OCOEE, Fla. – A massive sports complex is in the works on 148 acres near the intersection of Ocoee-Apopka and Fullers Cross roads in Ocoee.
Ocoee Mayor Rusty Johnson said the Ocoee Regional Sports Complex addresses economic development, jobs and infrastructure improvements for the community.
“You’re talking about a lot of things that are going to happen in the next couple of years,” Johnson said. “They’re projecting some time in 2025, 2026 it should be done.”
Johnson is excited for what the future holds as plans for the sports complex begin to firm up.
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“This is a benefit to all of us,” Johnson said. “A benefit to the city, benefits to our taxes, benefits our employees and it benefits our citizens. The main thing is the citizens benefit from it. It helps them with their taxes and stuff.”
The $300 million project is expected to bring in $3 to $6 million in shared profits annually, 1,098 jobs, an 18% to 40% increase in property value, $1.6 million in property taxes and anywhere from $500 to $900 million in visitor revenue annually.
Johnson said he hopes the sports complex helps expedite the development of downtown Ocoee too.
“We’re the third largest city in Orange County, so we don’t have a huge downtown,” Johnson said. “But we’re in the process of the last three years of trying to redo our downtown so we’re adding new businesses. New people have come in and bought the land, they’re redoing the buildings, putting in restaurants, putting in shops.”
The project’s developer, Montierre Development, said they will also improve the infrastructure of nearby roads and sidewalks as part of their investment into the sports complex.
Montierre Development CEO, Jaime Douglas, said they have a full plan to do a roadway expansion.
“A couple of the roads that will be expanded will be Ocoee-Apopka Road from West all the way to Franklin,” Douglas said. “Then we’ll work as a team with the current work being done on Lakewood and Franklin to tie into those two roadways and then also East Fullers Crossing.”
The Ocoee Regional Sports Complex will feature several amenities including 16 full-size baseball fields, an inclusive recreational park and playground, multi-purpose fields and a splash pad.
Douglas said they also wanted to create something that could be used by everyone. In addition to the recreational amenities, the complex will also feature two hotels with 400 rooms total, seven restaurants and retail buildings at around 180,000 square feet total, six office/retail spaces on the first floor of the parking garages and hotels totaling approximately 120,000 square feet and two parking garages with 800 spaces each.
“We were able to kind of put together a situation where it could make it a revenue slash complex facility to where you’re not only having a complex with patrons, but we also have a second half of the commercial mixed use that can bring in a revenue source for the city,” Douglas said.
Douglas said the Ocoee Regional Sports Complex could be the biggest one in the country once it is complete.
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