Yeager's Estimated $1B Projects Target Airport Area

ORLANDO-Local developer Rob Yeager and the city have big growth plans for a southeast corner of Orange County near Orlando International Airport where only 4,500 rooftops are evident today. That number could jump to 50,000 in 25 years, city planners say.Yeager plans to carve out a mini-city with two mixed-use projects that could have a final development hard cost of $1 billion, area brokers and construction industry estimators familiar with Yeager’s past projects tell GlobeSt.com. The sites are 20 miles south of Downtown.To move the enterprise along, the Orlando City Council is considering annexing 1,573 acres at Vista Park, one of the ventures. The project would have 55,000 sf of office space and 166,000 sf of retail and commercial space.At the second development, proposed by Bal Bay Realty Inc., Yeager would develop a regional mall, a 300-room hotel and 900 apartments or townhomes on the available 536 acres, according to preliminary plans filed with the city. Both projects would have a total 4,000 homes in the $200,000-to-$400,000 range. The mall would complement the Vista Park undertaking.The Vista Park site lies between State Road 417, the Central Florida GreeneWay and State Road 528 which is the BeeLine Expressway. The Bal Bay project would be built directly south of the BeeLine and east of Narcoossee Road. The Vista Park site contains 600 acres of wetlands that cannot be developed.If the city approves the annexation of Vista Park’s 1,573 acres, it would be the largest mixed-use development approved since 1999 when the $1-billion, 1,100-acre Baldwin Park venture in suburban Winter Park, FL got its green light. The Pritzker investment family of Chicago owns Baldwin Park, which is the former site of the defunct Orlando Naval Training Center.