Floridays and JV partner buy hotel site near outlet mall, seek lender & GC options

Sarasota-based Floridays Development Co. and a Michigan-based partner paid $2.65 million on Dec. 1 for a 2.42-acre lot near Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets, where they plan to build a Holiday Inn & Suites.

The developer is now considering lenders and general contractors in anticipation of a Second Quarter 2017 groundbreaking, a partner with the company told GrowthSpotter on Monday.

First reported here on July 7, the planned six-story, 144-key hotel would be based on the southeast corner of Lake Street and Regency Village Drive, a block east of the outlet mall and directly north of the Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel that Floridays built in 2015 and opened this past January.

Mount Pleasant, Michigan-based Lodgco Hospitality is Floridays' joint venture partner on the new hotel, and will manage the property.

The developer is now producing construction documents with MILES Architecture Group, and hopes to have those completed by late March 2017, said Floridays' Steve Mullen.

That will be followed by construction permitting with Orange County, all of which Mullen now estimates will push the construction start to late Spring or early Summer 2017, back from an initial First Quarter estimated start. The hotel's Development Plan has been approved by the county.

"We're only delayed at this point by the current backlog of our own work with Lodgco on two other hotels (in Sarasota) that are scheduled to open in March and April, so this is a self-imposed delay," he said. "We're still very excited obviously about the (Regency Village Drive) project."

Total investment in the new Holiday Inn should top $21 million, Mullen estimated. The developer is beginning to talk to lenders for a construction loan, which will likely be sought at 70 percent loan-to-cost, and is fielding general contractor proposals.

Seller of the 2.42 acre-parcel was an LLC affiliate of Wayne J. Hilmer Sr., founder of Orlando-based Touchrate Solutions. He has another 10 acres directly south of this site under contract with plans to subdivide for hotel and retail developers, GrowthSpotter reported on Oct. 13.

Over at 2800 Destination Parkway, Floridays is also developing 2.33 acres as a five-story, 117-key Home2 Suites hotel as a joint venture with Vista Host Hotels.

The JV affiliate bought that site on Aug. 17 for $1.5 million, closed on a financing agreement last week with Pinnacle Financial Partners, is awaiting construction permit approvals from the county and firming up numbers with a GC, Mullen said.

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