Winter Park-based apartment developer,\u00a0Epoch Residential, is listed as the developer in the project documents. The applicant is working with engineering firm\u00a0Kimley-Horn\u00a0on the planning and entitlements and\u00a0FK Architecture. According to the preliminary plan, the new development would be built on the SeaWorld and Renaissance properties. The office parcel would be used only for its existing entrance drive and for emergency access.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/TGS-L-SeaWorld-Vacation-Village-PD-01.jpg\")
The proposed SeaWorld Vacation Village PD calls for up to 670 multifamily units on Sea Harbor Drive, across from SeaWorld Orlando. (Map by Kimley-Horn)<\/p>\n
Epoch Residential has completed over a dozen apartment communities across Florida, including Maitland Station and\u00a0Brisol\u00e9 at Storey Park.<\/p>\n
The SeaWorld property is currently home to the company\u2019s food services facilities and stormwater retention. The company had previously sought to relocate more of the theme park\u2019s back-of-house operations to that site but withdrew the application last September.<\/p>\n
The company had also filed plans in late 2023 and early 2024 for two new park-adjacent hotels, including a full-service, 504-key hotel<\/a> at the corner of I-Drive and Central Florida Parkway.<\/p>\n The second hotel, dubbed \u201cProject Canopy<\/a>\u201d, would have had 250 rooms, a full spa and tree-top restaurant within the Discovery Cove section of SeaWorld. It was slated for 50 acres of vacant land and surface parking.<\/p>\n But in May 2025, the company withdrew the applications for both hotels. Carlos Varela, director of design & development for the three Orlando parks, told county planners the hotel projects were \u201cpaused indefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n Marc Swanson, CEO of United Parks & Resorts, has repeatedly hyped the development potential of SeaWorld-owned property over multiple earnings reports. The company owns over 2,000 acres of real estate across its many park locations, including some 400 acres of park-adjacent property. During the company\u2019s fourth quarter earnings call on Feb. 26, Swanson offered no new details on development opportunities except to say the company is taking its time \u201cto ensure we optimize our outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have received multiple sale-leaseback proposals that we are currently evaluating and have active discussions with various partners on hotel development, time-share development, residential development, and other commercial development on our owned property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The I-Drive District is Orlando\u2019s most desirable multifamily submarket, leading the region in both new construction and absorption, so apartments have long been considered a development option for some of the SeaWorld surplus property. Just across from the SeaWorld site, Atlanta-based RangeWater Real Estate has filed development plans<\/a> for a 250-unit apartment community at 6305 Westwood Blvd.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t surprise me one bit,\u201d said Brock Nicholas, owner and developer of the nearby Villatel Orlando Resort<\/a>. He told GrowthSpotter the site is strategically located for an apartment complex or resort community like his, which is home to the market\u2019s first Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy<\/a> development. The zoning within the I-Drive Overlay would allow both short-term and long-term rentals.\u00a0With frontage on both Sea Harbor Drive and Westwood Boulevard, the site would be within walking distance of the Orange County Convention Center.<\/p>\n \u201cThey could be seeking to entitle it and sell it, or do a joint venture,\u201d Nicholas said. \u201cI do believe you\u2019re going to see another explosion of out-of-town capital in the market this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at\u00a0lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com<\/a> or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on\u00a0Facebook<\/a> and\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recent development filing in Orange County offers insight into the new direction SeaWorld and its parent company…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,28,114,1335,139,141,140,480,109,76686],"class_list":["post-171317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-real-estate","tag-social","tag-social-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"RangeWater](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1772191087_925_TGS-L-westwood-mf-elevation.jpg\")
RangeWater Real Estate has filed development plans for a 250-unit apartment complex on Westwood Boulevard just north of SeaWorld. (Elevation by Charlan Brock Architects)<\/p>\n