After marketing the hotel site at Kissimmee’s Crosslands shopping center for more than two years, Tupperware found a buyer right before Christmas.
New Jersey-based Pinnacle Hospitality Group paid $2.65 million last week for the 3.5-acre outparcel at the shopping center’s Orange Blossom Trail entrance, about a half-mile from Tupperware’s corporate headquarters.
The land has an approved Site Development Plan and building permit for a six-story, 128-room hotel and 5,500-square-foot restaurant. Tupperware got the building permits approved for the hotel and restaurants in 2015 — before the county’s mobility fees went into effect.
Garry Hesselbacher, managing member of Pinnacle, told GrowthSpotter the property came with full architectural drawings for a new Hampton Inn.
“We hope to get started pretty quickly. We expect about a 14- to 15-month construction period, so we’re looking to open in early Second Quarter 2019,” he said. “All in, we’re investing about $18 million, maybe more.”
The permit for the restaurant has expired, but the hotel permit has been extended three times and now has a Jan. 31 expiration date, which means Pinnacle must initiate work in the next month or seek a fourth extension to avoid paying more than $800,000 in mobility fees.
The sale deed for the property carries multiple restrictions on use. It states that Pinnacle must build a 128-room hotel, and specifies that certain types of “female sex appeal restaurants” such as Hooters or Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery are prohibited.
Tom Roehlk, vice president of Tupperware Brands, told GrowthSpotter he added the restaurant restriction only because of the site’s close proximity to its corporate headquarters.
“We want something that’s appropriate for corporate use and more family-friendly,” he said.
Hesselbacher said the company hasn’t nailed down a restaurant user. “We have a couple of interested parties,” he said.
Roehlk said Tupperware executives are excited to have a Hampton Inn coming in at The Crosslands. “Now when we bring people in for meetings they can just walk across the street. They don’t have to stay all the way up at Florida Mall,” he said.
Pinnacle owns and manages just one hotel in the Orlando market now — the Country Inn & Suites on Universal Boulevard — after selling two hotel assets on International Drive in October for $24.3 million.
The Kissimmee land acquisition is the first of three hotel purchases Pinnacle expects to close before April to fulfill a 1031 exchange. The company has purchase contracts on another Orlando hotel and one in Tampa, Hesselbacher said.
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