The city's downtown is getting a more than $1 billion facelift with a new arena for the Orlando Magic, a renovated Florida Citrus Bowl and a new performing arts centre, officials announced Friday.
The projects were made possible by a recently approved penny-on-the-dollar increase in Orange County's hotel bed tax. The Magic arena will run US$480 million _ with the team on the hook for overruns and some $200 million in costs _ while the new performing arts centre will cost $389 million.
It will take $175 million to gut and redo the aging Florida Citrus Bowl, which hosts two big college bowl games but is losing its primary tenant, Central Florida, when the school opens up on on-campus football stadium next season.
``Downtown Orlando is undergoing a renaissance that few cities in Florida, or for that matter our country, have experienced,'' Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said.
The Magic had long sought a new arena, arguing that the 17-year-old TD Waterhouse Centre doesn't offer the moneymaking amenities other NBA teams enjoy. Previous efforts, even at renovation, failed after the tourist economy dropped out following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The Magic could start playing in the new building, just a few blocks from the old one, in 2010.
Integral to the deal was the club's promise to take on an additional $100 million in risk _ beyond an initial $100 million in cash, lease payments and operating expenses, Dyer said,
``We were able to find a risk position that we were comfortable with,'' Magic chief operating officer Alex Martins said.
The Citrus Bowl renovation will be completed in several phases so the stadium can continue to host the Capital One and Champs Sports bowls and Florida Classic, which yearly features rivals Florida A&M University and Bethune-Cookman College.
``You're basically going to gut the 70-year-old structure below the two upper decks and you're going to put it back to modern standards, concourses, fan amenities, restrooms, points of sale and new seating,'' said Steve Hogan, executive director of Florida Citrus Sports.
He said it would also give the Orlando area its first outdoor amphitheatre setting, hosting concerts from 5,000 to 25,000 people.
Just as importantly, Hogan said, it enables the Citrus Bowl to go after new clients _ more college football, NFL pre-season games, soccer and others.
``The 12-game (college) season now is permanent. That's going to free up at least one extra game a year where the Notre Dame-type programs and the big programs in the country want to come through and do a recruiting swing, and play a game here,'' he said.
The new performing arts centre will be home to the Orlando Philharmonic, Orlando Ballet and Orlando Opera, and host more than 330 events. It's planned to feature an 1,800-seat acoustic hall, a 2,800-seat amplified hall and 300-seat multipurpose hall.
