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Emerald Island, Kissimmee
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We invite everyone to visit our open house at 8516 La Isla Drive on
February 14
from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Property information
Fast-food giant McDonald’s is leaving Downtown Disney.
The McDonald’s restaurant at Walt Disney World’s shopping-and-dining district
will close April 30, Disney said this afternoon. It will be replaced by Pollo
Campero, a Latin chicken fast-food chain.
Pollo Campero says it serves more than 85 million customers a year.
McDonald’s says it serves more than 47 million customers a day.
Representatives for Disney World and McDonald’s said the exit stems from a
2004 decision to end a 10-year exclusive sponsorship agreement between
McDonald’s Corp. and Walt Disney Co. The Downtown Disney restaurant was included
in that agreement.
“Our alliance partners are ever-changing and this shift in our relationship
with McDonald’s reflects the dynamic nature of the sponsorship business,” Disney
spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said.
McDonald’s said all of its employees at the Downtown Disney were offered
transfers to other McDonald’s locations and that no one would lose their job as
a result of the closure.
McDonald’s will continue to operate its restaurant near the entrance to the
Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park.
“We will continue to work with Disney on mutually beneficial opportunities,”
McDonald’s spokeswoman Danya Proud said.
Lucy Clark
Marketing Director and Photographer for Realtors, Jane and Alan LaFrance
'Mickey Homes - Central Florida Real Estate Agents - Your source for Homes for sale near Disney World'
Back to www.MickeyHomesFlorida.com
Large Pool, Spa & Conservation View!
• 1,800 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm single story
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$75 USD
Daily
Santa Cruz, Davenport
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This property is a Vacation Rental, from $75 a Night, but will consider Long Term Rentals (3+ Months rates are negotiable)
Our villa benefits from the following:-
* Luxury 3 bed/2 bath villa sleeps up to 8 people plus cot
* Two Queen bedrooms and one twin bedroom. There is a queen size sleeper in the family room.
* Close to Disney
* Playstation 2 and Games
* FREE Internet access just bring your laptop
* Games Room with Pool Table and Foosball Table
* Fully screened private oversized 30 x 15 foot swimming pool and spa (heating optional) and sun deck
* Covered lanai for your alfresco dining with patio furniture
* Sun Loungers
* FREE use of stroller, highchair and cot
* FREE local phone calls
* Hairdryers in both bathrooms
* FREE use of Walkie-Talkies to keep in touch whilst in the parks
* Cable TV in family room and master bedroom (over 100 channels to choose from)
* Towels and bed linen included
* Laundry room with washer, dryer, iron and ironing board
* DVD/VCR in the family room
* CD player
* Games, books and toys for a variety of ages
* Fully equipped kitchen
* BBQ
* Local management company who care for and clean our villa and are on hand to assist you
* Close to PGA Golf courses
* Fully air conditioned
* Safe available for guests use at a small charge (payable locally)
Rates, Booking, More Info and Photos
Emerald Island, Kissimmee
-
Announcing a price reduction
on 8607 Sunrise Key Drive, a 2,881 sq. ft., 7 Bedroom, 4.5 Bathroom, 2 Story Pool Home. Was $409,000, Now
MLS®
$399,000
- .
Property information
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Emerald Island, Kissimmee
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We invite everyone to visit our open house at 8516 La Isla Drive on
February 7
from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Property information
S. Facing Pool, Hot Tub, Games & Theatre
• 3,400 sq. ft., 6 Bedroom, 4 Bathroom, 2 Story Pool Home
Hampton Estates, Davenport
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This is a Vacation Rental only, from $205 a night.
Large 6 Bedroom Hampton Lakes Rental Home with 4 Bathrooms, 2 Master ensuites, 3 king bedrooms, 1 queen room, 1 twin room & 1 Disney theme room with 2 bunk beds.
Large South facing (not overlooked) 30'x15' pool with color changing lights. 6 person hot tub with color changing lights. Luxury furniture, tile table with 6 chairs under the large covered lanai area. On the pool deck there is a table, 4 chairs, 4 recliners & 2 loungers. There are speakers with a connection for an iPod or MP3 player. Remote control ceiling fan.
Custom 16' sliding windows to the breakfast nook/living room. Granite breakfast nook table with 4 chairs.
