First look at proposed Downtown Orlando Sports and Entertainment District

Plans for a huge sports and entertainment district in downtown Orlando would include a hotel, meeting and conference rooms, apartments, shops, and a concert venue, according to concept renderings of the possible future project.

The development would be located on what is now a vacant lot that was once home to Orlando’s police headquarters, at W. Church Street and S. Hughey Avenue, next to the Amway Center.

On Tuesday, officials announced that JMA Ventures and Machete Group had joined SED Development, LLC, and the Orlando Magic to spearhead the project.

JMA Ventures is a commercial real-estate and investment firm that also helped develop Downtown Commons, a mixed-use development next to the Golden 1 Center, home of the Sacramento Kings, in California. Machete Group develops and manages sports and entertainment venues, including Amway Center.

If approved and ultimately built, here is what the downtown Orlando sports and entertainment district is expected to include:

• 260-room hotel
• 16,000-square-feet of meeting and conference space
• 270 residential units
• 200,000-square-feet of Class A office space
• 125,000-square-feet of retail space
• 3,500-seat live event venue
• Urban town square
• More than 1,100 parking spaces

Source: Fox35