Apartments, Shops Near Go-ahead - tribunedigital-orlandosentinel

The Fountainhead Project North Of Downtown Kissimmee Is To Include 648 Apartments, Plus Offices And A Shopping Center.

December 12, 1993|By Beverly Keneagy of The Sentinel Staff

KISSIMMEE — A 97-acre tract with a heavy growth of trees just north of downtown is targeted for a huge apartment complex, offices, shops and restaurants.

That's the idea for the Fountainhead development, which would be built on the parcel north of Columbia Street, east of Bermuda Avenue and west of Central Avenue.

The development plan calls for 648 apartments. Several other apartment complexes already are in the area.

The $53 million development has been in the planning stages since 1990 and gained the city's approval in September 1992. But a year ago, the state held up the development because of traffic concerns.

State officials now say they are close to having those problems resolved. Once a settlement is approved, construction could begin within six months, said Anup Vasisht, a representative for the developer, Kissimmee Investors Ltd.

The settlement will require the developer to monitor traffic along Bermuda Avenue and Central Avenue and add traffic signals and other improvements if they are warranted, said Kathy Castor, an assistant general counsel at the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

It will also require that the developer contribute $37,730 to Osceola County that will go toward building a new turn lane from Bermuda Avenue onto U.S. Highway 192.

When completed, the Fountainhead development would add an average of 27,947 new trips a day to Bermuda Avenue, which had 25,980 vehicles using it one day last week during a county survey.

The county is widening Bermuda from two to six lanes from Carroll Street to U.S. 192. The wider road is expected to help traffic flow in Fountainhead and will give commuters easier access to and from south Orlando. Bermuda becomes John Young Parkway at the Orange County line.

The Fountainhead development is adjacent to two existing apartment complexes named Fountainhead and Lake Tivoli. Lake Tivoli is part of the overall project. Fountainhead Apartments was at one time, but it since has been sold.

Fountainhead's initial development plan calls for the construction of 648 new apart ments, to be followed by 234,630 square feet of retail space and 66,640 square feet of offices clustered around a 33-acre lake.

However, Vasisht said the company may build the offices and retail buildings first because the economy doesn't seem to warrant construction of new apartments.

''We have to look at the economy here,'' he said. ''At the present time, we don't feel it's economically feasible to do multifamily there.''

Vasisht said he thinks that will change. ''There will be a demand and there's not much room for a multifamily development in the downtown area of Kissimmee,'' he said.

Nearly all of the property is at or below the 100-year flood plain. For that reason, extra fill dirt will be used to raise the elevation of the buildings.

Once construction starts, the developer has seven years to complete the project. When finished, the development is expected to generate $1.1 million in new tax revenue for the city.

The apartments would be geared to help meet the housing needs of the expanding work force for Central Florida's tourist attractions. However, the commercial and retail businesses would also provide an estimated 1,015 on-site jobs for the tenants.

''It's going to be a development to promote the walk-to-work concept,'' Vasisht said.

As envisioned, the commercial development would have a shopping center, grocery store, a bank and a restaurant so tenants would have convenient access.