Osceola County is turning to some of the biggest names in New York City architecture to design and develop its top development project.
The development team of Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Sciame Construction and SHoP Architects, who have been on that side of putting together recent Manhattan projects, shared their vision for NeoCity’s City Center — the business, entertainment, residential, and community center of the County’s NeoCity technological campus — with commissioners at Monday’s county meeting.
Officials from the developers shared a live-work-play concept that would parallel the forwardthinking technology being worked on there, while also being a destination for all residents of the rest with food, shopping and cultural options.
The county entered an agreement with Korean consortium DSUS, in December 2021 to develop a 25-acre parcel of NeoCity called “Phase I”. Frank Sciame, CEO of Sciame Construction and a principal with DSUS, bought the rights to the project, and the companies involved will pay for the construction.
Sciame showed his company’s work Monday on prominent projects in Manhattan, including the World Financial Center, what the area around the former World Trade Center now looks like after its retrofitting following 9/11, including its own performing arts center.
“Our vision for NeoCity is completely aligned. In a world where online shopping and working remotely is a new reality, we had to take the time to refine the master plan,” he said. “We need to get it right, and we’ll continue to work with the county to get it right. We want NeoCity to be an inclusionary amenity for the whole region, not just the people who work there. We want it to be a magnet that will enhance the surrounding region – a 24-hour work-play-live community that is heavily focused on the public experience.”
He said it will feature a variety of food options, retail, public art, shaded plazas, water amenities and a performing arts center.
“We aim to create a community that creates a sense of place to support high-tech job growth and foster investment in Osceola County,” he said. “We applaud the county’s vision in attracting companies in the semiconductor space. This project is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the pressing, immediate need to move chip manufacturing into the U.S. and diversify the county’s economy. Culture will be critical to the success of this project, and will be the gravity that attracts people in Central Florida.”
Louisa Mendez, senior associate at ShoP Architects, said the NeoCity plan needs to – and will – foster growth and job creation.
“It starts with the elements that define great cities,” she said, noting the best of programming, an open space network and a mobility network of streets and “laneways” that foster all forms of transportation. “Great public space informs great architecture.”
The plan takes into account that much of the development will be on the shores of a created lake, and will feature a full pond trail and a more formal “Waterfront Esplande” area.
“One is more formal, the other is a more natural way to experience the water for both residents and visitors,” Mendez said.
“An open plaza is a key to the heart of the district, with a network of smaller neighborhood plazas enjoying that waterfront connection.”
She used Armature Works, St. Pete Pier and Sparkman Wharf, outdoor plaza concepts on the Tampa Bay waterfront, as an example of what the NeoCity concept will look like.
Under the plan, NeoCity will feature a connection to its own waterfront, with wider streets leading toward it. Natural landscapes are proposed to connect to neighborhoods to the west that border Lake Tohopekaliga. But its own residential facades will fit into the landscape and have a water view, in many of the ways that it happens in urban areas like New York City, with residential units as a second story integrated into first-floor retail like restaurants.
“There’s a great vision for what it can be,” Mendez said.
County staff, who have invested over $273 million in making NeoCity a regional semiconducting hub, shared their excitement about the start of a new piece of the tech town puzzle.
“I’m so excited that you’re investing in the future of Osceola County, and helping us get there,” Commission Chairman Brandon Arrington told the DSUS group present. “We’re excited to grow the economic development here.”
County Manager Don Fisher, who has been on the ground level of this project since it was a simple land deal about 10 years ago, shared his own excitement with the vision.
“They want to do all the projects in the 25 acres at the same time. The impression of all that, going up at the same time, is going to send a impactful message to the region,” said Fisher, who noted construction would likely begin in the middle of 2024, roughly two years from now.
“It’s humbling and exciting, and affirms we’re doing the right thing out there. We’ve been persistent with the vision, and for a firm with such a profile in New York to pick NeoCity as their entry to the Florida market, we think it’s exciting.”
NeoCity is currently home to the Center for NeoVation, housing a handful of tech companies, and the Osceola County School District’s NeoCity Academy, which works with those companies to create students skilled to work there.
