Orlando Attractions Area News & Developments

[orlandonative]

Speaking of ameteur. The Sentinel online was nice enough to give us a "sneak peak" at the new Orlando commercials.

Tourism ads

Edited January 30, 2007 by orlandonative

[sunshine]

Cute ads. Both ads are advertising Disney, Universal and Sea World. Majority part of Disney is not in Orange County.

Why do taxpayer have to pay for it? Second, isnt Disney and universal done enough advertising their parks?

[facilities man]

Cute ads. Both ads are advertising Disney, Universal and Sea World. Majority part of Disney is not in Orange County.

Why do taxpayer have to pay for it? Second, isnt Disney and universal done enough advertising their parks?

Majority of Disney is in Orange County, proabaly 75% of the land they own. All four major parks, the water parks, and all the hotels are in Orange and pay taxes in Orange. The only thing tourist related I know of that Disney has in Osceola is the Wide World of Sports complex.

[sunshine]

Do u think if they just give away the 67 millions to people to provide free air fare for them to come will have greater impact than doing their ads?

[neon9]

Do u think if they just give away the 67 millions to people to provide free air fare for them to come will have greater impact than doing their ads?

Or how about some national contest, maybe with it's own reality show, picking out one medium size town in the US and providing half price or something similar plane tickets to everyone flying from one airport? Better yet give it to them as cash as they get off the plane so they spend it here.

We'll send mickey there to spread goodwill and lure the local yahoos back here. They can be our sister city for a year-and if we have a bad hurricane season, we'll have some friends houses to crash at.

[That Crazy Guy]

they could not get financed....

not surprising....their management is very amateur....

Here is an article from early last year. This just further proves that you can't trust what you read anymore.

Peabody Orlando borrowing $365M to fund major expansion

Bob Mervine

Staff Writer

The Peabody Orlando, one of Orlando's best-known luxury convention properties, has restructured its financing to fund its long-awaited expansion.

GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corp. says it will loan the hotel's owner, Memphis, Tenn.-based Belz Enterprises, $365 million.

Funding for the project comes in two phases: $110 million in floating-rate refinancing for the first phase and another $255 million in the coming months for additional rooms, meeting space and a full service spa.

The expansion, already designed, will fit in the open space between the existing hotel and the walkway that connects the Orange County Convention Center's North and West wings. Guests will access the walkway from the hotel's lobby.

GMAC says the first loan will refinance the 891-room Orlando hotel's existing debt and pay for a 2,100-space parking garage.

Hotel General Manager Alan Villaverde confirmed details about the financing are accurate. In the hotel's original 1997 plans and drawings, a second tower would be built next to the existing 27-story building. An announcement by the hotel about the expansion will be made "some time in the next 60 days," says Villaverde. He declined to be specific about the details and schedule, other than to say that construction on the parking garage component could begin any day, noting the it would be necessary to complete the parking structure before work could begin on the other components.

The additional $255 million will fund construction of an additional 750 guest rooms, 145,000 square feet of meeting space and a full-service spa. The loan's second phase is scheduled to close during the second quarter of 2006.

The expansion will bring the Peabody's capacity to nearly 1,600 rooms, lifting it into the top tier of the city's largest hotels, which include the Gaylord Palms (1,406 rooms), The Orlando World Center Marriott (2,000 rooms) and Disney's Coronado Springs Resort (1.921 rooms).

The additional meeting space would also expand the hotel into the city's top five for convention capacity with more than 200,000 square feet.

The long-discussed expansion dates back to 1997, when it was first revealed. However, Belz has delayed moving ahead with the project while other larger hotels surrounding the Peabody's prime site -- next door to the 2 million-square-foot Orange County Convention Center -- were built and expanded.

GMAC's Hospitality Industry Division says it arranged and underwrote the transaction, with UST Hotel Joint Venture Ltd., a Florida corporation and Belz subsidiary, receiving the funding.

The overall transaction comprises a construction mini-perm loan, inclusive of the original $110 million loan for the refinancing of the existing debt and parking garage buildout. Construction mini-perm loans are a relatively short-term method of financing used for income producing projects with a balloon payment generally at the end of the loan period.

[neon9]

Here is an article from early last year. This just further proves that you can't trust what you read anymore.

Peabody Orlando borrowing $365M to fund major expansion

Bob Mervine

Staff Writer

The Peabody Orlando, one of Orlando's best-known luxury convention properties, has restructured its financing to fund its long-awaited expansion.

Hotel General Manager Alan Villaverde confirmed details about the financing are accurate. In the hotel's original 1997 plans and drawings, a second tower would be built next to the existing 27-story building. An announcement by the hotel about the expansion will be made "some time in the next 60 days," says Villaverde. He declined to be specific about the details and schedule, other than to say that construction on the parking garage component could begin any day, noting the it would be necessary to complete the parking structure before work could begin on the other components.

Yeah, good luck building that building that was designed back in 1997 in 2007.

[mrh3]

Do u think if they just give away the 67 millions to people to provide free air fare for them to come will have greater impact than doing their ads?

