Edon Park would revitalize what is currently an empty lot on West Vine Street. (Photo/Google Maps)
After years of planning and projects to upgrade the downtown corridor, the Kissimmee City Commission Tuesday took a step toward a massive upgrade along Vine Street.
At their City Commission meeting, commissioners voted to select Vine Street Redevelopment, LLC, a partnership between CapStrata and Hedrick Brothers Development, to develop the site of a former Kmart and Big Lots site just west of Thacker Avenue that’s sat shuttered for years.
“Edon Park” — it’s just “node” spelled backwards, the developer notes — is the second large-scale project the city has approved this year, following a plan for two new downtown hotels and a new convention center to replace the existing Kissimmee Civic Center.
“This new district will be the birthplace of new life for Kissimmee, capitalizing on the location of existing infrastructure and services,” the Vine Street Redevelopment presentation noted. “Edon Park will serve as the catalyst for the redevelopment of the NOVI (North of Vine) Subdistrict.”
The developer’s five-year mixed-use plan would include 630 one, two and three-bedroom residential units — a mix of affordable workforce and market-rate units — 51,000 square feet of new retail and commercial space, decked parking garages and an indoor sports facility and a $15 million purchase option for the rest of the land. The buildings would be one to five stories.
The city, desiring a “Vibrant mixed-use development” for the site, put out a request for qualification in May for the project, and selected CapStrata and Hedrick Brothers Development operating as Vine Street Redevelopment, LLC, as the Master Developer for the project, out of five submitted and three viewed as “qualified,” City Manager Mike Steigerwald said.
This plan features a new north-south street through the site that would connect Vine Street to Columbia Avenue to the north, offering a walkable complex to those who will live, work and shop there.
“We want to increase connectivity,” Steigerwald said. “The more connectivity you have, the more traffic is dispersed and the less impact it has on any major highway. The committee felt so highly of this proposal, because it breaks the property up into city blocks, similar to what you’d see in a downtown area.”
Burk Hedrick of Winter Park-based Hedrick Brothers development, tasked as a contraction by Vine Street Development, said at Tuesday’s meeting, said the housing would be built in two 315-unit phases. While commissioners Carlos Alvarez and Noel Ortiz asked developers to include senior citizen and affordable housing, Hedrick told them those plans are still coming together.\
“Our goal is to provide housing that accommodates the 80 to 100 percent median income of the area,” he said.
A second part of the project included approval of a $561,000 contract for the demolition and removal of the old Kmart on the site.
Mayor Jackie Espinosa called the finally-approved plan “a great opportunity for the city,” saying, “When we drive through there now, we’re excited about what’s to come.”
