By Marvin G. Cortner

Editor

Developers on Tuesday morning, along with Osceola County commissioners, will break ground on a new shopping center on East U.S. Highway 192 that they say will generate hundreds of new jobs and an increased tax base – all thanks to a moratorium on county transportation impact fees.

The shopping center, which will be anchored by a Publix store and is called Partin Village, is being built near the intersection of U.S. Highway 192 and Partin Settlement Road, between Kissimmee and St. Cloud.

County officials stated in a press release that developers of the 65,600-square-foot center moved ahead because of the moratorium on commercial transportation impact fees, which are used to build new roads or expand existing ones to accommodate the additional traffic brought on by growth. When completed, the county will have waived approximately $1 million in impact fees for the shopping center.

Orlando-based WindCrest Development Group, the project developer, is spending more than $12 million on engineers, surveyors, architects, contractors and those who will build the center, which will ultimately employ about 500 people when complete, according to county officials. Besides the 45,600-square-foot Publix, other outlets in the center could include four to six restaurants, banks and other businesses serving the community.

The president of WindCrest Development Group is Craig L. Buchanan; vice president is Thomas J. Murray. The company operates out of 605 E. Robinson St., Suite 340.

The County Commission in January established the moratorium on transportation impact fees for both commercial and industrial projects that have building permits issued between Dec. 13, 2010, and Feb. 1, 2012.

In a related item, the County Commission this afternoon is scheduled to discuss reducing by 10 percent both the county transportation impact fees for residential construction and the Osceola County School District impact fees.

School impact fees, charged on residential construction only, pay for the additional classroom space needed to accommodate new students. The School Board voted last year to recommend that the county reduce school impact fees by the 10 percent.