street, Summa Development Group revealed that J.W. Marriott would anchor a new hotel and convention center, along with branded residences, in a 33-story tower at the corner of Church and Pine streets.
The development team will also have to decide whether to move forward with plans for the 18-story office building or scale back to something closer to the original plan, which called for about 200,000 square feet of office space. The Magic expanded the office building design before the pandemic. At the time, the team had hoped to start construction in 2020 and complete the first phase this year.
Sports and entertainment districts have fared well post-pandemic compared to other central business districts. The Battery in Atlanta broke attendance and sales records thanks, in part, to the Braves’ World Series run in 2021. In Tampa, the $3.5 billion Water Street district, home to the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Amalie Arena, is getting a new Ritz Carlton Residences tower and becoming one of the fastest-growing tech districts in the U.S.