In The News : 2005

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Gaylord, landlord-developer go global

April 17, 2005

Later this month, the Gaylord Palms Resort will offer Osceola County officials a sweeping new plan to nearly triple its convention space to 1.1 million square feet and add another 500 hotel rooms.

The timing of Gaylord's expansion proposal apparently couldn't be better.

Xentury City Development Co., Gaylord's landlord, is reviewing a comprehensive master plan for the 243 prime acres surrounding the hotel-resort that initially would include an additional 500-room condo hotel flagged by an international chain not yet in Orlando.

Gaylord's new proposal, which includes a request for a $105 million incentive package from the county, is being offered as a substitute to a plan now under county staff review in which Texas-based FaulknerUSA would develop a $350 million-plus, 250,000-square-foot facility with an 800-room hotel. The Gaylord already has 400,000 square feet of meeting space.

County Commissioner Paul Owen, whose district includes the Xentury City parcel, says he's not sure if the deal with Gaylord could be the better proposal.

"Bringing Faulkner to the table was the best thing we could do, because it's flushed out all the other offers." Owen says.

"Right now, we're the hottest county around," Owen says. "We have all the resources for development, so why should we give away tax dollars? I'd want to look at that deal real close."

John Caparella, Gaylord Palms' vice president and general manager, contends the county's help is essential. "There's no way anyone can build a million square feet of convention space without public funding," Caparella says. "Orange County's (convention center) is built entirely on tax revenue, and they operate at a shortfall each year. We're willing to run the facility and risk the operating costs."

The 243-acre Xentury City tract surrounding the Gaylord, which is bordered by five of Central Florida's major roads, is west of Kissimmee, north of Disney's Celebration and east of Interstate 4. The Osceola Parkway and the International Drive extension cut through the property.

Caparella believes an expansion to 1.1 million square feet of meeting space would put Osceola County in the big leagues.

"With the plans for growth in the Four Corners area, we'd have a very symbiotic relationship just like the Mandalay Bay and Bellagio have in Las Vegas," he says. "What Orange County was able to do with 1.1 million square feet (of convention space) for many years was legendary." (Orange County's convention site now tops 2 million square feet.)

Who else is in play?

Owen says that in addition to the Faulkner proposal and the Gaylord/Xentury City option, the new owners of the now-shuttered Hyatt Orlando are meeting with the county to discuss a plan to build a convention-hotel complex.

"They say they'll bulldoze the Hyatt and build us a brand new, high-rise hotel for $100 million," Owen says. "And we'll be partners."

Owen says the owners of ChampionsGate Resort are also discussing their options.

Marc Reicher, ChampionsGate's vice president of operations, says there's nothing immediately in the offing, but adds: "We've been discussing a series of proposals."

Should county commissioners decide not to pursue the option being proposed by Gaylord, Caparella says the deal is off.

"We're done," he says. "We'll walk away, and our company will spend the $150 million we plan to invest on the project somewhere else."

Gaylord's plan for incentives actually involves a total package of $140 million. The $105 million is arrived at by subtracting the roughly $35 million that Owen says the county already owes the resort that stems from an incentive arrangement contained in the original construction contract.

If Osceola officials don't act on Gaylord's new proposal, the county still would be on the hook for the $35 million still owed, Caparella says.

In an earlier interview, spokeswoman Terri Dusek described Faulkner's latest proposal as "finessed and enhanced."

Faulkner's plan is "stronger, with some minor changes," she added. "The enhanced participation by Starwood (Hotels & Resorts Worldwide) makes it our strongest proposal yet."

No cookie-cutter infill

Much of the action centering on the Xentury City property has been stirred up with the arrival of Randy Lyon, 55, the new president of Xentury City Development Co. LLC.

Lyon is currently going through a detail-by-detail economic feasibility review of a proposed master plan for the entire 243-acre site where the Gaylord is situated.

The master plan was created by The Jerde Partnership last year for Xentury City, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Xenel International USA. That entity is owned by members of the Alireza family of Saudi Arabia.

