Just east of Orlando’s major attractions like Disney World and SeaWorld sits roughly 600 acres of gross land and 260 acres of contiguous land for development. Located in Orlando’s Shingle Creek, the development is prime for investors to help bolster and enhance the area’s booming tourism industry.
“It’s a few miles from the magnets like the theme parks and shopping centers. Orlando is a top tourist destination in the United States,” explained Marc Sirkin, senior advisor at Engel & Volkers Miami, which is managing and marketing the property. “It’s taken some time for this particular land to get assembled. Over 100 owners have had to agree, assemble, and aggregate to put this together. It’s ready for visionary developers and investors to seize the potential.”
Whether Shingle Creek is poised for hotels, timeshares, condos, or offices, Sirkin said it’s his job to facilitate and bring the right people together among the several interested parties. Having combined an MBA with a real estate license, and having achieved the area’s highest price per square foot for a luxury residential real estate building earlier this year, Sirkin is in a unique position to do just that.
“Ultimately the master developer will determine how to divide up the area, but the goal is to accommodate the myriad potential entities,” he said. “The project needs to get the right people at the table.”
Regardless of what the development entails, one of the primary goals is to maintain Shingle Creek’s natural beauty, said Norman Shabel, attorney with his namesake firm, serving as co-counsel with William Moore to represent the over 100 owners of the land. Roughly half of the land mass will remain undeveloped.
“We’ve been working on this project for over 20 years,” Shabel explained. “It benefits not only the owners and developers, but all of Florida. We want the project to be a celebration of natural beauty and the attractions there.”
Orlando remains the most visited destination in the U.S. with over 72 million visitors per year. In addition to the expanding theme parks, the city also hosts several major premium shopping outlets, the Orlando Convention Center which boasts over 2.1 million square feet of conference space, and the Orlando International Airport, currently undergoing a $1.1 billion expansion.
Though perhaps not the last uncharted territory in this bustling hub, Shingle Creek certainly represents the largest. After it has achieved the necessary approvals for future land use, it’s ready to build, which means developers need to strike while the iron is hot.
“It’s a high-profile situation,” Sirkin said. “The most exciting part is that it’s early, and investors can get in at the beginning and start making their moves. We have all the owners lined up and working with the government, so a lot of activity has already happened. But it’s prime for a lot more.”
