Winter Park city commissioners approved Regent this week. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts of Dallas was one of the early contenders. Terms of Regent's management contract weren't disclosed.

The project is scheduled to break ground by summer 2003. A sales office is opening on Park Avenue in Downtown Winter Park in September. Condos are expected to be priced from $1.3 million to $2 million. Premier Sales Group of Boca Raton is marketing the condos.

Langford Corp. sold the four-acre property at 300 E. New England Ave. to Langford Development for $9.95 million or $2.49 million per acre ($571 per sf), the second highest land price recorded in Central Florida for a commercial or residential property, staffers at the Orange County real estate records department tell GlobeSt.com.

The highest Downtown Orlando land price recorded in the past 10 years was the $7.6 million price reclusive billionaire Joseph Lewis and his Tavistock Group paid in November 2001 to a Saudi Arabian syndicate for 2.29 acres along Orange Avenue between Church and Pine Streets.

The dirt sold for $3.32 million per acre or $76.19 per sf. (See related story on this page.)

At $70 million, the estimated development cost of the 150 hotel rooms and 23 condos are an average $404,624 per unit, by far the most expensive hospitality enterprise attempted in metro Orlando in years, according to GlobeSt.com research. Funding details for the project haven't been disclosed.

Principals of Langford Development are Mark Ellert, president, Aztec Leisure Corp. and Interlink Hospitality Corp., both of Fort Lauderdale; Ezra Katz, chairman/CEO, Aztec Group Inc., Coral Gables, FL; and James Heistand, president, Capital Partners Inc., Orlando.

The venture is drawing attention because it is Winter Park's first hotel development in 30 years and will be built on the four-acre, 47-year-old site of the former Langford Resort Hotel, a boutique, nationally known inn founded by Chicago developer Robert E. Langford in 1955 and operated by his family until June 1, 2000 when the 213-room property closed its doors. Langford, 88, died March 31, 2001.

Initial plans for the new Langford property called for 2,000 sf of retail; a 200-seat restaurant; a 250-space garage with 52 additional surface spots; a 10l,000-sf ballroom and meeting room area; and a 12,500-sf spa and fitness center.

Those amenities compare with the old hotel's 122-seat restaurant; 920-sf spa and fitness center; 1,045 sf of retail; and an 11,900-sf ballroom/meeting area.

Langford Development LLC plans to demolish all but a small portion of the existing 240,000-sf hotel built 47 years ago for $1 million or $5,000 per room.

The property is located in one of the most desirable and high-priced Winter Park residential/commercial areas. In its heyday, the old Langford attracted the rich and famous, as well as the notorious, according to previously published accounts of the young city's social history.

The old Langford's main magnet for celebrities was its secluded location, Winter Park old-timers tell GlobeSt.com. Among the hotel's guests were former President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy; Eleanor Roosevelt; Mamie Eisenhower; the late comedian Henny Youngman; astronaut John Glenn; and even some members of Chicago's Capone Gang, registering under assumed names, according to published histories of Winter Park.

Instant Insights /

Carlson Wins Hotel-Condo Contract at New Langford

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