GrowthSpotter | Published July 6, 2020

Homebuilder D.R. Horton is under contract to buy a 545-lot subdivision on Osceola County’s Alligator Lake, and it’s one of three residential projects that could add thousands of homesites to the Hickory Tree Road corridor in the coming years.

Snow Construction owner Nick Gross received site development plan approvals in 2014 for Buena Lago and completed the mass grading of the community, but the project stalled after that. It was initially approved for for a mix of townhomes and single family homes built around a 31.4-acre internal lake with its own beach and clubhouse. The lot sizes ranged from 100-foot estate lots on Alligator Lake to 75-foot internal lake lots, and 60-foot lots fronting on the existing state managed canal that connects Alligator Lake to Lake Gentry. A boat lift to the canal that would provide access to Alligator Lake was grandfathered in with the SDP.

In 2017, Osceola County Commissioners enacted an ordinance restricting marinas and boat lifts on the Alligator Chain of Lakes. In June D.R. Horton filed an amended SDP for Buena Lago that eliminates the boat lift and private docks, a move that should appeal to Commissioner Fred Hawkins Jr., who lives on Alligator Lake and was the main driver of the ordinance.

Gross said with the mass grading completed, D.R. Horton should be able to start construction as soon as the deal closes later this year.

Meanwhile, the Winter Park developer who paid $12 million last December for the 500-acre Triple H Ranch property, which abuts Buena Lago, is seeking a Large Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment to change the future land use from Low Density Residential to Community Center. The application applies to 201 acres of the ranch property, according to county records.

The LDR future land use and zoning allows a density of 3-8 dwelling units per acre, but the Community Center designation would establish a residential density of 8-18 units per acre – with a minimum density of 18 units per acre in the center’s core. It also would require a mix of retail and other non-residential uses.

Douglas Partners CEO Douglas Hoeksema, who heads the family investment group that bought the ranch property, could not be reached for comment. The Hoeksema family followed its $12 million investment with several more acquisitions of neighboring properties for a total of $3.54 million. Those purchases expanded the family’s holdings by another 100 acres.

Clyde Wells, an agent for Maury L. Carter and Associates, represented Hoeksema on the $12 million acquisition. He said the family did not have immediate plans to develop the site.

“The plans were to buy it as a hold for a while, but he was going to go ahead and get moving on some of the entitlement work,” Wells said. “He’s certainly not in a rush to get it developed. The utilities are still quite a ways away.”

Meanwhile, a third development is in the works on Hickory Tree Road just south of the Nolte Road intersection. Jordan Companies President Thomas Jordan had an approved preliminary subdivision plan for Hickory Tree Reserve, a 14.5-acre townhouse development across from the Twin Lakes retirement community. A county-initiated CPA changed the future land use to community center, which allows the townhomes but also requires a portion of the property be set aside for non-residential use.

Jordan met with Osceola’s Development Review Committee last week to go over the revised plan before submitting it. The new plan would designate 2 acres closest to the intersection with Nolte for a commercial use, and the number of townhomes was reduced by 20 units, to 114. The project would include an east-west road linking Hickory Tree Road to Old Hickory Tree Road.

Jimmie Wells, an engineer at Jordan Companies, said the plan is to put the project on the market once the entitlements are approved.

Source: https://www.growthspotter.com/news/osceola-county-developments/gs-news-hickory-tree-20200706-t22cqxoetrcurdyc6zrymazwte-story.html#nws=true

Groundbreaking may begin in mid-2021 on a roughly $1 billion redevelopment of the long-struggling Orlando Fashion Square mall northeast of Maguire Boulevard and Colonial Drive near downtown Orlando.

That’s according to Chuck Whittall, president of Orlando-based Unicorp National Developments Inc. which owns the roughly 46 acres of dirt beneath Orlando Fashion Square along with Orlando-based Maury L. Carter & Associates Inc. The mall, which opened in 1973, was in its prime in the 1980s and ’90s, but since has seen a decline.

Currently, the development team is negotiating with Philadelphia-based The Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: TBBK) whose related TBB Orlando LLC owns the mall’s improvements, or the buildings above the dirt. The development team must buy those buildings before it can start construction.

The mall itself appears to be 40-50% vacant, Whittall said. “Discussions have been good,” Whittall said. “I don’t think bank wants to keep it.”

A Bancorp representative wasn’t available for comment. But Orlando Fashion Square appears to be losing value, according to a May 11 Bancorp filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “The March 31, 2020, balance of other real estate owned includes a Florida mall which has been written down to $15 million. We expect to continue our efforts to dispose of the mall, which was appraised in September 2018 for $16.9 million,” according to the filing.