Unicorp National Developments is in lease negotiations with Dave & Buster’s to anchor its new shopping center at the World Drive interchange in Celebration.
The arcade-giant would take 40,000 square feet in Celebration Pointe, according to marketing materials the developer is circulating this week at ICSC’s RECon dealmaking conference in Las Vegas. This would be D&B’s second Orlando location, following its market entry in 2014 at 8986 International Dr.
Unicorp CEO Chuck Whittall told GrowthSpotter he has a purchase agreement with The Celebration Company, a Disney holding company, to buy the 21-acre site. The shopping center site is across Celebration Boulevard from the community’s high school, and it’s just north of the new 1,300-home Island Village in the works from Mattamy Homes.
The decision to go with the entertainment venue instead of a grocery store is a departure from previous plans for the site, but it would have to have received the approval from Disney, which still maintains tight deed restrictions and architectural approval in the master-planned community.
Walgreens would take the hard corner site at World Drive and Celebration Boulevard. Other named tenants include T.G.I. Fridays, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, AT&T Store and a french cafe, according to the marketing materials.
Dave & Buster’s has been in growth mode, having opened 15 new stores in 2018. The entertainment company that combines arcade games with sports bar and restaurant has already opened two new Florida locations this year in Daytona Beach and Fort Myers, and it announced plans for a Gainesville location. The publicly traded company reported $1.265 billion in total revenues for fiscal 2018, which represented an 11-percent increase from the previous year.
The Celebration Pointe site plan also shows a 400-key hotel pad with future parking deck, two available restaurant sites (each about 7,000 square feet), and two multi-tenant retail strips, each with potential for five tenants.
If Unicorp lands a hotel for the site, it would be the second new hotel project in Celebration. Mississsippi-based Heritage Hospitality Group will make its Orlando market entry with an $18 million Homewood Suites this year on Celebration Boulevard.
Mattamy Homes paid $15 million in 2017 for the first of three takedowns for Island Village, the fifth and final residential village in Celebration. The homebuilder is seeking mass grading permits for Phase 1A and for the new elementary school site. The builder will offer an entirely new product portfolio designed especially for Island Village. The first island would have a 300-unit apartment complex, 87 townhomes and 192 detached single-family homes on four different lot sizes: 70-foot estate lots, 55-foot and 40-foot rear alley lots and motor courts (each with four homes.)
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