Luxury kitchen, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, marble floors, color changing mood lighting. There's also a wine chiller and kegerator for draft beer!
Living room has 58" plasma TV, with extended HD cable service, blu ray player & full surround sound with 7 speakers.
Dining room with wood floor and seating for 6.
Master bedroom with 4 poster king canopy bed. The master bath has marble floors, Jack & Jill granite top vanity sinks, garden tub & walk in shower. Safe in closet. 42" LCD TV with DVD player & HD cable.
The 2nd master on the 2nd floor (only room upstairs), also has a 4 poster bed, 42" TV & DVD player.
All bedrooms have flat screen TV's, 2 more DVD players. All bedrooms have ceiling fans. All bathrooms have marble floors and granite countertops. The air conditioning has separate controls for each of the Master suites, and 1 for the rest of the home.
The air-conditioned games / theatre room is equipped with a slate bed pool table. HD projector for a 10ft picture, PS3 with blu-ray player, iPod connection, full Dolby Digital, DTS surround sound system 6 reclining theater chairs & 2 video rockers. Neon Budweiser lights.
Rates, Booking, More Info and Photos
Compared with Florida's other metro areas, Orlando's existing-home sales overall
held steady from November to December, according to a monthly report by the
Florida Association of Realtors.
Orlando-area Realtors ended the year
selling more single-family houses than agents in any other metropolitan market
in the state, closing 2,300 sales last month. The next-busiest market was Tampa,
with 2,123 sales.
For the month, Metro Orlando's condo market recorded
612 sales and a 3 percent decline in median price.
For the year,
Orlando's condo prices fell more on a percentage basis than comparable cities in
the state, plummeting 29 percent from $75,000 in December 2008 to $53,500.
Tampa's condo prices dipped 17 percent; Miami's, 16 percent; and Fort
Lauderdale's, 17 percent during the year.
"I think, between December and
January, we're probably getting to the bottom," said Orlando real estate agent
Dean Asher, treasurer for the Florida Association of Realtors. He said he prices
could fall further in the next few months, but not by a great
percentage.
The market would start to revive if mortgages became more
readily available, he added.
"It's all tied to credit, credit scores and
financing," Asher said. "If there were financing components, there would be a
huge swing, because people would be able to get financing."
Orlando's
slight shift in condo prices from November to December was barely noticeable
when compared to wide price fluctuations in other Florida cities, including the
student-driven markets of Gainesville and Tallahassee, where the medians fell by
double-digit percentages in the middle of the academic year. The state overall
saw a 2 percent increase.
Meanwhile, sales prices for single-family
houses in December — the bulk of all residential sales — increased as much as 17
percent in Fort Lauderdale from the month before and fell as much as 9 percent
in Pensacola. In Orlando, the single-family median remained at about $137,000.
Lucy Clark
Marketing Director and Photographer for Realtors, Jane and Alan LaFrance
'Mickey Homes - Central Florida Real Estate Agents - Your source for Homes for sale near Disney World'
Back to www.MickeyHomesFlorida.com
Central Florida will be home to the world's largest Legoland by the end of
2011, Merlin Entertainments Group said Thursday.
The park, which is planned for the former site of Cypress
Gardens, is expected to include between 40 and 50 main attractions. In
addition to Lego's
signature attractions -- such as kid-powered rides and giant Lego brick models
-- some of Cypress Gardens' top draws are expected to stick around. The
historical gardens will stay intact, according to Nick Varney, Merlin's chief
executive officer.
Merlin said it plans to keep the popular Splash Island Waterpark operating,
although it will be a separate, ticketed admission. Cypress Gardens' water ski
shows and one of its two wooden roller coasters will probably be integrated into
the new Legoland as well, Varney said.
The details of Florida's newest theme park were announced at a news
conference this morning that was attended by government and tourism officials,
including Florida Governor
Charlie Crist.
Officials hailed the capital investment -- which Crist said would be hundreds
of millions of dollars -- and the fact that the park will create more than 1,000
jobs.
"Obviously in these challenging economic times, these jobs are fabulous,"
said Florida Sen. J.D. Alexander,
R-Lake Wales.
Varney kicked off Thursday's event by calling Legoland Florida's "worst-kept
secret," referring to the fact that details of today's announcement leaked out
Wednesday, after an email surfaced confirming that it was indeed Legoland that
was coming to Central Florida.
