Osceola County Commissioners have approved the sale of the county’s 25-acre softball complex in Kissimmee for $8.125 million.
Commissioners approved the sale to Orlando-based Elevation Development last week and scheduled the closing for Oct. 1, 2019. The site on Ball Park Road, just west of John Young Parkway, was listed for $9 million in January and marketed by Kissimmee broker Ken Baker.
Elevation Principal Owais Khanani told GrowthSpotter the firm was drawn to the site because of its prime location in the LOOP/Tupperware submarket. Incite Commercial Co. represented the buyer.
“There’s a lot of activity — all the growth in that corridor with much more coming,” he said. “The traffic counts are pretty strong, and the demographics are great.”
Elevation beat out an $8 million bid from North Miami Beach-based MAS Development, which has submitted a formal letter of intent with a proposal to build 520 multifamily units.
The company is wrapping up its Parkview project on W192 and has several other retail and residential projects in development throughout the region.
Elevation expects to retain Hanson, Walter & Associates for the master planning and civil work. They will seek entitlements for a mixed-use development to include 25,000-30,000 square feet of retail uses, up to 100,000 square feet of self-storage, a minimum of 750 apartments, a hotel and an assisted living facility. The height limits would be set at seven stories.
The county is rezoning the property to Urban Center Perimeter, in conjunction with its Land Development Code update. That use allows for all of the uses proposed by Elevation.
Khanani said Elevation has not conducted a market study to determine the demand for another ALF in the neighborhood. Providence One Partners just opened a new ALF a few blocks away.
“For multifamily, there’s still significant demand in this corridor,” he said. “There might also be an option to do some senior living. In the next four to six weeks, we should have a relatively good idea of what direction we’re going to go.”
Epoch Residential paid about $6.5 million for the property immediately west of the softball complex. That 74-acre site, located in the Kissimmee city limits, has approved plans for up to 788 dwelling units. Epoch broke ground this quarter on the first 296-unit Class A complex.
Osceola County Manager Don Fisher said the county has no immediate plans for replacing the softball complex. “That location is better served by some other type of development,” he said. “It was costing us about $1 million a year to keep it open.”
Commissioners declared the 5-field complex surplus in 2018; at the time, the county had committed $20 million in Tourist Development Tax revenues for an amateur sports complex on W192. The project fell through when the buyer/developer failed to close on the property.
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