A developer is preparing to break ground on a $170 million, mixed-use project with a variety of vacation home offerings and a commercial component in Osceola County’s Four Corners area near Disney.
Urban Network Capital Group, which is headquartered in Mexico but has a U.S. office in Miami, will begin work soon on its Visions Orlando resort and spa project on 42 acres off Osceola Polk Line Road.
Why this matters: Large mixed-use projects such as Visions Orlando can have a catalytic effect on their surrounding areas, attracting further development and investment, especially given its proximity to Orlando’s tourist corridor. Meanwhile, the four-phase project will offer opportunities for contractors, workers and suppliers during its construction.
Visions Orlando will include four segments, according to a spokesperson and the development’s website:
- Illusions, which features 48 single-family vacation homes with seven- and eight-bedroom floor plans that begin at $799,000
- Reflections, with 132 vacation townhomes with five- and six-bedroom floor plans that begin at $629,000
- Inspirations, with a 181-unit condo-hotel with one- and two-bedroom condos that start at $235,000
- Dreams, the project’s fourth of four phases, includes 70,736 square feet of retail space, 252 loft units above the retail space and a parking garage.
The expansive project will rise on land north of Osceola Polk Line Road, about three miles east of its interchange with Interstate 4 and the ChampionsGate development.
Osceola County records show the developer assembled the six parcels Visions Orlando will rise on in four separate transactions totaling $3.5 million between January and August 2022.
Robert Thorne, a veteran developer and the CEO and founder of Urban Network Capital Group, said the resort hotel community will be distinctive with eco-friendly and wellness-oriented amenities and upgrades available for all of the project’s offerings.
He also stressed his belief that his group is not approaching this as a vacation home rental development so much as what he termed a “horizontal hotel.”
“What makes the difference for our investors that are buying the units is that this is a hotel project where we have vertical and horizontal units,” Thorne told Orlando Business Journal. “We’re going to have a central check-in building where you drive up and drop your luggage off; you’re going to have a concierge. That’s very important and that’s why this project has been successful.”
RECOMMENDED
Thorne also said the distinctive architecture of the project will be another key differentiator in Orlando’s marketplace.
“There is no competition when it comes to design. Orlando has a very conservative longterm architecture, where all the projects are almost alike — their philosophy is that if it’s not broken, why fix it? We did a market study and the market told us people are looking for new design and contemporary design.”
The initial phase of Visions Orlando is expected to break ground in July or August and will focus on the project’s single-family and townhome components.
The condo hotel component is anticipated for delivery in the second quarter of 2024.
Investors for the project include Peru-based V&V Group, along with private investors.
The Orlando office of T&G Constructors is the general contractor.
The project is prequalified for a “Disney partner” designation, meaning it will be a participant in the Disney Good Neighbor program for hotels and the Disney Vacation Home Rental Program, as well.
The designation allows the concierge for Visions Orlando to buy tickets to Disney’s parks on behalf of its guests.
The project will ramp up amid an improving environment for tourism and travel in metro Orlando.
For example, Orlando International Airport had 5.35 million international passengers, a 225.37% spike from 1.64 million for the same 12-month window in 2021. The air hub’s November 2022 12-month rolling traffic reached 49.7 million passengers, up 29.82% from 38.28 million passengers for the same time the previous year, said airport data.
Adding to that, Visit Florida President and CEO Dana Young said last week that the number of overseas travelers to Florida during the fourth quarter topped 2 million — the highest such quarterly figure since the last three months of 2019, when 2.6 million overseas tourists came to Florida.
In all, Florida had about 7.02 million overseas visitors in 2022, up 73% from 2021 but 28% below the 9.801 million in 2019, the new quarterly estimate indicates.
Orlando remains one of the top destinations nationally and globally, said Justin Williams, general manager of the Grand Bohemian Hotel Orlando.
“We have learned quite a bit from the pandemic and have become all the better from it. Orlando’s outlook for 2023 will see modest growth compared to 2022, with much of that growth coming in Q1,” Williams told Orlando Business Journal.
News Source: Orlando Business Journal