Real Estate Florida - May/June 2009

Developers of Destiny, the nation’s first “eco-sustainable city,” claim that the project does not contribute to sprawl. State officials argue that it is located dozens of miles from the nearest urban area. It may take several more years to determine who is right.

Land Co. of Osceola County LLC is moving forward with plans to build Destiny, a 64-square-mile city at the crossroads of Florida’s Turnpike, US 441 and State Road 60. The first phase of development will involve the 500-acre Alternative Energy Industrial Park that aims to create thousands of “green collar” jobs.

“The basis for our city is building around jobs, not houses,” Randy Johnson, Destiny’s chief operating officer, tells Real Estate Florida. The idea, he says, is to develop 20 million square feet of commercial space in all sectors, along with enough housing stock that will not only provide homes for thousands of employees but render all other residential options in Central Florida obsolete.

Destiny—not to be confused with Destin, the popular beachside city in the Pan-

A 500-acre Alternative Energy Industrial Park represents the first phase of Destiny’s development.

handle—is the brainchild of Delray Beach developer Anthony V. Pugliese III and Fred DeLuca, founder of the Subway sandwich shop chain. The partners are putting $250 million toward realizing their vision, according to Johnson: “This is not just a business for them, it’s a passion to change

DataPoints

Florida’s unemployment rate nearly doubled over the past year and almost reached 10% in March, affecting all sectors of commercial real estate. Here are jobless rates for the state’s 10 largest metropolitan areas, compared with the year-earlier rate:

METRO AREA LABOR FORCE Miami-Fort Lauderdale 2.8 million Tampa-St. Petersburg 1. 3 million Orlando-Kissimmee 1. 1 million Jacksonville 680,000 Bradenton-Sarasota 313,000 Cape Coral-Fort Myers 280,000 Lakeland-Winter Haven 273,000 Palm Bay-Melbourne 266,000 Deltona-Daytona Beach 255,000 Pensacola-Ferry Pass 209,000

SOURCE: Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation

UNEMPLOYMENT 8.5% 10.4% 9.9% 9.3% 10.9% 12.2% 10.5% 10.1% 10.4% 9.2%

YEAR AGO 4.8% 5.4% 4.7% 4.7% 5.6% 6.7% 5.1% 5.3% 5.3% 4.6%

the world.”

State officials may need to be convinced otherwise. Destiny has yet to submit an application to the Florida Department of Community Affairs, which already faces a backlog of proposals for more than 600,000 new homes and 500 million square feet of commercial space statewide.

The DCA has criticized Osceola County over proposed changes to its comprehensive land use plan that would allow development over at least 500,000 rural acres. The department suggests that the county should consider clustering developments, rather than allowing standalone projects such as Destiny.

Johnson, a former state legislator, counters that Destiny will not contribute to sprawl because its 41,300-acre land mass includes a strictly enforced greenbelt around the city. He points out that only 5% of Osceola County is currently built, which puts pressure on local officials to encourage development.