CBRE Wins Listing for Trophy Tract Near Disney

The Orlando and Miami offices of CB Richard Ellis Inc. are marketing the 482-acre tract for a joint venture ownership of locally based Brooksville Development Corp. and the estate of the late Taiwanese investor Ling Kai Kung. There is no asking price and the property will be sold by a silent mailed bid. Area brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com the purchase price is expected to be at least $1 million per acre.

"The site is the only available entitled parcel adjacent to Walt Disney World and Interstate 4," says Jim Rogers, first vice president of CBRE Hotels in Miami. The dirt is also only minutes from International Drive, the Orange County Convention Center, SeaWorld Adventure Park and Universal Orlando Resort. Robert McEwan, vice president of CBRE's land and investments group in Orlando is working with Rogers on the listing.

The property is being put on the market again now because the owners feel the hot Lake Buena Vista, FL development hub has stabilized, Rogers tells GlobeSt.com. He calls the property "a truly unique and outstanding investment and development opportunity." The entitlements allow for up to 2,800 hotel rooms, 250,000 sf of conference center uses, retail space and a Rees Jones-designed 18-hole golf course which has already been laid out and roughed in, the broker says.

The only construction activity on Bonnet Creek these days is the completion of Fairfield Resorts' 700 timeshare units on 46 acres the locally based developer bought in 2002 from Bonnet Creek Venture Ltd. Another 350 units are on the drawing board on a second adjoining 12-acre parcel on which Fairfield holds a purchase option, GlobeSt.com previously reported.

Fairfield's purchase price of the 46 acres was not disclosed but area brokers who deal in large land parcels in the metro area's tourist corridor tell GlobeSt.com the price in 2002 was probably at least $300,000 per acre, or $6.89 per sf, for a total 13.8 million. But other brokers not associated with that transaction tell GlobeSt.com the price was at least $500,000 per acre. CBRE's Rogers says he can't speculate on what the winning bid for the 482-acre property will be.