The owner of a prime piece of real estate about 2 miles north of Disney Springs recently submitted an application to add a hotel as an approved use for the property.
The 1.86-acre property, located at 11900 Ravallo Resort Dr., is located within the Buena Vista Park PD and has a PD zoning approved for restaurant or retail use. Engineering firm Kimley-Horn, on behalf of the property’s owner, recently submitted an application to Orange County to add a hotel as an approved use on the property. The application requests using the trip equivalency matrix to swap out an approved 14,962 square feet of retail/restaurant space for 60 hotel rooms, and to approve the addition of another 63 hotel rooms for the construction of a 123-key, 4-story hotel.
So far, the application team hasn’t submitted any site plans or renderings to the County.
The owner of the property, Christinis Land Company LLC, is affiliated with Christos and Helen Christakos, the owners and operators of Christini’s Ristorante Italiano, a popular Italian restaurant located within the Marketplace at Dr. Phillips shopping center. The family originally purchased the land in 2005 for $1.1 million with the intention of building a second location for their popular Italian restaurant.
However, the founder of the restaurant, Christos Christakos, otherwise known as Chris Christini, passed away last June at the age of 83, leaving his wife Helen as the sole owner of the restaurant and the owner of the vacant parcel on Ravallo Resort Drive. In October, the land was listed for sale, being marketed as a development site for either retail/restaurant use or a hotel. The property is being marketed by Scott Bell, Senior Director at Tavistock Development Company.
Bell declined to comment on the specifics of the property or the recent application, however, he confirmed that the property is still on the market.
“We are talking to a potential buyer for the site but don’t have a contract signed,” he told GrowthSpotter.
The vacant parcel is located within the 13-acre Buena Vista Park PD, which consists of 6 parcels, two of which are developed with hotels and two with entitlements. The SpringHill Suites on the eastern side of Palm Parkway was built in 2018, while a 127-key Comfort Suites Hotel at 11942 Ravallo Resort Dr. opened up next door last year, and was purchased in January by Portugal-based Pestana Hotel Group.
Lots 2, 3 and 4 of Buena Vista Park have approved plans for new hotels. In 2018, Jumani Hospitality paid $3.8 million for lots 2 and 3 with plans to build a 6-story, 110-key Hyatt House that was approved in 2017. That same year Reddy Hotels paid $3.45 million for the adjacent lot 4 with approved plans for a 113-room Tru by Hilton hotel.
Other nearby hotels that aren’t part of the PD include the Grande Villas Hilton Vacation Club, Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham, Embassy Suites by Hilton, Residence Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, and many more. According to a marketing brochure from Bell, there are 13,000 hotel rooms within a 1-mile radius of the property.
Paul Sexton, Vice President of HREC Investment Advisors, brokered the sale of the Comfort Suites Hotel to Pestana Hotel Group and the two hotel pads in the PD. He told GrowthSpotter that there is a need for more hotels in the Orlando area, considering Disney and Universal’s continued expansion within the region.
“As you may know, supply has not been able to keep up with demand in the Orlando market for probably the last 10 to 15 years. And that is only a trend that is only going to become exacerbated once Epic Universe opens,” Sexton said. “What I would say is, right now we have a lot of energy focused on the I-Drive market because of Epic Universe opening soon.”
Epic Universe, which is expected to open next year, is a more than $1 billion investment from Universal Orlando Resort. Data from Orlando-based Hotel Development Consultants indicates that, as of last year, there were 135,000 hotel rooms within the Orlando market. In 2026, hotel occupancy in the Orlando market is expected to reach 77.8%, with an average daily room rate of $173.65. If these predictions hold true, that means the market’s hotel sector will bring in a combined $6.65 billion in revenue, generating almost $400 million in tax revenue for Orange County based on the 6% hotel tax.
Disney also continues to invest in the region, which will also add to Orlando’s need for more hotel rooms, especially in the I-drive corridor. Last year, CEO Bob Iger announced the company’s intention to invest an additional $17 billion into its Florida properties, with several billion dollars invested within the next decade. This investment will include an expansion of Magic Kingdom, although the company hasn’t revealed specific details yet on that expansion. Sexton said that Disney’s continued investment only adds to the impact that Epic Universe will have.
“Disney, as always, will continue to answer whatever it is that Universal puts on the table,” he said.
The proposed 123-room hotel is located within a highly growing area. The global corporate headquarters for Marriott Vacations Worldwide is located up the street at 7812 Palm Pkwy. The 9-story, nearly 300,000-square-foot office building opened up last year and is part of the massive O-Town West, a $1 billion, 365-acre mixed-use community from developer Unicorp National Developments.
The development consists of four distinct commercial centers. One of them is City Center at O-Town West, which includes the Marriott Vacations office and will be the future home of Unicorp National Development, Inc. Other features include several restaurants and the future 220-room Tao Hotel.
Other sections of O-Town include The Crossings, a shopping center with 25,888 square feet of retail space, as well as the Publix-anchored, 103,000-square-foot Town Center at O-Town West and The Village & Glasshouse, which will feature 80,000-square-feet of commercial space and nearly 900 multifamily units. Earlier this month, Unicorp submitted an application to construct a 7,955-square-foot retail building at 11796 Glass House Ln., on what is currently surplus parking adjacent to the Raising Cane’s location. Application materials indicate that retail space will be divided into three separate sections.
“There are not very many locations within the Lake Buena Vista submarket where you can build new hotels, because they are running out of land. So any kind of hotels that can be built there is certainly encouraging,” Sexton said.
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