Since Skorman Development acquired the six-acre property on Westwood Boulevard in 2017, Universal has unveiled a billion-dollar plan to build its third theme park called Epic Universe within walking distance.  Brightline is bringing its high-speed train service from South Florida to the Orlando International Airport by this summer. It plans to take riders from the airport to Tampa by 2030, with a proposed stop at the doorstep of Skorman’s future highrise hotel.

Earlier this year, Universal created an entity that would help finance an 11-mile leg of that route from the airport to the convention center.  The new Universal theme park and the future Brightline expansion are expected to give Orlando’s already booming tourism industry an added boost. And Skorman feels like he’s right dab in the middle of “the perfect storm with the perfect project,” he said.

According to a January report by the World Travel and Tourism Council, Orlando was the largest U.S. city tourism destination in 2022 with an economic contribution of over $31 billion, recovering above 2019 levels by $2.7 billion.  “The new Brightline expansion from the airport to Miami will now draw from South Florida’s millions of residents and annual visitors,” Skorman added in an email. “We anticipate hotel demand accelerating and the desire for new options, alongside the anticipated increase in conferences at the Orange County Convention Center, will make this hotel site uniquely situated to fill a market need.”  Skorman is expected in the coming weeks or months to announce which flag will appear on the hotel. There’s a lot of competition, he noted.  “I’ve had more excitement in the last two weeks on this project than I have in the last six years,” Skorman said. “Brightline and Epic Universe is huge for this project. Huge.”

The project, approved by Orange County in early 2022, consists of a 36-story, 996,000-square-foot hotel attached to a six-story parking garage with 1,000 spaces.  Designed by Atlanta-based architecture firm Smallwood plans call for 30,000 square feet of meeting space on the fifth floor and 70,000 square feet of meeting space on the seventh floor. A fitness center will cover 4,000 square feet on the fourth floor while 5,000 square feet on the ground floor would be reserved for retail space.  Jim Hall of HDSi led the project which included Kimley Horn as civils and Libra Design Group as LAs.

Plans call for three restaurants — one of 36,000 square feet on the ground floor, one of 900 square feet on the eighth floor, and another totaling 19,000 square feet at the very top of the hotel on the 36th floor.  “The 360-degree view of all theme park fireworks every night from the restaurant planned for the 36th floor is spectacular,” Skorman said. “This will be the best location in Central Florida for taking full advantage of the firework displays. Not even the Orlando Wheel can compete with the type of view that our customers would get to enjoy.”  Skorman said he expects to project to break ground in 2024.

The hotel is set to go up between Westwood Boulevard and S.R. 428, near I-Drive and across the street from Sea World.  SeaWorld hit revenue, net income and adjusted earnings records in its 2022 fiscal year. Its newest attraction, Pipeline: The Surf Coaster, is set to open later this spring. The ride simulates the experience of surfing by putting riders in a standing position and sending them through curves and a “‘wave curl inversion” at a top speed of 60 mph.

Meanwhile, Orange County is moving forward on a $700 million effort to add another 1 million square feet to its convention center. The space currently covers 7 million square feet overall and has 2 million square feet of exhibition space.

Epic Universe is on track to open in summer of 2025 on 750 acres and will have its own hotels onsite and adjacent to the park. Those include the 500-room Grand Helios hotel at the back of the park and a pair of sister resort hotels, the Stella Nova and Terra Luna, each with 750 rooms.

Hancock Lone Palm Road, off the south side of Colonial Drive just east of S.R. 408, has at least 268 single-family housing units in the pipeline across several projects led by different developers.

This street — near Waterford Lakes and Avalon Park — could be home to even more growth if the owners of a large piece of property were willing to sell.

Max Perlman, the vice president of land acquisition with Pulte Homes, told GrowthSpotter that he’s spoken to Ritchie and Linda Parker about acquiring their 15-acre piece of farmland.

“That family is just keeping the land,” he said. “We talked to them, and they weren’t ready to sell.”

Pulte, the nation’s third-largest homebuilder, bought 21 acres to the south of the Parker property in 2021 for $2.36 million. It’s building a 56-home subdivision here called Savannah Palms with lots as large as 70 feet.

