Developers are honing in on Osceola County’s E192 corridor as they bank on future development of NeoCity to continue driving growth to the submarket.
In the last month, two have filed conceptual site plans with the county for a new apartment complex and a commercial center on the corridor near the Florida’s Turnpike interchange.
Jonathan Bell told GrowthSpotter he and a partner have a contract for the 6-acre site at 2225 E. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway with plans to build 224 luxury apartments. Bell is a vice president for ICN Homes but he previously worked for Winter Park Construction and Epoch Residential. He said the E192 deal is a side project.
The subject property was a former Ramada Inn that was demolished in 2014. It’s less than a mile to NeoCity and lies within the E192 CRA district. His initial concept called for a five-story building over a parking podium, but he and his planning team from Rj Whidden & Associates tweaked the concept.
The plan now calls for two four-story buildings with a mix of surface and structured parking, as well as on-street parallel parking.
“We’ve had an opportunity to put more of the design together, and we’ve added a parking deck to the property with 325 parking spaces,” Bell said. “We’re giving the county 47 feet on the front of the property so they can do on-street parking and a 10-foot wide sidewalk over to NeoCity.”
The larger building is U-shaped, forming a courtyard that will house the future 6,000-square-foot clubhouse and pool amenities. The developer also will be donating right-of-way along Simpson Road for the future widening of that road.
Bell said he’s still putting the development team together.
“We’ll be using a local architect, but we’re undecided on which one,” he said. “We’re starting to get proposals now.”
Bell also applied to rezone the property to Commercial Tourist. That application is running concurrently with the site plan review, so both should be headed to the county’s Development Review Committee by March.
Just east of the turnpike interchange, another developer has filed a conceptual site plan for 8 acres on E192 at Aeronautical Drive, next to Publix.
Kimley Horn‘s Jordan Draper submitted the plans on behalf of the property owner for a 4,200-square-foot Heartland Dental office with an attached 2,530-square-foot restaurant use and a stand-alone QSR with drive-thru. JLL’s Jared Ettinger is the leasing agent and has secured a national Mexican restaurant for the QSR, according to the leasing brochure.
Osceola’s DRC approved the conceptual plan. The project comprises three lots in the Partin Village PD and has Commercial General future land use.
It’s just across Partin Settlement Road from the Fish Lake PD, which also has a pending plan for a new apartment community from Fore Property Group. Aeronautical Drive will be extended through the Fish Lake property and curve over to the Cross Prairie Parkway.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261, or tweet me at @byLauraKinsler. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
