The owners of a vacant 7.3-acre parcel of land southeast of the Orange County Convention Center and north of SeaWorld are seeking approval to build an apartment complex instead of a hotel, continuing a trend seen at other properties in the surrounding area. A number of property owners and developers in Orlando’s tourist district are saying it makes sense right now to shift their focus from potential hotels to multifamily uses instead.
The property in question is at 6305 Westwood Blvd. on the south side of the Beachline Expressway/S.R. 528. It’s west of International Drive and directly south of the Rosen Centre. It was once the site of a 299-room Wynfield Inn that was demolished more than a decade ago.
A developer filed an application with Orange County requesting to remove entitlements for 302 hotel rooms on the property and add an approved use of 250 multifamily units. The application, which did not come with a specific site plan at this point, identified the future development as the proposed Westwood Apartments.
The 7.3-acre parcel on Westwood Boulevard is southeast of the Orange County Convention Center and north of SeaWorld. (Orange County Property Appraiser)
Orlando-based England-Thims & Miller, Inc. (ETM) is the project engineer and filed the Change Determination Review application on behalf of Atlanta-based RangeWater Real Estate. Neither company responded to requests for comment.
RangeWater has twice been named Developer of the Year by NAHB and the NMHC, and earned the recognition in 2024 from MHN. The company previously developed The Princeton at College Park, downtown’s SteelHouse apartments, and east Orlando’s Makara Apartments under its previous iteration as Pollack Shores.
Rangewater is also a leading management company, ranking 17th in the nation. The company manages over a dozen luxury apartment communities in the Orlando market, including Alexan Mills 50, Ascend Waterleigh, and Ascend Nona West.
The application says the property owners are located out of the country. Property records list the property’s owner as Denver-based RHM Wynfield LLC, whose chief officers are identified in corporate records as President Shaheryar Adil and Vice President Eunju Cho. LinkedIn profiles list both as North American officers with Millennium Hotels and Resorts, an international hospitality company with a dozen U.S. hotels, as well as offices in Singapore, New York City and Denver, among other places.
The vacant property at 6305 Westwood Blvd. in Orlando, where apartments would go, is close to county-owned property that’s being considered for a future Brightline and SunRail station.
It’s also surrounded by a cluster of hotels, including a Sheraton, a DoubleTree, and an Extended Stay America, among others. However, the owners no longer wish to build a hotel there.
Other property owners in the area have come to the same conclusion. A handful of examples:
Freddie Schinz, the developer of the Blue Heron Beach Resort near Disney Springs, plans to build apartments on land directly south of the high-rise hotel. In May, he requested approval to build 250 apartments rather than the originally entitled 280 hotel rooms on the property.
Intram Investments, the master developer behind the nearby 829-acre World Gateway PD, swapped entitlements for 798 hotel rooms in favor of 900 more multifamily units.
On nearby S Apopka Vineland Road, Ohio-based Silver Hills Development filed an application with Orange County in 2022 requesting to amend the land use on 14.6 acres, swapping out entitlements for 555 hotel rooms to 588 multifamily units.
Also on S Apopka Vineland Road, New York-based Alpine Residential filed plans in 2023 for 177 multifamily units on a 6.5-acre property that previously had entitlements for a 280-room hotel.
Amir Dhanji, who owns a vacant 5.6-acre property on S Apopka Vineland Road, has entitlements for hotel and retail, but has been exploring a possible land use change to apartments or short-term rentals.
“Right now, what’s in demand is a lot of multifamily and a lot of Airbnb,” Dhanji previously told GrowthSpotter. “With hotels, it’s kind of tricky. With the construction costs that we are in right now, it just doesn’t make sense.”
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