Merlin said it scouted multiple locations in the Orlando area, but eventually
chose the out-of-the-way Polk County spot because of the value of its existing
infrastructure.
Renovating a pre-existing theme park, instead of building from scratch, will
help Merlin shave years off the development timeline, allowing it to get the
park up and running in less than two years.
"If we'd gone anywhere else it would have taken 4 or 5 years," Varney said.
He added that the company eventually hopes to turn Legoland Florida into a
resort by adding an on-site hotel.
In exchange for building a Legoland in Winter Haven, Merlin Entertainments
will receive $5 million in incentives from Polk County over a 10-year period.
The package includes $150,000 per year for job creation and $350,000 per year in
marketing support, Polk County economic development officials said. The company
said it has also talked with government officials about improving road links
between Orlando and Winter Haven, but did not provide specifics.
The Florida park is Legoland's second U.S. location, after Legoland
California in Carlsbad, Calif. The addition of a Legoland in the Sunshine State
is part of a broader push into the U.S. for Merlin.
"We see it as a big development market for us," Varney said. Lego, Varney
said, "is without question one of the strongest brands in the world."
Merlin did not provide attendance projections for the Florida park, but said
its other Legolands draw between 1.5 million and 2 million people a year.
Lucy Clark
Marketing Director and Photographer for Realtors, Jane and Alan LaFrance
'Mickey Homes - Central Florida Real Estate Agents - Your source for Homes for sale near Disney World'
Back to www.MickeyHomesFlorida.com
Balcony with Lake View! Free WIFI!
• 1,290 sq. ft., 3 Bed, 2.5 Bath, Townhome
Emerald Island, Kissimmee
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This is a Vacation Rental only, from $85 a night but will consider Long Term Rentals (3+ Months rates are negotiable)
Affordable Luxury Townhouse * 34Miles to Disney in prestigious Emerald Island gated resort * 3 BR/2.5BA * Free Wi-Fi Internet Access and phone calls* Lake in the Back * PS II with games and DVD library * No keys to pickup or drop off *
With 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, this fully air-conditioned, stylish and spacious Orlando vacation home is perfect for families of up to 8 guests. Situated in a gated resort community and is 4 miles (5 minute) drive to Disney Parks and close to many golf courses, shops, restaurants and supermarkets.
The spacious living room has Queen sleeper sofa with love seat, TV with cable and DVD.
There is a lovely formal dining area in the fully equipped open plan kitchen that can accommodate 6 guests. Appliances included - full size stove with oven, dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator with freezer and ice maker, toaster, coffee maker, garbage disposal unit, dishes, utensils, pots & pans, cookware and much more. There is a fully enclosed washing machine and dryer in this area. Iron / Ironing Board, Laundry Basket also provided.
Bedroom 1: Master bedroom with Queen bed, private bath. TV with cable and DVD Player.
Bedroom 2: Queen master bedroom. TV with cable and DVD Player.
Bedroom 3: Mickey-themed bedroom with two twin beds. TV with cable and DVD Player.
Bedroom 2 and 3 share a bath, there is a half bath downstairs.
Our townhouse has a small patio off the Living Room and a small deck off the Master Bedroom. Both the patio and the deck are furnished with 2 chairs and they overlook our beautiful pond and conservation area. A charcoal grill is also provided on the deck.
House backs to a Conservation area and Fishing Pond which can be enjoyed from the Master Bedroom.
Rates, Booking, More Info and Photos
Luxury South Facing Pool with Games Room
• 2,881 sq. ft., 6 Bedroom, 5.5 Bathroom, 2 Story Pool Home
Emerald Island, Kissimmee
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This is a Vacation Rental only, from $225 a night.
The game room is air-conditioned and has a pool table, air hockey, foosball & large screen TV.
The large south facing (sun all day!) 14'x30' heated pool is accompanied by spa & a covered 10' lanai. There are plenty of loungers. We also have a large BBQ & we provide free tank of gas.
The Living Room of our home is spacious, with a comfortable sofa, love seat, coffee table & 2 end tables with lamps, 32” flat screen TV, DVD player, books, movie & game library, PlayStation 2 & CD player.
The Formal Dining has a spacious dining table & 6 chairs.
