New apartments to rise near Walt Disney World
An Atlanta developer wants to build apartments in Orlando’s tourist corridor.
Stockbridge, Georgia-based Davis Development seeks approvals for 400 apartment units on Wildwood Avenue southeast of International Drive, according to Orange County records. The project, called Davis Vistana Apartments, may cost $76 million to build, based on industry standards. A Davis Development representative wasn’t available for comment. Davis Development’s Dd Intl Drive 26.9 LLC bought the 26.9-acre property in September for $9.8 million, or roughly $364,312 an acre, records showed. Orlando-based Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp.’s (NYSE: VAC) Svo Vistana Villages Inc. was the seller. The property’s market value was $4.7 million, according to the Orange County Property Appraiser.
The project may feature a 4-story building with one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom units, according to county documents. Sarasota-based Stantec Consulting Services Inc. is the project applicant. A representative wasn’t available for comment.
It’s the latest project to seek approvals in the area. Nearby landowner PRN Real Estate and Investments Ltd. — an entity related to Orlando business owner Nancy Rossman — wants approvals for 380,000 square feet of retail, 2,120 hotel rooms and 532 apartment units for a roughly 35.4-acre site north of Cumberland Park Drive, east of International Drive and west of Wildwood Avenue.
Meanwhile, Orlando-based developer Unicorp National Developments is under construction on its $1 billion mixed-use O-Town West project northwest of the Davis Development site.
February has been a busy month for new Orlando apartment projects with nearly 3,000 units in the works including the Davis Development site.
Roughly 7,517 apartment units have been built in the Orlando area the past year, according to CoStar Group research. That’s well above the region’s historical average of 4,049 units, showing the demand for apartments locally.
The I-Drive Orlando apartment submarket, which includes the Davis Development project, featured an average asking rent of $1,423, CoStar Group reported, which is above the Orlando-area average of $1,325, showing demand for new apartments. In addition, the submarket’s average vacancy rate of 13.9% is above the Orlando-area 9.3% average.