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Orlando: A Region United
The Counties at a Glance
• Orange County
Former Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings now is the county’s mayor, replacing Teresa Jacobs, who moves to chair of the Orange County School Board. Demings brings an obvious focus on law and order to the region’s most populous county and arguably the state’s hottest bed of activity. Orange County is home to the nation’s second largest university and convention center, an international airport growing by leaps and bounds, an emerging “medical city” and, generally, enough infrastructure construction to make your head spin.
Downtown Orlando offers a microcosm, where Mayor Dyer, fresh off the success of three mega venues (arts center, arena and stadium renovation) has sights set on creating a $1 billion public/private village on roughly 70 acres of prime real estate. Essentially, Creative Village will transform the former Amway Arena site into a mixed-use, transit oriented, urban infill neighborhood with an accent on education. Most notably, the University of Central Florida and Valencia College will open a downtown campus there in August 2019, with approximately 7,700 students.
Similarly, the nearby redevelopment of the economically challenged Parramore neighborhood brings further opportunities for growth, as does a nearly hatched pilot redevelopment initiative to address outdated shopping centers, involving tax rebates on properties of nine acres and more.
Meanwhile, corridors to the southeast and southwest — Medical City and International Drive, just to name two — appear to be broadening by the day.
• Osceola County
“We can’t wait for things to happen,” asserts Bob Porter, the county’s executive director of economic development and strategy, who cites a historical comparison to Seminole County of the early 1980s. Back then, famed developer Jeno Paulucci and his Heathrow community stirred the residential and commercial real estate pot, resulting in the arrival of the American Automobile Association’s corporate headquarters and related growth.
The same is happening in Osceola.
“The future is ours, and it’s almost a blank slate,” says Belinda Kirkegard, director of economic development for Kissimmee, the county’s largest city.
Both Porter and Kirkegard point to NeoCity, a 500-acre master-planned community envisioned as a global center for smart sensor, photonics and nano-technology research and development, and big data/predictive analytics with a potential long-term economic output upward of $28.5 billion, according to officials. At the center is BRIDG, a microelectronics fabrication facility seeking to bridge technology and capability gaps across multiple fields. It was established in March 2017 as a not-for-profit, public-private partnership with Osceola County and UCF.
Osceola, also home to the Florida Advanced Manufacturing Research Center, is positioning itself to be at the core of advancing technologies that will shape the future of automobiles, surgical devices, home appliances and other devices.
Additionally, while remaining rooted in tourism — ever heard of a place called the Walt Disney World Resort? — the county hopes to move forward on the wings of its airport. A fast fact from the aviation industry: A Boeing study shows that over the next 20 years, the industry will need 2 million new commercial pilots, maintenance technicians and cabin crew members.
Not coincidentally, in April 2018, the city of Kissimmee launched the Aerospace Advancement Initiative, encompassing incentive packages for aerospace businesses to complement aviation education at Kissimmee Gateway Airport, including Florida Aviation Academy, the first charter high school approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The “blank slate” is filling in.
• Seminole County
Buoyed by the arrival of AAA all those years ago, Seminole County continues to attract headquarters and substantial outposts, such as Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Scholastic Book Fairs, Sears Home Improvement Products, Verizon and Deloitte.
At the same time, ongoing expansion at the Orlando Sanford International Airport, along with its active foreign trade zone, has heightened the industry profile of aviation here as well. The airport is expected to handle 3 million passengers for the first time in 2018, an increase of 63% from 2008. Last fall, Seminole High School in Sanford introduced an aviation-maintenance program as a “direct reaction to workforce needs,” cites Tricia Johnson, chief administrator of the county’s Office of Economic Development & Community Relations.
Likewise, the recently formed Seminole Economic Development Education Network (SEDEN) meets quarterly, bringing together players in economic development and education. The goal is to support local industry by helping shape classroom curricula in environmental sustainability, manufacturing, hospitality, aviation and other important sectors.
The county’s biggest news, however, comes from potentially turning old into new. Parkside Place is being proposed at the site of Flea World, a popular stop since 1982 that closed in 2015. Plans were reviewed in October by the Board of County Commissioners. The details: 4,076 multifamily units; 752 student housing units; a 184-unit independent living facility; a 312-bed assisted-living facility; 1.39 million square feet of office space, 340,000 square feet of retail space; and a 250-room hotel. The anticipated time frame for the estimated $2 billion project is 12 years, with development work to possibly begin later this year.
Says Johnson: “The name of the game [in Seminole County] is redevelopment.”