The family room with its 2 story ceiling is spacious, with a comfortable sofa, loveseat, coffee table & two end tables with lamps, 32” flat screen TV & DVD player.
Well-equipped kitchen has an oven & a cook-top stove, refrigerator with freezer, microwave oven & icemaker. It has dinnerware, silverware & glassware settings for 14, knives & cutting board. It also offers various kitchen utensils.
The 1st King Master Suite is located on downstairs with a nice view of the pool area. It has an ensuite bathroom with Jacuzzi, shower & toilet. It also has a 32" flat screen TV with cable & DVD player & huge walk-in closet.
The 2nd King Master located upstairs and has an ensuite bathroom with a tub and toilet. It also has a huge walk-in closet with full-size crib. The 3rd & 4th King Masters are located upstairs and each has en-suite bathrooms with tub and toilet. All these bedrooms have a 26" flat screen TV with cable & DVD player.
For Kids there is the "Blue Seas" themed room is decorated which has a Full/Twin bunk-bed that accommodates 3 kids and the "Madagascar" themed room is decorated with Marty & friends & has two twin beds that accommodate 2 kids. Both bedrooms have a 24" flat screen TV with cable & DVD player.
Rates, Booking, More Information and Photos
The owner of Legoland has purchased Cypress
Gardens, the venerable Polk County attraction that shut down last
fall.
A spokeswoman for the buyer, British amusements operator Merlin
Entertainments Group, said Friday the purchase includes the current Cypress
Gardens theme park, the Splash Island water park and the adjacent botanical
gardens.
The sale closed Jan. 7. The price was not
disclosed.
Merlin is the second busiest amusement company in the world.
Its holdings include Legoland theme parks, Madame Tussaud's wax museums and the
London Eye.
Rumors have been circulating for months that Merlin would
like to open a Legoland in Florida, which would be its second U.S. location. The
company currently operates four parks themed around the toy building blocks in
Carlsbad, Calif.; Germany; Denmark; and England.
Spokeswoman Julie
Estrada said Merlin has been working with Polk County and Florida officials on
new business plans for Cypress Gardens. Details are expected to be unveiled at a
news conference Merlin has scheduled for Thursday.
The acquisition
expands the presence of private-equity colossus The Blackstone
Group in Central Florida's theme-park industry. Blackstone, which last fall
purchased SeaWorld
Parks & Entertainment for about $2.5 billion and co-owns Universal
Orlando with General
Electric Co., holds a majority stake in Merlin.
Once famed for its
botanical gardens and Southern Belles, Cypress Gardens has struggled over the
last decade, enduring multiple closures and a bankruptcy.
The 73-year-old
Winter Haven attraction has been unable to compete with Orlando's much larger,
more modern theme parks.
Cypress Gardens' current owner, Land South
Adventures, spent $17 million to buy the park at a bankruptcy auction in 2007,
betting it could revitalize the park through a combination of scaled-back
attractions and cheaper tickets.
The bet failed, and Land South abruptly
shuttered Cypress Gardens in September, saying it could find no way "to keep the
park running in its traditional form."
A representative for Land South on
Friday referred all questions to Merlin.
Lucy Clark
Marketing Director and Photographer for Realtors, Jane and Alan LaFrance
'Mickey Homes - Central Florida Real Estate Agents - Your source for Homes for sale near Disney World'
Back to www.MickeyHomesFlorida.com
The new biomedical and health-care centers clustered in the far southeast corner
of Orlando appear like remote islands in a vast emptiness, as if of little
consequence to any neighbors.
It's a plausible view from the State Road
417 expressway, but it's a mirage.
As the region's most prized industrial
newcomer in many years, the emerging "medical city" complex of hospitals,
research institutes and schools is fueling among nearby homeowners hope for
quality employment as well as worry about the ugly side of growth. And there's
much debate over which will come in greater quantities to an area stamped with a
distinctly original character.
"It's a time of high anxiety," said Fred Hawkins Jr.,
chairman of Osceola County commissioners.
What kind of work will
materialize and how the sparsely populated residential area will grow depends on
key decisions and scenarios not yet determined. One important pivot point is a
vacant tract of nearly 2,000 acres that extends like a demilitarized zone
between the medical complex and the nearby residents of both south Orange and
north Osceola counties.
