County seeks to lure hotels to Osceola Heritage Park
Over one hundred RVs line a large field in Osceola Heritage Park, their occupants hoping to see and possibly purchase one of over 4,400 specialty cars offered by the largest collector car auction in the world, Mecum Kissimmee, this week.
With no hotels nearby, RVs are the only way guests can stay on or near the property at county-owned Osceola Heritage Park. That’s a problem the county is attempting to fix by enticing hotel development.
“I think if they built ten hotels on property they would have that sold out for a year,” said David Morton, manager of communications and event marketing at Mecum Kissimmee, which expects over $200 million in sales from this week’s event. “Our staff is staying in Margaritaville so we’re driving in 30 to 40 minutes everyday.”
Osceola Heritage Park has all 182 RV spots filled. But at $68 dollars a day for full hookup, the revenue is a fraction of what the park could bring into the county if a hotel was on the property, Morton said.
Following a record-breaking year for tourist development tax collections in Osceola County, fueled by an increase in events at Osceola Heritage Park, the planning commission is set this week to recommend the Board of County Commissioners change the zoning for the park land from various residential uses to strictly commercial. The change will specifically promote hotel, restaurant and retail space but will not permit single family homes of any kind at the over 200-acre site that is home to a 10,500-seat indoor entertainment arena.
Interest in Osceola Heritage Park has grown. In 2023 the park held a record number of event days that garnered $116 million in revenue for the arena, another record-breaking figure.
Adding hotel space would boost that growth, Tourism Development Council member and former chair Brad Boland said.
“We are losing TDT collections to Orange County because there are no hotels in that area,” Boland said.
Boland said Osceola Heritage Park event-goers now must stay in hotels in Orange County’s Lake Nona, which offers newer and nicer hotels closest to the arena.
Osceola County has long sought hotel developers to build near the arena, but they have been wary. The county has requested proposals three times with the first attempt in 2016 garnering only one response and the latest attempt in 2022 receiving none.
However, Boland said with the arena’s recent growth in activity — it is the new home for the Orlando Magic’s G-League and Orlando City training center — hotel developers ought to take a different view.
“We’re trying… to go out to the developer and say hey there’s opportunity here,” Boland said. “When it comes to the securing of the Osceola Magic those are the types of things that really bring the name and exposure.”
Events such as music festival Country Thunder, which boast headliners like Keith Urban, and Silver Spurs Rodeo, one of the largest rodeos in the U.S., have also boosted Osceola Heritage Park, General Manager Robb Larson said.
“It helps with some of those marquee events because people are familiar with them,” Larson said. “So when you mention their names on a sales call or you’re trying to pitch your venue it resonates with everybody.”
The planning commission is set to make its recommendation on Thursday, and the board will consider the issue the following Monday at its county commission meeting.
