Vacant site near Kissimmee’s Old Town to be redeveloped

Four years after demolishing the old Roomba Inn hotel on W192, Ontario-based CTN Developments is slowly moving forward with a plan to redevelop the 7-acre site in the heart of Kissimmee’s tourism corridor.

CTN Vice President Abdul Alshoghri told GrowthSpotter the company is still waiting to get final permit approvals for the long-planned Hilton Home2 Suites hotel. The 142-room extended-stay hotel has been in the works since 2018, but Alshoghri said the permitting process has taken longer than expected. In June, CTN reached a drainage fee agreement with the Reedy Creek Improvement District for a stormwater retention system for the project.

Last week, executives with Jamison Commercial Partners received site approval from Osceola County’s Development Review Committee for a pair of buildings on the 2.1 acres fronting on U.S. Highway 192. Elliott Jamison told GrowthSpotter his firm is under contract to buy the retail lots, but first the property needs to be subdivided and replatted.

The approved site plan calls for a 13,000-square-foot medical/retail building and a quick-service restaurant with a drive-thru that exits onto Holiday Trail. The site plan approval was just for compliance with the county’s W192 design guidelines. The applicant still needs to file site development plans after the property has been subdivided.

Meanwhile, CTN is considering multifamily housing for the remaining 2.19 acres of the property. The developer has requested a pre-application meeting with the county to discuss plans for a 7-story mixed-use residential building with a 4-level parking garage and retail on the ground floor.

Nobu Hotel Orlando gets going for ’25 debut

Years after securing land along Interstate 4 directly across from Disney theme parks, a global hotel and restaurant chain co-founded by actor Robert De Niro and a world-renowned Japanese chef is set to enter the Orlando market.

Nobu Hotel Orlando is expected to open by 2025, according to a news release posted on the company’s LinkedIn page.

But the company, which has 14 locations nationwide, including one in Miami Beach, has yet to submit development plans to Orange County for approval, and it’s unclear when that required first step will be taken, according to hotel spokeswoman Isabelle Quinn.

“The company has yet to disclose the information, we are not yet aware of the exact timeline,” Quinn told GrowthSpotter in an email.

Details about the project can be found in a news release published in late June — in which the future Orlando location was announced — and on the company’s website.

The Orlando resort will feature 300 rooms including eight villas, a Nobu restaurant, 50 stylish residences, and meeting and event space, the website says.

The chain is known for blending modern luxury living with minimal Japanese tradition. It’s an upscale hotel product that should receive a warm reception in the Orlando market, said Austin LaPoten, vice president of hotel investment sales with CBRE.

“I think this would do extremely well in Orlando,” he said. “I definitely think the brand fits. Overall the type of boutique property and the type of rates that Nobu would demand I think works really well with Orlando. On the luxury end, Orlando’s hotel market has proven to be very successful.”

He noted the success of other high-end resorts in the tourist area, such as the Four Seasons Resort Orlando, where rooms come to about $1,200 to $1,500 per night.

“There used to be this thought around Orlando that it was a rate-cap market, but I think the performance at the Ritz-Carlton and the Four Seasons have proven that to be false,” LaPoten said.

The plan to offer Nobu branded residences also builds on the success other hoteliers, such as The Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons, have had with the same concept. J.W. Marriott will also be offering branded residences within its new hotel tower in downtown Orlando.

The site of the future Nobu Orlando is accessible from Meadow Creek Drive and has frontage to the north on I-4, to the west on the World Marriott Resort’s golf course and to the east by Starwood’s Vistana Resort.

Founded by chef Nobu Matsuhisa, Robert De Niro, and film producer Meir Teper, the first Nobu Hotel opened in 2013 as a boutique hotel within Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas.

Since then the brand has opened properties in Miami Beach, Chicago, Malibu, London Shoreditch, Ibiza Bay, Palo Alto, Marbella, Los Cabos, Barcelona, Chicago, Warsaw, Riyadh, and London Portman Square.