There's no shortage of websites and YouTube channels where "urban explorers" wander around in creepy-looking abandoned places. Abandoned factories. Abandoned hospitals. Abandoned amusement parks. In the Orlando area, their favorite place is the Orlando Sun Resort and Convention Center, which has been abandoned and in severe disrepair since it closed in 2012.
Unused for 14 years, the former 900-room resort attracts squatters and is a magnet for crime and fires. Photos and videos shot from the ruins show dilapidated buildings with missing doors and overgrown vegetation reclaiming swaths of the 77-acre property. It's the definition of "blighted."
Weirdly, the place is in a prime location. It's at the northeast corner of I-4 and U.S. 192 in Kissimmee, immediately south of Walt Disney World. It showed great promise when it first opened in 1972 as the Hyatt Orlando Resort. But years of mismanagement and a post-9/11 dip in tourism led it to shut its doors 40 years later. Since then, redevelopment plans have failed to materialize.
Now an experienced and deep-pocketed developer is taking a crack at it. South Florida-based Accesso Partners bought the property for $70 million and has plans to create a billion-dollar, master-planned, mixed-use entertainment district there called Ovation Orlando. They're talking about opening 670,000 square feet of "experiential retail," musical-themed restaurants, three hotels with 740 hotel rooms, and condos. Attractions are to include live music, comedy and even bowling, as well as nationally recognized dining and nightlife options. Hotel sites on the property are already for sale.
Aside from the famed Disney and Universal theme parks, the Orlando area keeps adding large, independently owned entertainment districts such as ICON Park and Pointe Orlando that seek to capitalize on the huge number of visitors to the area. Ovation Orlando would be the latest.
"Ovation Orlando's location at the intersection of Interstate 4 and U.S. 192 offers direct visibility in the heart of one of America's prime travel destinations and represents one of the most coveted development parcels in the region," says Bill Shewalter, Accesso's executive VP of development. "The site places the project at the center of Florida's tourism industry, where major transportation arteries converge to create true accessibility for the Orlando MSA's 75 million-plus visitors per year, as well as the local residents seeking to take advantage of everything the development will offer."
Based in Hallandale Beach midway between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Accesso is a commercial real estate firm with a portfolio of properties in Florida, North Carolina and Texas. It says it has 21 years of experience, $3.3 billion in managed assets and more than 18 million square feet developed since it was founded. On the Ovation Orlando project, it's working with a partner, Aventura-based Meyers Group.
Also, nothing in this world comes for free. Before Accesso closed on the purchase of the Orlando Sun Resort property, it negotiated a development agreement with Osceola County, which has long wanted to see this eyesore within its borders cleaned up and revitalized. Under the terms of the agreement, the county will reimburse the developer for $6.5 million in demolition costs. The county will also reimburse the developer for up to $10 million of tourist tax revenue over 20 years. The agreement also washed away more than $1 million in outstanding code enforcement fines on the property, reducing them by 90%. — By Mike Brassfield