Developers behind an effort to bring a mix of residential, hotel and retail offerings to prime real estate on the doorstep of Walt Disney World continue to fine-tune their plans with county officials.
GrowthSpotter reported in September that Ohio-based Silver Hills Development had its sights set on two properties, at 13725 and 13775 S Apopka Vineland Rd./S.R. 535, located on the shore of Lake Bryan. At the time, the developer and landowners — Lake Bryan Development, LLC and affiliated company Daneta LLC — filed a preliminary review item in Orange County seeking to discuss the feasibility of their mix-use development vision.
The initial Development Plan was submitted to the county in February. But before things can move any further, the land use for the property needs to be changed.
This week, the same project leaders submitted a land use plan request to Orange County in order to iron out those necessary zoning and entitlement details.
The property currently holds entitlements for 1,186 hotel rooms. The application, filed by engineering and planning firm VHB on behalf of developers, is asking to convert a chunk of those entitlements into apartment units and commercial usage.
In total, the application requests an allowance of 332 multi-family units and 5,300 square feet of commercial space. The proposed equivalency matrix would require a tradeoff of about two-thirds of the entitled hotel rooms, which would leave the developer with a balance of around 400 rooms.
The developers are also seeking a waiver for the property regarding height restrictions. The application is asking for apartments as high as eight stories, or 150-feet tall.
Early site plans mention a 295-foot tall hotel, covering a minimum 6,000 square feet. The project, titled Lake Bryan Condos PD, would be built out in multiple phases, with each phase having sufficient infrastructure to stand on its own, according to site plans.
The land is approved for only hotel and retail uses. The land use plan needs to be amended to allow for the proposed multifamily use.
“The submitted development plan will not be able to move forward until the land use plan is amended,” county officials wrote in an April 20 report.
Silver Hills development has been seeking a zoning switch to “Activity Center Mixed-Use,” which would allow hotel/resort, condominiums, timeshare, assisted living, commercial, retail and entertainment.
A site plan submitted to Orange County in February includes renderings of a eight-story mixed-use apartment building with an attached parking garage.
The parcels, totaling 14.4 acres, have long been marketed as a potential development site after a previous attempt to build an upscale condo-hotel floundered.
Principals with New York-based Azzurra Development hoped to deliver Planet Hollywood International’s first luxury brand ph Premiere resort on the site. For unknown reasons, the project stopped before any shovels were placed on the ground. Fortune International Realty, the brokerage assigned to pre-sell condo, cut ties with the project, and deposits were returned to early investors, GrowthSpotter reported.
Azzurra Development’s CEO, Lorenzo Fragala, is still involved in this property. According to Florida’s division of corporations, he’s the registered agent for both companies that own the parcels: Lake Bryan Development, LLC and Daneta LLC.
Daneta LLC purchased the parcel at 13725 S Apopka Vineland Rd in 2014 for $2.1 million. The property is currently occupied by a former Shell gas station and plaza. Lake Bryan Development acquired the adjacent vacant property in 2005 for $7.9 million.
Fragala did not return emails or phone calls seeking comment.
Silver Hills Development is led by Seth Mendelsohn. He also couldn’t be reached for comment about this project.
This isn’t Silver Hills first foray into Orlando’s tourism district.
In 2020, Mendelsohn and co-developer Edwards Communities broke ground on the first phase of a 540-unit apartment project just off Universal Boulevard. The partners paid $9.1 million for the property at 5885 Lakehurst Dr. last year.
On the other side of Lake Bryan, luxury multifamily developer ContraVest recently completed its 266-unit Addison on Lake Bryan multifamily community at 12570 Splendid Place. The developer paid $7.5 million to acquire the 14-acre property in 2019.
Nearby, on the southern shore of Lake Bryan, Orlando-based Primeland Development has plans to build its own Sycamore-branded hotel/condo resort community. The proposed 382-unit condo-hotel resort features three buildings ranging between six and eight stories in height.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)420-5058 or dwyatt@GrowthSpotter.com, or tweet me at @DustinWyattGS. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
