ORANGE COUNTY, FLA. — In an effort to create connectivity and commerce in the western Orlando area, Boyd Development Corporation is under way on development of “Town Center East,” a mixed-use project with an expected investment of $940 million, located within the Horizon West area. According to the Orange County Government, Horizon West is a 23,000-acre special planning area located in southwest Orange County.
In mid-July, Boyd and Stratford Land, a Dallas-based land investment firm, closed on approximately 600 acres of property in Horizon West situated on the northeast and southeast quadrants of the Western Beltway (SR 429) at the New Independence Parkway interchange. Once the initial planning phases are complete, Boyd/Stratford plans to position the property as a master-planned, mixed-use project. The land, which is bordered on the east by Lake Hancock, has more than two hundred acres of residential land with approximately three miles of lakefront.
An aerial view of the land to become Town Center East in the Horizon West area of
southwest Orange County, Fla.
Town Center East will be built out in phases over the next 7 to 10 years as a mixed-use development with retail, office, hotel, institutional and lower, medium and higher density residential, along with parks and public spaces to create interconnectivity within the development.
“We’ll work to brand the project and give it an identity such that it will become a destination for the southwest side of the metro area,” says Ken Kupp, partner with Boyd Development Corp. “There is a blend of various uses to be developed on the site to provide new retail opportunities, professional services and restaurants for the community in addition to a range of housing opportunities spanning from lakefront homes to higher density projects.”
Overall, in addition to the residential entitlements, there is room for more than 1.5 million square feet of office, institutional, educational, hotel and flex-office as well as 325,000 square feet of retail.
“This mixed-use development will create not only construction jobs, but also, more importantly, permanent jobs for the region,” says Kupp.
Today, nearly 18,000 residents live within the area east of the SR 429 and New Independence interchange, the focal point of the development. According to Scott Boyd, president of Boyd Development Corporation, by the time Town Center East is fully developed, the population in the immediate market area is projected to increase three to four times.
Currently, road improvements are under way to create better access to the site, and indeed, the entire submarket. Boyd Development is working with Orange County to secure the road agreements necessary to extend New Independence Parkway and North Porter Road. These additions to the existing road network will provide residents with improved access to the Beltway.
“This project is the culmination of two-and-a-half years of work with this development group to provide much needed connectivity throughout the area and onto SR 429 for thousands of residents in west Orange County,” said Orange County District 1 Commissioner S. Scott Boyd (no relation to Scott Boyd of Boyd Development).
“Demand will result from the interconnectivity that the new roads will provide all of Horizon West to the New Independence Parkway Interchange as well as the integrated nature and quality of the development on site,” adds Kupp. “New traffic flows will result in opportunities to develop retail projects, and the adjacency to and exposure from the Beltway coupled with an excellent housing stock will also encourage office development as well as institutional uses. Easy access to the freeway will allow the residential components of the project to flourish as well.”
After completion of the road network, expected by the end of 2012, development on the site will begin immediately.
“The project is the lynchpin to kicking off the long awaited town center in Horizon West; it’s been talked about for 15 years, and it provides a number of benefits to the local and regional market,” says Kupp. “The project will create the true live, work, and play environment that Horizon West was always intended to have, and the acceleration of adjacent development as well as the development in Town Center East itself will create a new tax base for the county, expected to be in excess of $800 million.”
— Dan Marcec