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Ceremony signals start of $4B Osceola project - December 2005 (Orlando Business Journal)
By: Bob Mervine, Staff Writer
Plans for the 1,600-acre, mixed-use development call for nearly 10,000 condominium, fractional and age-restricted homes at the end of a five-year buildout. A hotel, retail and restaurants and an 18-hole golf course are part of the mix. Also in the planning stage is an expansion of the existing facilities used by the U.S. Specialty Sports Association.
As reported in the "Orlando Business Journal" on Aug. 19, developer Robert Miller is partnering with four developers to offer communities with individual designs and themes. Three would be clustered around a 80-acre man-made lake and the fourth spread around another lake and an 18-hole golf course.
The developers include US Homes Corp., a subsidiary of Miami-based Lennar Corp.; Daytona Beach-based Intervest Construction Inc., doing business as ICI Homes; and Sumner Kramer Investments Inc. Negotiations are ongoing with a fourth developer for another location on the property.
Funding for nearly $35 million in infrastructure, such as roads and utilities, are in place using bonds underwritten by Osceola County and sold by the Osceola Trace Community Development District, a taxing district set up by Miller.
Commission Chairman Paul Owen, within whose district the project will be built, noted the five-year project will add to the county's ad valorem tax base, keeping citizens' taxes lower, and will create a large number of jobs during both the construction and operating phrases.
Owen, wearing blue jeans and a denim jacket at today's ceremony, brought laughs from the crowd of 100 when he said he had dressed that way in order to move some dirt.