Existing neighborhoods, some decades old, are as
near as a half mile from the complex but buffered by the wooded tract. Just
beyond the Burnham
Institute for Medical Research through the trees, for example, are homes
connected by Boggy Creek Road — a name suggestive of the landscape and the
country-living atmosphere that still exists along nearby side streets.
"I
just hope we get some good jobs out her for the kids," said Marjorie Boos, who
has lived off Boggy Creek for 47 years. Boos spent a good part of those decades
in near-isolation but now carefully schedules her driving time to avoid the
road's worsening gridlock.
A few blocks away lives the kind of young
adult Boos is referring to. Yuri Matos is a freshman at the University
of Central Florida. He is focused on chemistry and biology and has been
"inspired" to apply for admission to UCF's new medical school, which is only a
mile from his home.
Still, people who live in the area consistently
predict that politicians and developers will attempt to turn the area's mosaic
of five-acre ranchettes into what the current occupants deride as ugly,
cookie-cutter subdivisions seemingly built overnight.
Their neighborhoods
now, by comparison, are unmistakably receptive to variety. Big lots provide
ample room to graze goats, raise horses
and host wild turkeys, sandhill cranes and deer. Their fences, another display
of diverse preferences, are made of wide boards, skinny pickets, barbed wire,
chain link, wrought iron, brick, painted block or stucco.
Aging
mini-mansions are neighbors to new mobile homes, working ranchers live next to
retirees and, occasionally, meticulous lawns are within site of ditches
victimized as illegal dump sites.
Music producer Billy Denizard and his
wife, Olga Tanon, a multiple winner of Latin Grammys, bought side-by-side
ranchette tracts three years ago to enjoy an unhurried pace of life. As
expressions of their professions, they installed five steel sculptures of
performing mariachis — Mexican folk musicians — positioning the 10-foot-tall
statutes along the road in front of their home.
It would be a startling
site in a typical suburban neighborhood.
Denizard said he once owned a
big lot in a horse-friendly area of Miami. More swiftly than he could imagine,
the neighborhood was devoured by new homes on quarter-acre lots.
"I'm not
opposed to development, but I think they should protect areas like this,"
Denizard said.
Farther south, in Osceola County, the mood is much the
same.
County officials last summer held a Friday-through-Sunday community
meeting near Narcoossee for residents to express their hopes and worries about
the area's future.
County planner Jeff Jones said he was surprised that
the people who attended weren't "completely" resistant to change, though they
clearly opposed an influx of conventional subdivisions.
Also of note, he
said, is that most of the audience indicated they own horses.
One of
them, Donna Meriweather-Lespier, 39, rode to and attended the meeting on
horseback, accompanied by two children and a friend also on horses. She even
remained in her saddle as she filled out a county survey.
Meriweather-Lespier wanted to be noticed and heard — indeed, planning officials
said they were wowed by her horsemanship in tight quarters.
"We want a
place where we can keep horses and have our country setting,"
Meriweather-Lespier said.
Part of Boggy Creek Road demarcates the west
side of both the medical city at Lake Nona and the nearby neighborhoods. Along
the east side runs Narcoossee Road, an old blacktop now being widened in both
counties.
Narcoossee Road has a mix of subdivisions, old and new, and
perhaps more than Boggy Creek is susceptible to intense future
development.
Betty Damke, who moved from Orlando more than 20 years ago
to a home hidden near the tiny town of Narcoossee,
is resigned like many others to the inevitability of growth.
"We just
want it compatible with who we are," said Damke, spokewoman for a collection of
area residents known as the Narcoossee Corridor Group. "We don't want the hop,
skip and jump of strip malls, and we don't want roof-to-roof developments," she
said while navigating a neighborhood tour of sandy lanes, citrus groves,
oak-canopied neighborhoods and signature ranchettes.
Not all is lost when
it comes to a future of development pressures, Damke has concluded. Much of the
area is carved up into small and relatively small lots. A developer may try to
buy up many of those parcels, but that would attract attention and, mostly
likely, opposition when it came time for zoning and building
approvals.
"That's our insurance," she said.
The large parcel with
the potential to have the biggest effect on the area belongs to the Greater
Orlando Aviation Authority. The 1,860 acres were purchased by GOAA in 1989 to
serve as environmental compensation for wetlands damaged during expansions at Orlando
International Airport.
