New 1000 room convention hotel awaits approval

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Recently the developer of a planned hotel near SeaWorld Orlando is all set to take approval from Orange County. Westwood Land Corp. in Orlando is ready to present the plan to the county’s development review committee on Jan. 6 for a 1,000-room convention hotel on 6.57 acres on Westwood Boulevard. The project, which is named Westwood Hotel on renderings, sits next to the 259-room Tru by Hilton Orlando Convention Center Area that opened in September.

The convention hotel plans, includes the following:

• 1,000 hotel rooms in the 28-story tower
• Two separate retail spaces of 3,300 and 1,600 square feet
• Two restaurants of 420 and 180 seats
• Five-level parking garage with 1,000 spaces

The project’s team includes Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc. in Orlando as civil engineer; Orlando-based Accuright Surveys of Orlando Inc. as surveyor; and Atlanta-based Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates Inc. as architect.

No timeline or cost for the project was included, but an application shows the construction would be completed in a single phase.

Industry standards show a hotel with 1,000 rooms can cost up to $300 million including land, construction, furnishing and other fees. In addition, a hotel of that size could create up to 700 direct and indirect hospitality jobs.

Challenging future

New construction sites create both temporary construction jobs and new permanent positions. Though the approach is positive from the economic perspective as the construction work will boost recruitment and business, yet the market at present is still fighting Covid-19 strain and hence negative impacts of virus spread could impact on business.

Occupancy rates are also down since the covid outbreak. Hence, coming up with a new venture in this situation is critical.

The pandemic has caused travel to drop sharply across the world, causing great harm to Orlando’s leisure and convention travel market.

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