Not exactly Sunshine. According to my calucations, [inserts pocket protecter and applies taped, horn rimmed glasses] if the average domestic fare to OIA is $275 then the $67MM would cover approximately 243,636 r/t airfares. Given that the average American household consists of 3.14 people (real statistic, look-it up) that would mean that 77,591 HHs would be directly impacted by the expenditures or roughly 16% of all the households in Dallas. Now compare that to reading a media audience of, say 37,000,000 on a higher rated television show during prime time, not to mention the off peak advertising rates or the cable shows. The ad space purchases have been very agressive and will squeeze every penny of value out of those dollars. I would bet that by the time these ads are finished airing they will have reached a population many times greater than the United States. So, I don't think that a travel fund would be the best way to spend the money, Sunshine.

Edited February 5, 2007 by mrh3

[shardoon]

does anybody have info about the resort projects scheduled/under construction on palm parkway?

thanks

[Dale]

The latest OBJ has The Blue Rose breaking ground late summer or fall.

[JRS1]

The latest OBJ has The Blue Rose breaking ground late summer or fall.

they told me April 3 weeks ago. I think the theme here is that they'll break ground when they sell enough units. period.

[Dale]

There at 40% right now. And they say that has exceeded their wildest expectations. This according to the OBJ.

[JRS1]

There at 40% right now. And they say that has exceeded their wildest expectations. This according to the OBJ.

... that's exceeded my wildest expectations as well. since this looked like a pipedream project from the start.

if it has exceeded their expectations, what would have been their backup plan had they not met the 40%, i.e., if they didn't expect to hit it in the first place, then what was their plan to move forward with construction if they didn't get those numbers? or is there a plan? or are they sheisters/ amateurs building a pipedream project rolling the dice with other peoples' money?

is PCL really on board, or did they convince them to put a trailer on site to fool everyone that they have their stuff together?

wow, what a negative post I made. (another Yoda-ism)

[That Crazy Guy]

does anybody have info about the resort projects scheduled/under construction on palm parkway?

thanks

I saw a sign when driving by the site the other day. Here is a link to the project's website.

Ravallo Resort

[slapdash09]

does anyone have inside knowledge as to when the sea world water park is planning to open?

[JRS1]

the OBJ issue that had the $200M Intermodal story for OIA had an article for San Marco-- saying that they are going to reopen the sales office and plan to break ground in the summer. yeah right.

Venetian in Vegas apparently has the "Venetian" name copyrighted or whatever. suit ensued. anyway, whomever has the ability to link the article, that would be nice.

[That Crazy Guy]

Looking for updates on the following projects and if their viable.

1. Palazza de lago

2. Waldorf/Hilton

3. Contemporary expansion

Does anyone know?

[JRS1]

Looking for updates on the following projects and if their viable.

1. Palazza de lago

2. Waldorf/Hilton

3. Contemporary expansion

Does anyone know?

the article about the San Marco said that condo-tel is still strong in Orlando, therefore I would say Plazzo del Lago is still viable. See Blue Rose, though, b/c they still haven't broken ground yet. No info on Waldorf/Hilton. Never heard anything about Contemporary except from whomever posted that info a while back on it.

[That Crazy Guy]

the article about the San Marco said that condo-tel is still strong in Orlando, therefore I would say Plazzo del Lago is still viable. See Blue Rose, though, b/c they still haven't broken ground yet. No info on Waldorf/Hilton. Never heard anything about Contemporary except from whomever posted that info a while back on it.

Thanks. I'm really hoping that PDL gets developed.

[JRS1]

Thanks. I'm really hoping that PDL gets developed.

"PDL." I like that.

Yeah, if PDL comes, this place will be sitting pretty with it's inventory of big-box luxury developments. Pending: PDL; Waldorf/Hilton; Blue Rose.

Speaking of Hilton, how much longer before the dirt compresses the foundation for the OCCC Hilton? I almost forgot about that project.

[That Crazy Guy]

"PDL." I like that.

Yeah, if PDL comes, this place will be sitting pretty with it's inventory of big-box luxury developments. Pending: PDL; Waldorf/Hilton; Blue Rose.

Speaking of Hilton, how much longer before the dirt compresses the foundation for the OCCC Hilton? I almost forgot about that project.

"PDL". Yeah, it does have a nice ring to it. Have you seen their website yet? Imo, this project looks every bit as impressive as Blue Rose, minus the height of course.

Regarding the I-drive Hilton, the dirt was laid in mid December. I believe it was Montu that posted a while back that it would take approximately six months before construction could take place. If that's correct, and if all goes the way its supposed to, further construction in mid June.

[JRS1]

"PDL". Yeah, it does have a nice ring to it. Have you seen their website yet? Imo, this project looks every bit as impressive as Blue Rose, minus the height of course.

that is a great website; I was surprised when I first went on it. the separate towers are the condos. but the hotel bldg. itself is hotel and condotel if I'm not mistaken.

[stevecrew0518]

the contemporary is in the demo phase. They are removing the old two story portion (the "north wing") and making way for a new tower.

[JRS1]

the contemporary is in the demo phase. They are removing the old two story portion (the "north wing") and making way for a new tower.

seriously?

you mean those older short wings adjacent to the parking lot? wow...

[bulldogger]

the contemporary is in the demo phase. They are removing the old two story portion (the "north wing") and making way for a new tower.

Are you talking about the Contemporary at Disney?