The authority and the city of Orlando have
gradually seen how the parcel is in the path of development, particularly as the
medical city next door at Lake
Nona began to take shape.
GOAA is reducing the area designated for
environmental preservation to 382 acres within the parcel; to meet its original
obligations for offsetting the damage to airport wetlands, it will make a
payment of $2.16 million to underwrite environmental restorations
elsewhere.
That action paves the way for Lake Nona's medical complex and
relatead urban growth to expand south to the Osceola County line.
Already
in the planning stages is a road network that would link the medical city and
GOAA's property to Boggy Creek and Narcoossee roads. Those east-west connectors
would be a huge change for the area. Currently, the medical complex has only one
access point, on its northern boundary near the airport, the expressway and the
rest of Lake Nona.
Development of the GOAA property might not occur for
many years, depending on demand. But key decisions regarding the property's
future could occur a lot sooner.
Hawkins, the Osceola County Commission
chairman, said residents are divided among three main attitudes: Some are OK
with future growth, others plan to flee, while many will put up a
fight.
"We all know change is coming," Hawkins said.
Lucy Clark
Marketing Director and Photographer for Realtors, Jane and Alan LaFrance
'Mickey Homes - Central Florida Real Estate Agents - Your source for Homes for sale near Disney World'
Back to www.MickeyHomesFlorida.com
Universal
Orlando introduced a new ticket-pricing structure Monday designed to
capitalize on an attendance surge expected this spring when the resort opens the
Wizarding World of
Harry
Potter.
Universal's changes included eliminating a long-running
promotional offer for weeklong passes and raising the price of standard two-day
tickets. But it also introduced new three- and four-day ticket
options.
Under the new structure, which Universal dubbed "U Select," the
base price for a one-day, one-park ticket remains unchanged at $79.
But
the per-day price drops for some longer stays. A three-day ticket, for instance,
will cost $125 when purchased online — or roughly $42 a day. A four-day ticket
bought online will cost $135 — about $34 a day.
Guests can also add
"park-to-park" upgrades to their tickets that allow them to visit both of the
resort's theme parks, Universal Studios Florida and
Islands
of Adventure, on the same day. The longer the ticket package, the cheaper
the upgrade price: from $30 to add the feature to a single-day ticket to $10 to
add it to the four-day pass.
The approach is modeled after
Walt
Disney World's "Magic Your Way" ticket-pricing strategy, which attempts to
steer guests toward longer stays by making lengthier packages more affordable on
a per-day basis. Disney adopted the structure in 2005.
Some of
Universal's prices are rising under the new plan: A two-day, two-park pass will
now cost $135 when purchased online, an increase of 36 percent from
$99.
What's more, Universal ended a discount offer — a weeklong pass for
$99 — that had been in place since 2007. A spokesman for the resort said that
deal had started as a temporary offer only but had been extended over time;
guests who bought the pass, he added, typically used it for "far less" than
seven days.
A comparable seven-day pass good for both parks will now cost
$170 — a 72 percent increase.
By raising the price of two-day passes but
lowering them for three- and four-day visits, Universal hopes to maximize its
revenue from the Wizarding World, which industry experts expect will draw big
crowds.
Many of those visitors were already likely to spend two days at
the resort to ensure visits to both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios.
But now they will also have the option of adding a third day at the resort for
an extra $15 a person, versus buying single-day passes approaching $80 each at
rival resorts Disney World and
SeaWorld
Orlando.
Although Wizarding World is not a standalone theme park,
Universal is marketing the project as more something more than a typical park
addition — a "theme park within a theme park." That message, coupled with the
new ticket-price tiers, might help the resort persuade more customers to spend
three days there, said Ady Milman, a professor at the
University
of Central Florida.
"It might be that they really want to advise
customers that they need more time if they really want to see everything, and
this will be the role of the vacation planners, whose major goal is to upsell,"
Milman said.
In a written statement, Universal Orlando President Bill
Davis said the pricing overhaul comes "just in time for the Wizarding World of
Harry Potter.
"It will be the theme-park event of a lifetime, and we are
giving guests the flexibility to experience it the way they want to — at better
values every day," Davis said.
