With an NFL team preparing to call Camping World Stadium home for a year, Orlando is looking to improve the area around the facility using the special taxing authority of its Community Redevelopment Agency.
Camping World Stadium is in the midst of $400 million in renovations which will bring its capacity to 65,000, adding an events center, a rebuilt upper bowl, new suites and a modern skin on the outside of the building.
Expanding the redevelopment taxing district’s boundaries would allow it to invest in improvements outside the stadium, improving deteriorating roads, inadequate sidewalks and other infrastructure needs, said David Barilla, the executive director of the CRA.
“With all the investments that are happening with the Camping World at this point … we knew that there had to be more attention and improvements to areas outside the stadium,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that we’re mindful of the experience that people were having, not just in the stadium, but extending to outside of it as well.”
The proposed expansion comes as the Jacksonville Jaguars expect to play their 2027 home slate in Orlando while their own stadium undergoes renovations, a development first reported by the Orlando Sentinel in November. NFL owners still need to approve that decision.
The stadium also is host to numerous major events such the Electric Daisy Carnival, Rolling Loud, the Pop-Tarts Bowl, and the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.
With the city council approving the CRA expansion Monday, it moves to the Board of County Commissioners for approval before it heads to another vote by the city council. Barilla said he hoped all of the approvals would be complete in about 90 days.
CRAs are a way for local governments to upgrade “blighted” areas, and Orlando’s redevelopment area covers much of downtown. The city council approved $160 million in bonds through the CRA Monday to cover Lake Eola Park improvements, two-way streets on Orange, Rosalind and Magnolia Avenues, and the long-discussed Canopy park beneath I-4.
The CRA gets its revenue from a tax on properties within its boundaries amounting to $1 per $1,000 of taxable value; as values increase, so do its collections.
A report by the CRA outlining its planned construction projects, ranging from a new entrance to Lake Eola Park, to new parks and two-way streets, argues that despite substantial city upgrades to Lake Lorna Doone Park near the stadium, even more investment is needed outside Camping World.
“Current conditions in the surrounding area continue to impede growth and discourage private investment. Addressing these blighted conditions is essential for maintaining Orlando’s competitiveness in the regional economic marketplace,” it reads.
The proposed 47-acre expansion encompasses six parcels of publicly owned land, including 20 acres of Tinker Field, the site of the Electric Daisy Carnival; 3.5 acres of parking lot, 23 acres of parks, and less than a half acre of vacant residential land.
“None of that property has any taxable value to it, so it doesn’t increase the funds going to the CRA,” Mayor Buddy Dyer said ahead of the unanimous vote. “But it does allow us to improve the infrastructure and spend money from the CRA.”