Ontario-based CTN Developments will raze a 400-room hotel next to Kissimmee’s Old Town this spring to make way for a new Hilton flag hotel and 60,000 square feet of retail.
“We’re looking at starting construction in early April,” CTN Vice President Abdul Alshoghri told GrowthSpotter on Wednesday. “We’re going to tear everything down and then go straight into construction.”
David Buchheit, executive director of Osceola County’s W192 Development Authority, said he was ecstatic to learn that the county had issued the demolition permit this month.
“It’s exciting to have all of that come down,” Buchheit said. “It think it will help improve the look of the whole area.”
Alshoghri said the company is waiting for Hilton to approve architectural plans for the 140-room Home2 Suites hotel before applying for a building permit.
CTN has been planning for the last two years to raze the 31-year-old Roomba Inn & Suites and redevelop the 7-acre site. The company was awarded a $50,000 grant from the W192DA to produce the master plan.
It called for a multi-phase project that would include two hotels, a retail component, a tourist attraction and large pedestrian plaza linking all of the areas. The final project will be dramatically scaled down from the original vision produced by a county consultant.
“We’re not doing the attraction or the second hotel,” Alshoghri said. “But we are going to build the hotel and plaza all together in one phase.”
FEG is the project engineer, but CTN split the architectural work between two firms. Scott+Cormia is designing the hotel, and Metro Group’s Archenics took the lead on the retail design work.
The retail project consists of six multi-tenant buildings hugging the northeast corner of the property and continues on the eastern side along Holiday Trail, and further down the southern boundary of the property.
Alshoghri said the firm will be looking to hire trades in the near future, and is actively seeking retail and restaurant tenants.
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