The developers confirm they have signed sales contracts for 13 condos and 12 suites even before the first shovel hits the dirt. The condos are $1.1 million to $2.8 million each; the suites, $420,000 to $895,000. Suite buyers are allowed to rent their space when they are not using it.

The venture is drawing attention because it is the first hotel development in 30 years in affluent Winter Park, an Orlando suburb.

Regent International Hotels, a unit of Minneapolis-based Carlson Cos., will manage the condo-hotel scheduled to open by the fourth quarter of 2004 at 300 E. New England Ave. in suburban Winter Park, FL.

At $70 million, the estimated development cost of the 110 units is $636,364 per unit, by far the most expensive hospitality enterprise attempted in metro Orlando years, industry brokers and construction industry estimators familiar with comparable projects, tell GlobeSt.com.

The project is being developed on the former four-acre site of the 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.

Langford Corp. sold the 47-year-old property to Fort Lauderdale, FL-based Langford Development for $9.95 million or $2.49 million per acre ($571 per sf), the second high 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 that reclusive Orlando 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.

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

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