Xentury City fielding offers from multifamily developers for Disney-area land

Xentury City, the Saudi-owned mixed-use development that is home to the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center, still has over 200 acres of prime, construction-ready land near Disney with entitlements for thousands of hotel rooms.

But it’s an assemblage of four parcels east of the S.R. 417 off-ramp that is generating the most interest these days. Xentury City CFO Dimitri Toumazos told GrowthSpotter he is evaluating multiple offers for the 38.7-acre site from developers looking to quench the demand for apartments close to the Disney parks.

“I just received another one two days ago,” Toumazos said. “We didn’t do an offering — it’s just all been word of mouth.”

The land is north of the former Publix store, which was purchased by Osceola County in 2018 for a future Sheriff’s Annex.

Toumazos said the team is trying to determine the value of each lot along the planned Holiday Trail extension. The parcels vary in size from 4.5 to 16.9 acres, and prospective buyers have conceptual plans that also range in density, from about 25 units per acre to 30 units per acre.

He said the property is attractive, not only for its generous entitlements, but also because the master developer has already completed the stormwater system for the entire area, so any new development requires no on-site retention.

Aventura-based Landmark Companies, which recently completed the Dolce Living Royal Palm community in Kissimmee, is among the bidders.

Kimley-Horn’s Jared Stubbs represented Landmark on Wednesday during a pre-application meeting with Osceola County’s Development Review Committee. He was looking for guidance from the county on current entitlements and the status of the Xentury City Development of Regional Impact (DRI). He also sought clarity on whether a new residential development would require a PD amendment before filing a Site Development Plan.

Xentury City’s parent company is a firm called Xenel International. Xenel, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is a billion-dollar multinational corporation dealing in real estate, oil, gas and other industries.

CBRE is marketing the entire 280-acre site for Xenel.

Osceola County approved the first DRI for the project in 2004. It has entitlements for another 4,000 hotel rooms, 500 timeshare units and 400,000 square feet of retail space. The Holiday Trail parcels are already approved for 520 multifamily units, and Xentury City has the ability to convert some of its hotel or timeshare entitlements for more dwelling units.

The tourism corridor continues to be a strong market for new class-A apartments with new projects being delivered every few months. Unicorp National Development has two luxury rental communities under construction, The Bentley and Glass House, at O-Town West. Kettler is wrapping up construction on its Delamarre apartments in Celebration.

Fore Property Company just opened its 352-unit Westerly apartments next to Flamingo Crossings, and Bainbridge Companies is under contract for 16 acres of vacant land at 14051 International Dr. with plans to build a new 342-unit apartment community called Bainbridge World Center.

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.