Out-of-towners attending events at Osceola Heritage Park have had to look to the West 192 corridor, or Orlando, or elsewhere for quality hotel rooms.
The East 192 corridor has been clamoring for such accommodations for years.
Commissioners approved a plan to negotiate an agreement with Riviera Point Development Limited out of Miramar in South Florida to construct, own, and operate as many as four hotels in and around OHP.
The locations would be:
· On a plot that once was a retention pond just west of the Silver Spurs Arena, with a parking garage;
· South of U.S. 192 as part of a built-out NeoCity campus;
· Two smaller sites near 192 and Bill Beck Boulevard that would share amenities and a parking garage;
Riviera beat out a venture group out of Celebration, county documents show, based on a coordinated economic approach to managing all four hotel sites, a plan to tie hotel marketing to event marketing in the area that could lead to block booking of rooms, and incorporating the East 192 Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) standards.
Fully built out, the four hotels would provide 1,050 rooms, with an average room rate of $140-170 per night, provide over $2 million in Tourist Development Taxes and $150 million of tax-assessed value that would be worth $1.37 million in property taxes to the county. The hotels would add 1,785 new direct or indirect jobs.
Commissioner Peggy Choudhry pulled the item out of the consent agenda.
“This is exciting because a hotel has been asked for for many years because of OHP,” she said.
Commissioner Viviana Janer, named Chairwoman earlier in the meeting, said she had expressed concerns with what hotel company brands the new facilities and possible future de-flagging if the economy downturns, but voted to move forward.
“I’m excited to see this coming to East 192,” she said. “It’s going to benefit us all.”
