Officials Envision Multimillion-Dollar Downtown Digital Media Village

The project would be developed on the city-owned 64-acre campus called Centroplex which also includes the 16-year-old, 18,000-seat TD Waterhouse Centre, home of the Orlando Magic. The renovation of the arena, formerly called Orlando Arena, is crucial to Mayor Buddy Dyer's redevelopment plans since Magic officials have previously told the city they may have to move the franchise to another city if Orlando can't provide a more modern basketball court.

Late last week, Gov. Jeb Bush removed Dyer from office pending a grand jury investigation into alleged violations of the absentee ballot law during his 2004 re-election campaign. Councilman Ernest Page has been named acting mayor.

Dyer delegated C. David Brown of the Broad & Cassel law firm here to send out the city's requests for proposals to developers and architects. "We are not telling the developers what to build on the land," a city staffer tells GlobeSt.com. "We are open to all proposals."

The selected development group would finance, design and construct the new Centroplex campus. The city would offer a land-lease deal for the project, according to city staffers. The redevelopment project would generate development fees that would help to finance the arena's renovation.

The city hopes new Centroplex plans would focus on the University of Central Florida's growing film and digital media departments, city staffers tell GlobeSt.com. UCF already has leased the 115,000-sf Expo Centre, next to the Marriott Hotel for its new Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy.

The development site is bounded by Hughey Avenue to the east, Parramore Avenue to the west, Concord Street to the north and Robinson Street to the south. Besides the Marriott Hotel and the Expo Centre building, the redevelop site also includes the Nap Ford Charter School, the Downtown Recreation Complex and the Orlando Tennis Center. The entire site sits between the city's growing Downtown and Parramore, a low-income neighborhood the city has tried to redevelop for decades.