Lucy Clark
Marketing Director and Photographer for Realtors, Jane and Alan LaFrance
'Mickey Homes - Central Florida Real Estate Agents - Your source for Homes for sale near Disney World'
Back to www.MickeyHomesFlorida.com
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Emerald Island, Kissimmee
-
We invite everyone to visit our open house at 8516 La Isla Drive on
January 17
from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Property information
KISSIMMEE — In 2001, The Ginn Cos. broke ground on what was billed as
Central Florida's grandest vacation and golf resort: Reunion, with
three signature golf courses, million-dollar mansions,
half-million-dollar condos, a water park, a luxury condo hotel and
more, all set in 2,300 acres in Osceola County just south of
Walt Disney World.
Eight years later, Reunion may be the poster child for the collapse of
the Central Florida housing bubble. Lenders have foreclosed on hundreds
of properties; abandoned, half-built houses and condos pock the
landscape; and property values have plummeted by as much as 80 percent.
"They talk about how wealth is being destroyed. I think we're seeing
that here," said Mike Searles, general manager of Reynolds Signature
Communities' Reunion office, which manages the real estate.
Property owners who have bailed, or were tossed out by banks, have
suffered big losses. And even those sticking it out find themselves in
a largely vacant community where, everywhere, there are reminders of
the crash.
At 5 o'clock on a recent afternoon on Linkside Loop, one of Reunion's
earliest and more-modest neighborhoods, a lone child rode her tricycle
on the sidewalk, and a woman walked her dog. They were the only human
activity on the street of about 45 pastel, two-story pool homes.
At least half of the houses appeared empty: back gates padlocked, pools
covered with dark tarps. On the front window of one was a white
sticker: "… We found this property to be vacant/abandoned, and we
will report same to the mortgage holder."
"It is sad," said Lynnette George, the dog walker, who paid $450,000
for a five-bedroom house four years ago. "A lot of these properties are
now bank-owned."
Down the street, Martha Bullock looks out her front window at a
half-built house; the builder walked away more than a year ago. Its
windows are shattered; bare walls were never painted. Her back yard
abuts the brown shell of a similarly unfinished house.
"When they walked away, the garbage [construction debris] sat there for
weeks in two piles," said Bullock, 79, who rents her house. "My
daughter made a few calls to have it cleaned up because it was
attracting rats."
Reunion was initially advertised as a $2 billion project. Today, 550
houses and a bit more than 1,000 condo units have been finished. An
additional 800 lots are for sale, not including planned expansions.
In the past 24 months, Osceola County property records show, 87 houses,
49 condos and 117 vacant lots have been foreclosed on, though some have
since been sold. David Burman, whose Aegis Community Management
Solutions manages Reunion's homeowners' association and its seven condo
owners' associations, said his company is tracking as many as 439
properties in some stage of foreclosure.
In April, Ginn turned over management to two Atlanta-based companies,
Noble Investments and Reynolds Signature Communities, while retaining a
20 percent interest in the community's unsold lots, undeveloped areas
and three golf courses. A Philadelphia-based equity fund, Lubert-Adler,
owns the other 80 percent.
The Ginn Cos., based in Palm Coast and led by Edward R. "Bobby" Ginn
III, would not comment on Reunion, referring inquiries to Reynolds
Signature. Ginn lost two other Florida developments to bankruptcy
liquidation last year and still has an enormous project in the Bahamas
and several other resorts in the Southeast.
Reunion was marketed to people wanting luxury second homes not far from
Disney. As many as 40 percent of buyers were foreigners, including
hundreds of Brits, Canadians, Europeans and a handful of South
Americans and Asians. Almost all bought them as vacation or seasonal
homes, or as investments.
The resort is a collection of single-family-home neighborhoods and
clusters of three- and four-story apartment-style condos tucked into
the lightly rolling hills of northwest Osceola County, mostly east of
Interstate 4.
Besides its three golf courses, it features an 11-story condo hotel,
Reunion Grande, that towers over a colonial-style resort clubhouse.
More-modest neighborhoods feature boxy, two-story, Caribbean-themed
houses of 2,000 to 3,000 square feet. There are also clustered "garden"
homes of 3,000 to 4,000 square feet, as well as a scattering of two-
and three-story custom-designed mansions of up to 7,000 square feet.
The resort also is home to
Annika Sorenstam's golf school, the Annika Academy, and it hosted an LPGA golf tournament for three years before it was canceled this year.
