GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Fed Starts Second Prison; Runs Construction Tab to $287M

The site is 95 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.

The total inmate population when the new structure is completed in 2004 will be 5,895, almost double the town's permanent population. At 1,440 acres, the federal government is clearly the largest landowner in this county whose total population is 43,678 based on the 2000 Census.

The new correctional complex off County Road 500 is drawing sharp protests from residents of the nearby Indian Oaks subdivision. They plan to ask a state court judge for an injunction that will temporarily halt the construction until local discussions on another site can be set up.

"We know it's a long shot but we've got to take it because if this new facility is built, there's no doubt in our minds that residential and commercial property values around here will go downhill," an Indian Oaks resident tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

Another resident tells GlobeSt.com that "most of us realize the new prison will bring more jobs and probably help out the local economy, as it did with the first prison, but we object to the site, not the prison project itself."

Bureau of Prison officials say they can't comment on the residents' protest until they have more input from them.

The existing $120 million facility was completed in 1995 by Bethesda, MD-based Clark Construction Co. and DLR Group of Phoenix. The general contractor expanded the complex in May 2001 to allow another 1,000 inmates at a cost of $78 million.

At a total $287 million, the three projects rank among the largest commercial/industrial undertakings in Central Florida over the past 10 years, according to GlobeSt.com research.

The Bureau of Prisons ranks the 4,698 inmate population in Beaumont, TX as the second largest facility of its kind. Close behind is the 4,669 inmate structure in Allenwood, PA.

The new Florida project follows the Bureau of Prison's ground-breaking this week on a $200 million, twin penitentiary project at Salters, SC near Charlotte and Bennettsville, SC, near Myrtle Beach. The Chantilly, VA office of Hansel Phelps Construction Co. of Greeley, CO is the general contractor on both South Carolina projects. Each pen will house 1,152 inmates.