GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Osceola Convention Center Vote Stalls Again

Rob Miller, a Palm Beach developer who previously failed to find financing for his planned convention center for the county, was the deal killer in what commissioners thought would have been the final vote on the center Monday, June 20. Miller filed a lawsuit in Osceola Circuit Court, alleging Austin, TX-based FaulknerUSA, a contending developer for the newest convention center plan, breached a land contract Miller had with the Texas firm, according to Osceola County Commission chairman Paul Owen. Under Florida law, FaulknerUSA has 45 days to respond to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit immediately halted further action by elected officials on the planned project. Insiders tell GlobeSt.com the lawsuit is expected to last for at least a year, effectively shooting down the convention center plan indefinitely.

"This convention center really isn't wanted by anyone except the developers involved," an Osceola County lawyer who participated in previous discussions for the project tells GlobeSt.com. "Besides the four-million-sf nearby Orange County Convention Center site, there is about a total 1.5 million sf of independent exhibition space at about a dozen nearby tourist-area hotels."

Persons in a position to know at the Orange County courthouse tell GlobeSt.com FaulknerUSA would have been selected had the vote gone forward. FaulknerUSA's rival for the project was Nashville-based Gaylord Entertainment Co. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide of White Plains was to have been Faulkner USA's partner in the hotel component of the convention center venture, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.

The Osceola Convention Center has been planned at different times by separate developers for 100,000 sf to 250,000 sf at estimated hard construction costs of $200 million to $400 million. However, no developer to date has found out how to properly pay for the project, according to Osceola commissioners.