New York-based Skyview Companies would pay $2.74 million for 13.7 acres in downtown Kissimmee’s Medical Arts District and pledges to invest up to $200 million in new construction under terms of a master development agreement headed to the City Commission on Tuesday.
The agreement lays out the schedule and phasing for the redevelopment of the Beaumont site, which spans a total of 23 acres south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The vote comes more than a year after the city selected Skyview after a competitive bidding process based on their pitch to deliver an urban-style mixed-use project with housing, offices and commercial uses.
The city would retain 6.3 acres for public infrastructure (including new streets, sidewalks, drainage ponds and a public park) and would contribute $5.9 million for their construction. A little more than half of the public funding would come in the form of a 15-year tax rebate from the city’s Downtown Community Redevelopment Area.
The plan breaks the project up into three phases, with development beginning at the southern portion of the site in 2022. Skyview has proposed a 4-story “double-donut” style apartment building with ten two-story carriage-style units, each with its own tuck-under garage. The estimated budget for Phase 1 is $60 million.
“This is going to be a Class-A property with full amenities,” consultant Mario Farias said. “They wanted an urban-style development, and that’s what we gave them.” He noted that the first phase of the project is surface-parked, but Phases 2 and 3 would utilize structured parking.
The Phase 1 apartment amenities would be located in the two central courtyards, while a dog park is located in the southwest corner of the site. The total number of units in Phase 1 is 358, and the building would front Aultman Street. The initial design differs from the concept presented in 2020 in that it eliminates the ground-level retail uses and structured parking in Phase 1 and it scraps the fee-simple “garden homes.”
Design and construction of Phase 1 and the infrastructure for all three phases will begin in 2022, with Phases 2 and 3 commencing at a later date within one to three years. Phases 2 and 3, which will front on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, will include higher density mixed uses to include additional multi-family housing, offices, and supportive retail estimated at an additional $140 million worth of investment by Skyview.
“We will be completely done with the project in five years,” Farias said. If the developer is able to land a hotel partner, that would come in Phase 3, he added.
The project schedule allows six months for design and permitting, with closing on the Phase 1 portion slated in April 2022 and construction starting in May. Farias said Skyview needed to wait for the approval of the master development agreement before embarking on the next level of design work.
The Beaumont property is just south of Osceola Regional Medical Center, making it ideal for medical office use. The city bought the property from Osceola County in 2017 for $4 million with the goal of bringing market-rate housing and urban-style mixed-use development to the site.
The company is known for projects like Sky View Parc in Flushing, New York. The Kissimmee project is the company’s first in Florida and would be followed with new projects in the Tampa Bay market, Farias said.
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