Across the street from the Pulte site, KB Home is building a 37-lot residential community on the east side of Hancock Lone Palm Road called Lone Palm.

KB Home, the nation’s sixth-largest homebuilder, bought the nine-acre parcel in March for $2.3 million.

A few parcels to the south, Maitland-based CFB Homes snagged four parcels totaling 16 acres in December 2021 for $3.4 million. The company is moving forward on plans to bring Hancock Lone Palm Road a 75-lot subdivision called Palm Village.

According to the developer’s website, homes here will range in size from two to four bedrooms.

This property was previously owned by Carlos Rivera, a principal withCafe Construction & Development. Rivera secured all of the necessary approvals from Orange County before parting with the land.

“We bought that first piece of land there 21 years ago,” Rivera said. “It was too early back then to do anything with, but the timing is just right now with the market being the way it is. So that’s why we decided to move forward with this last year.”

A 100-unit townhome community with a dog park, a jogging path, and large pond could also be coming to the east side of Hancock Lone Palm Road.

Since March, Jim Hall with HDSi and civil engineer Dave Schmitt have been working on behalf of three property owners to prep the land for new development.

Application materials submitted to Orange County show that Shaw Hutto, a land developer with LPA Solutions, LLC, is under contract to purchase the four parcels totaling 18.5 acres.

The project took a step forward in April when the county agreed to rezone the land from its agricultural designation to a residential district. Hutto is currently seeking approval of a preliminary subdivision plan, which was submitted to the county on Nov. 22.

In August, the county submitted a letter advising the applicant of insufficient road capacity.

Renzo Nastasi, Orange County’s manager of transportation planning, said Hancock Lone Palm Road is one of several projects slated for a study to assess the potential improvements to the road.

“At this juncture, we don’t have specific details of what type of improvements may take place,” she said. “Those details will be clarified and defined within the context of the study. We anticipate starting the study sometime this summer.”

Hutto said he will work out a proportionate share arrangement with the county to make necessary improvements to Hancock Lone Palm Road to accommodate the added traffic.

Townhomes, which typically present a cheaper option than detached single-family homes, are in high demand across Orange County.

In Orlando’s scorching housing market of the past two years, many buyers shut out of the fight for single-family homes turned to townhomes, condos and duplexes, according to a recent study of residential real estate sales.

According to data from the Orange County Property Appraiser’s office presented to the county commission during its Aug. 30 meeting, homes across the county sold at an average price of $544,510 in 2021. Sixty-five percent of the transactions that year involved market-rate commodities. Just 4% of the home sales were for less than $300,000, according to the data.

The average sale price for townhomes across the county in 2021 was $331,873, according to the property appraiser’s office.

However, townhome production lags behind detached single-family homes and apartments locally, and Orange County leaders have stated a desire to see more.

The county, on average, processes permits for roughly 400 townhomes per year for the unincorporated areas of the county.

By comparison, the county has awarded permits for 3,176 multifamily units this year, as of late August.

Hutto, who also prepped the KB Home site for development, said that this stretch of East Orange County needs other housing options.

“To try to be in a more affordable range we felt like the townhome product was a better fit,” Hutto said.

He noted that several homebuilders have expressed interest in taking over the townhome project once it receives approval.

To a home builder, Hancock Lone Palm Road is just a good place to be, said Perlman with Pulte Homes.

Waterford Lakes, to the west, spans 840 acres with more than 3,100 homes. Avalon Park, to the south, covers 1,860 acres with more than 3,400 single-family units, 1,431 multi-family units, and more than half a million square feet of commercial space.

The area is also home to the campus of UCF, which sits to the north.

“East Orlando is attractive because of the robust job market surrounding UCF, Research Park and the various employers,” Perlman said, “as well as easy access to SR 417 and SR 50, which makes it a convenient location for people who work throughout the Central Florida area.”

Meanwhile, the west side of Hancock Lone Palm Road already has several completed subdivisions with Waterford Creek built by Mattamy Homes and Bridgewater, built by Park Square Homes.

Nearby, between Lake Pickett Road and State Road 50, Orlando’s first Agrihood community The Grow is moving forward with 2,078 residential lots and more than 100,000 square feet of commercial space centered on a working farm; also an HDSi project.