Unicorp’s Chuck Whittall plans new $30M+ redevelopment of property on Orlando’s Restaurant Row
One of Orlando’s most prolific developers has his sights set on redeveloping a prime Dr. Phillips corner property.
Unicorp National Developments Inc. President Chuck Whittall confirmed to Orlando Business Journal Monday his plans for a new 29,750-square-foot project with commercial uses and a parking garage at 7625 W. Sand Lake Road, along Orlando’s popular Restaurant Row corridor.
The property, which Unicorp’s related Marketplace Center LLC bought in 2002 for $2 million, currently is home to a two-story, 9,000-square-foot building formerly used as a bank.
“We want to redevelop that corner to do some high-end restaurants there,” Whittall said. “We’re going to bring some really cool concepts that the Central Florida area has not seen — concepts out of New York and Miami. Sand Lake Road has always been known as Restaurant Row and we just need a little more variety there, so we want to bring new-to-market concepts there and it’s a great location.”
Whittall told OBJ the project could cost anywhere from $30 million to $40 million to build and Unicorp’s goal is to break ground by the beginning of 2024.
He also said he is in talks with Apopka-based Finfrock to be the general contractor on the project, given its experience with projects with parking garages.
Other firms involved in the preliminary plans include Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc.’s Orlando office and Maitland-based American Surveying & Mapping Inc.
As for what restaurant concepts may end up in the high-dollar project, Whittall suggested Slate, Unicorp’s upscale restaurant it owns that is currently in its Parkside at Dr. Phillips development, may relocate to the new project.
In addition, he said his team is in talks with “a very high-end Mediterranean concept” as well as restaurant concepts out of South Florida and Tampa.
The project would rise on a 1.6-acre parcel that is part of the larger Marketplace at Dr. Phillips shopping center owned by New York-based Kimco. That property is being eyed for partial redevelopment to multifamily homes, plans which have encountered resistance from neighbors concerned about the implications for traffic.
Whittall said Kimco’s plans to redevelop part of its shopping center do not factor into his own plans to redevelop his parcel, and added that he believes his project will encounter less resistance as it seeks rezoning to “planned development.”
“It’s not going to create new traffic, it’s existing traffic — we’re not going to produce any more bodies than what’s already there.”
Whittall, who also has been advancing his planned $100 million The Luxe super luxury apartments development, told OBJ that new high-end restaurants soon will be announced for his $1 billion-plus O-Town West project.
Meanwhile, the anticipated restaurant-centric project comes at a time of growth for the food-service industry nationally.
The U.S. food-service sector is expected to reach $997 billion in sales this year, along with adding 500,000 jobs to exceed total industry employment of 15.5 million by the end of the year, according to the Washington, D.C.-based National Restaurant Association.
“The restaurant and foodservice industry is fueling the American economy. Our hiring rate and wage increases are outpacing the overall private sector, and this year our industry will contribute nearly $1 trillion to the economy,” said Michelle Korsmo, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, in comments made in conjunction with the release of the group’s 2023 State of the Restaurant Industry report earlier this year.