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OCOEE-COLONY PLAZA MOTEL RUIN

Rayman

By Rayman
in Orlando

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codypet City

codypet

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I'm not 100% certain but I have a good idea.

I actually worked there for a year or so back in the mid 1980's. Even back then the number of hotels in the Kissimmee & Lake Buena Vista area had grown to the point where The Colony Plaza could no longer compete in the American tourist market because of their location so far away from Disney.

So they hired a retired Pan Am sales executive from Spain who had extensive contacts in the European & South American travel industry to run things even though he lived in Arizona. He'd fly into Orlando about once a month or so, & stay in the penthouse up on the roof of the building. He was the "big boss" who answered to the owners & the GM answered to him.

He was able to use his contacts to keep the hotel's occupancy up with large tour groups from England, Germany, France & various South American countries. The hotel had a very international feel to it. Most of the staff came over from Switzerland & France to work there, or else they were Latino.

I guess that eventually, that guy finally retired & his foreign contacts dried up, as well as the huge resort hotels that have gone up in and around Disney likely just took all the remaining business away.

That's probably why it went condo/timeshare.

Why that didn't work, I don't know.

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ocoee1 Unincorporated Area

ocoee1

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well wat i had heard was that there were diseases that were harmful to the people staying there. Cuz my aunt worked there and they came and told them all to leave and couldnt take none of their stuff with them..so shouldnt the reasons be a bit bigger then just not have enought money to keep up the place?
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ocoee1 Unincorporated Area

ocoee1

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Back in 2001, a huge water main broke at the top floor of one of the towers, flooding the entire building. This caused a huge mold problem because they didn't dry it out properly. The air got very bad from the mold. They took air samples, and found the mold levels way too high for people so they shut down that tower. They had to pretty much rip out everything that got wet. They moved the people that had condo's into the other tower and kept the place open. There was a timeshare, condo, renters, and hotel management company. They each filed insurance claims and fought over who shoud pay how much. This went on for about 6 months. The insurance money was not nearly enough to fix everything, and they had to shut down. They tried to raise money, but it didn't work out. They kept a mainentance guy there for while after it closed, but then they had no money to pay even him. That was about 4 years ago. The fire was about 2 1/2 years ago (set by some kids) and it has gone downhill since then.
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