"The vision I'm sure was for it to be a landmark community in south
Orlando," said Reynolds President Terry Russell. "A tremendous amount
of infrastructure was put in place to accomplish that. It has succeeded
in becoming a landmark."
These days, though, it's a landmark for bargain hunters.
At the peak of the housing boom, in 2006 and 2007, the average existing
house in Reunion sold for $1.3 million. In the first eight months of
this year, that dropped to $590,000.
Some price cuts are steeper. A 3,800-square-foot house that sold for
$1.9 million in June 2006 was resold for $700,000 late last year. A
3,050-square-foot house, sold for $869,000 in May 2005, went for
$362,500 in September. And a 2,920-square-foot house that sold for
$1.39 million in August 2007 sold three years later for $290,000, a
stunning 79 percent drop in value.
Scores of vacant lots that sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars
apiece just three ago are available for $10,000 to $25,000 today.
Russell and Searles said these plummeting prices have generated
increased sales, with 201 houses, condos and lot sales closed or
pending so far this year, compared with just 37 in all of 2008.
"People are getting incredible bargains," Searles said. "Those people,
they'll be the next wave of people that have huge equity" if the market
returns to 2006 levels.
Among them are Gary Mayer, a Toyota dealer from Marion, Ill., and his
wife, Debbie. They had a home in Lakeland, love golf and kept an eye on
Reunion from the start. In June, they bought a foreclosed
3,650-square-foot Georgian-revival home with a pool for $330,000. The
home had sold for $1.2 million in April 2007.
"We think the prices now are where they should have been," said Debbie
Mayer. Four of the couple's friends from southern Illinois also found
deals this year, she said.
Meyer is aware of the foreclosure trends and concerns about vacant and
abandoned properties; there's a boarded-up, unfinished house across the
street from her, and many nearby lots are vacant. But as a winter-only
resident, she said, it's worth it.
"We're seasonal, so when we're there it seems like it's a little busier than the off-times," she said. "That's perfect for us."
Reunion offers owners a chance to rent their houses or condos to
short-term visitors. Advertised rates range from $400 to $1,145 a
night, though those are often significantly discounted. Currently, 360
condos and 90 houses are licensed by the state as daily rentals.
But that market is slow as well. Sandusky, Ohio, resident Meredith
Bradford, whose family of four stayed in a condo recently, said she had
seen only two other families in her building.
"I was told it would be quiet," Bradford mused as she left Reunion's water park. "I didn't think it would be
quiet, as in
empty quiet."
Frustration runs high among earlier buyers, said Alfred Tribby, a
banking lawyer from Liberty, Ohio, who has owned a condo and a house in
Reunion since 2005.
Tribby has been pushing Reunion management about amenities that he said
have not been delivered, including a members-only clubhouse for the
Jack Nicklaus golf course, a fitness center and riding and walking trails.
He's also angry about what he considers excessive fees for the
maintenance and operation of the resort. Membership dues, which can
exceed $600 a month, are rising, as are various other fees that include
special assessments passed occasionally to make up for abandoned
properties.
"The reason it looks deserted is because it pretty much is deserted.
It's very expensive for people to live there on a full-time basis,"
Tribby said.
Searles estimated that only about 90 owners actually live in Reunion year-round.
Burman, of Aegis Community Management Solutions, said as much as 30
percent of homeowners' association dues aren't paid, because owners are
walking away. That puts the burden on those who remain, such as Tribby,
to pay the cost of mowing vacant lots and trying to maintain vacated
homes.
"We manage another 50-60 communities other than Reunion. It's not
unique to Reunion," Burman said. "It's just magnified in Reunion. "
Yet Burman and other Reunion managers hold out hope.
Russell notes that all the infrastructure and most amenities, including golf courses designed by Arnold Palmer, Nicklaus and
Tom Watson,
have been completed. And, he says, it may be years before banks and
equity funds are willing to finance another resort so large and so
ambitious. So their property will remain unique.
"That is undoubtedly the case," Russell said. "It's just going to be
unlikely that anyone will take on a task the size of Reunion anywhere
in Florida or anywhere else."
Lucy Clark
Marketing Director and Photographer for Realtors, Jane and Alan LaFrance
'Mickey Homes - Central Florida Real Estate Agents - Your source for Homes for sale near Disney World'
Back to www.MickeyHomesFlorida.com