The Jerde Partnership is a 27-year-old Venice, Calif., master-planning design firm and the creative force behind projects such as the swanky Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas.

While Lyon says it will be this fall before Xentury City officials are ready to make a formal announcement about their plans for the huge tract, he recently agreed to discuss with Orlando Business Journal some of the likely components being developed for what he calls "an intersection of opportunities."

Within five years, Lyon says plans call for the construction of three more hotels in addition to the Gaylord and between 400,000 to 600,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space to be situated south from the Gaylord to U.S. 192 and along the Interstate 4 corridor.

Mixed use on global scale

Lyon, who estimates the entire project won't be fully built out until 2050 or later, won't put a price tag on the development in whole or in part, beyond saying it will be worth "billions and billions of dollars."

He notes much of the investment will come from other companies, not Xentury City. He positions his company, not as a developer, but as a company "leasing land for long-term property value growth."

But, Lyon warns, don't look for any cookie-cutter urban village, saying it's time to think beyond the local and even regional level.

"Competition these days is on a global scale," he says. "We don't really compete with Daytona or Miami or even Atlanta. Our competition is Las Vegas or other world markets."

Lyon says he's talking to upscale names such as Gumps, a well-known San Francisco retailer, as well as high-end Japanese retailers such as Takishimaya and Shirokaya.

No matter what, Lyon says the key to the success of the as-yet-unnamed Xentury City complex is density.

"The days of a single-use, isolated property served by a single transportation system are over," says Lyon. "During the last three years, this parcel has become an infill location."

Down the road, Lyon says the property can support about five or six hotels with about 5,000 rooms total, including one "uber-luxury property of 250 rooms or so." Another possibility, he says, would be a spa-centered hotel.

All in all, county leaders such as Owen, seem to like the Gaylord/Xentury City idea.

"Developments like this bring in the tax dollars without any school impact costs," says the commissioner. "And these folks really do a high-quality job."

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A Would-Be Las Vegas Rolls the Dice
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Developers bet $4b on Macau projects
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Jerde input in ICT hub set to draw attention from afar
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Harvey Nichols to open store in Istanbul
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Morongo Casino Resort becomes a bright desert oasis...
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20 years of Horton Plaza
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Rebellious center celebrates two decades...
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Farewell Comrade, Greetings Consumer
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The Pain and Pleasure of Creating Horton Plaza
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Wynn-ovation
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Market Makes Itself the Center of Attention
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Dubai Festival City on Target to Open 'Retail Resort'
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Wrestling Star Hulk Hogan Purchases Penthouse at Palms Place
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Morongo Casino Resort & Spa Receives Engineering Award
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ULI Gives Hangzhou 2005 Awards for Excellence: Asia-Pacific
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ULI Announces 9 Finalists for the 2005 Awards for Excellence
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Nick Lachey & Jessica Simpson Purchase Condo at Palms
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L.A.'s Jerde Partnership Names CEO
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Iconic architecture anticipated
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Snapshot of 12-acre urban village at SDSU
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Big SDSU project one step closer
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Gaylord, landlord-developer go global
Apr 17, 2005
Resort wants $105M incentive deal to triple meeting space, add 500 rooms. by Bob Mervine

Iconic Design Required
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Namba Parks ULI Development Case Study
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Top architects gear up for resort battle
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$2.5B Dubai Festival City a 'city within a city'
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World Market Center - Las Vegas - To Expand By 60 Percent
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Palms joins vertical condo crowd
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Entryway experience
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Palms plans condo-hotel tower
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Tribe's new Palm Springs casino aims to be hipster magnet
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Golden Terraces
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Builder sees condo as 'destiny'
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Casino-related uses are cited as being vital for the city
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Experts say Philly must include other development with casinos
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Indian Casinos Up the Ante on Vegas
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A Young Taipei Finds its Groove
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Winning Namba
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Architecture: China's Great Leap Forward
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Profile: Gold Medal Winner Jon A. Jerde, FAIA
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