A local developer has plans in the works that would bring a specialty grocer, shops and restaurants to a former eyesore in the city of Ocoee.
Orlando-based Elevation Development LLC is finalizing an updated plan for Fifty West Ocoee, a mixed-use development set to rise on the southwest corner of West Colonial Drive and Maguire Road — a place that for many years housed theinfamous former Colony Plaza condo hotel.
Elevation Development has about 50 acres of land in that area under contract to buy and is working on a development plan that would involve building 275 to 300 multifamily units, 200,000-250,000 square feet of commercial space and about eight to 10 outparcels, managing partner Owais Khanani told Orlando Business Journal. There’s also a lot of interest in including a hotel, he said.
The multiple parcels are approved for up to 1.5 million square feet of development, as OBJ previously reported. However, Elevation Development still is finalizing how much of that space it will use, Khanani said.
Previous plans posted online describe a three-phased project with a mix of uses, but Khanani said those aren’t up to date.
“We’ve got a plan that’s only been circulated with potential tenants, but we’ve had no discussions with the city yet,” Khanani told OBJ. “It’s not quite ready yet.”
But there is one piece of it that appears to be somewhat for sure: a specialty grocery store.
Ali Mushtaq of SVN Florida said he and John Phelan of Strategic Retail Advisors are working together on securing retail tenants, including a niche grocer. And among those possible grocery tenants are several concepts that have been sniffing for Central Florida sites.
“We’re talking with both concepts not here yet and those that are here and wanting to expand,” Mushtaq told OBJ, though he declined to name which ones. “I can say it’s not Trader Joe’s or Publix.”
In the past, other big developments also had been proposed for this site, including the mixed-use CityPlace at Maguire project in 2009. Shaman Foradi, who headed up those previous plans, now oversees acquisition and general project design for Elevation Development.
Meanwhile, the city has about $2.8 million worth of demolition liens, attorney fees and interest owed on the property that Colony Plaza once sat on that would have to be resolved before any development can take place, as previously reported by OBJ. Colony Plaza was torn down in 2009, but the site has since had lingering issues with property rights, foreclosures and other legal complications.
If those liens are released, Orlando developer Scott Boyd of Boyd Development Corp. has said he wants to buy a half-acre site within that and include it in his own retail development adjacent the Elevation site.
Elevation expects to submit its plans to the city within the next three months. The company has been working with Avid Engineering Inc. and GAI Consultants on preliminary plans. An architect and general contractor haven’t yet been named.