![\"abandoned](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Flamingo_Orlando-demo_2026-5-1024x1024.webp.webp\" "\\"Inside")
Overhead view of the abandoned Orlando Sun Resort, nicknamed the Bando, in 2025. Photography by Dave Seminara.<\/p>\nOverhead view of the abandoned Orlando Sun Resort, nicknamed the Bando, in 2025. Photography by Dave Seminara.<\/p>\n
The first living thing I saw at the abandoned Orlando Sun Resort, a once upmarket hotel and convention center, was a baby turtle basking in the sun on a filthy mattress floating in a stagnant, algae-choked swimming pool.\u00a0I inched closer, and noticed more debris inside\u2014four more mattresses, a sunken shopping cart, crusty old tires and an upholstered dining chair. There was no water left in the adjacent jacuzzi\u2014just mountains of broken glass, mounds of debris and a discarded box of Captain Crunch cereal. The hotel rooms situated inside the pod of four two-story structures that surround the decaying pool had just three walls left but there were still signs of life. Plywood boards and sheets were strung up to cover the missing walls, and one unit had a homemade-looking door with a colorful wreath on it.<\/p>\n
This was once the largest resort in Central Florida when it opened in 1972, months after Disney World\u2014located about a mile away\u2014opened its doors on October 1, 1971. The Carolando Corporation, the original owners, had bold plans to build a 600-foot-tall Space Needle to provide panoramic views of the Magic Kingdom. But the 1973 recession and the resulting tourism downturn squashed those plans, and the resort was sold to Hyatt, which operated it for the next thirty years. It later became a Ramada and then the Orlando Sun, until the place was abandoned\u2014with all of its furniture and fixtures left to rot\u2014in 2012. As I crept around the apocalyptic space on a Monday afternoon in November, (I documented my experience at the abandoned resort on my YouTube channel, Mad Traveler, which you can find here)<\/a> I noticed there still weren\u2019t any fences or \u201cno trespassing\u201d signs, but I still wasn\u2019t sure if squatters had been chased off the property or not.<\/p>\n Finding Hope in Unexpected Places<\/p>\n By the time I noticed the holiday wreath, I\u2019d already spent nearly an hour walking around, passing dozens of old mattresses, piles of trash and discarded household goods. The new owners, the Myers Group\u2014a developer based in Aventura\u2014have plans to bulldoze the 77-acre property and build a new resort and entertainment district called Ovation Orlando. Their website describes the future space as the \u201cnewest dining, retail, hotel, attraction and entertainment destination in 2027 and beyond,\u201d with \u201clive music around every corner,\u201d three new hotels and \u201cacclaimed restaurants and bars.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n I had only seen one person near the entrance\u2014a mustachioed man with a New York accent named Tom, who was riding a bike. I asked him to show me around, and he said he\u2019d be right back. I gave up on him after waiting for about twenty minutes.<\/p>\n As I inched closer to the ground-floor wreath room, a man emerged from behind the door, scaring the daylights out of me. It was Tom. His door was open wide enough that I could see he had turned his trashed hotel room into something resembling a comfortable studio apartment, with a king-size bed full of pillows, a flat-screen TV and a humming generator. \u201cI\u2019d show you the place, but my girl\u2019s sleeping,\u201d Tom said. \u201cI know it looks like shit out here \u2026 but it\u2019s a great way to save money.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom, 57, grew up on Long Island in an Irish-American family and had been living in his own home in St. Cloud before, as he put it, \u201cthings went south\u201d in 2023 after his wife of 34 years died. He said he was a \u201cglass guy\u201d who had always worked for himself installing shower doors, mirrors and tabletops, and did well. \u201cMy kids got older, I didn\u2019t need it anymore,\u201d he said of his old home. \u201cI\u2019d rather not say why.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom told me his luck started to improve less than a year after his wife died when he met Lisa, his current partner. \u201cGod helped me out right away,\u201d he said. When they were down on their luck and needed somewhere to go, a friend told them about the abandoned resort, which they\u2019d nicknamed the \u201cBando,\u201d short for abandoned. It was a coincidence because, years ago, Lisa worked at the hotel as a concierge when it was briefly a Ramada.<\/p>\n Things will turn around. My luck will turn around always every day. As we wandered around the dilapidated grounds, stepping over tires, broken glass and debris, I asked Tom if there were any upsides to squatting in an abandoned resort. \u201cAt the end of the day, there\u2019s no landlord, there\u2019s no bank,\u201d he said, his voice trailing off. He introduced me to Matt, a soft-spoken 36-year-old Orlando native who took over the tour. Matt explained that he first came to the Bando three years ago for a job extracting copper wires and other valuable assets from the property. \u201cWe ended up getting screwed, and we didn\u2019t get paid,\u201d he said. Nevertheless, he said he\u2019s stayed on at the place for lack of anywhere else to go.<\/p>\n We walked through a cluster of rooms called Hibiscus that was in ruins\u2014covered in graffiti and filled with trash and rubble\u2014as Matt outlined his story. He said he used to work at a Waffle House and also as a stagehand at music festivals. Matt said that he and his wife had marital problems\u2014\u201cIt\u2019s a long story,\u201d he said\u2014and his three children are currently living with his brother. \u201cI love \u2019em to death,\u201d he said. He has struggled with drug abuse, particularly fentanyl, which he said is the most addictive drug he\u2019s tried.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a physical addiction where if you don\u2019t have it every day \u2026 you\u2019re sick and you go and get it regardless of what\u2019s going on in your life,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cPeople will steal. They will do anything. Steal from their own mamas.\u201d He did time in prison on drug charges, he told me as we tiptoed through the wreckage. (Much later, I found out that he also had convictions for grand theft of a motor vehicle in 2024 and 2025). While he was away, someone trashed the room at the resort he had fixed up for himself. Later, he did more prison time for a probation violation after getting caught driving with a suspended license. Now he can\u2019t get a license, which makes finding a job even harder than it would be. But he remains curiously optimistic. \u201cThings will turn around,\u201d Matt said. \u201cMy luck will turn around always every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n We were joined by a cheerful woman in a hoodie who introduced herself as Bella, a 47-year-old Tennessee native. She came out of her room to get some dog treats I brought and to meet me. \u201cThey\u2019re my ladies,\u201d she said of her three dogs. Bella agreed to join our tour as we headed toward the wrecked convention center.<\/p>\n When I asked her how she wound up living at the resort, she said, \u201cdrugs,\u201d and laughed hysterically. I asked her which drugs she had a problem with and she said, \u201cUh, all of them,\u201d and laughed even harder. Bella shared that she had been clean for 15 years but relapsed after a devastating F5 factory tornado killed her daughter and destroyed her home in Cookeville, Tennessee, on March 3, 2020. After losing their home, her husband suggested they relocate to his home state of Florida. They ended up living in a tent in Orlando. She, too, went to prison on drug charges, but she says the experience \u201cwasn\u2019t too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n They took me up to the roof of what was once the convention center to see the view. \u201cThat\u2019s one thing I like about my room, I\u2019ve got a beautiful view of the sunset,\u201d Bella said. They both described losses they\u2019d experienced while living at the Bando. Bella mentioned that her husband died of cancer in September and her neighbors helped her through the experience. \u201cThey made sure I was fed and okay,\u201d she said. \u201cI have family here.\u201d<\/p>\n We wound up our tour back at Tom\u2019s place, where a host of people and dogs were hanging out. There was Jessica, a New Jersey native who lived at the Bando on and off for the last three years; Carlos, a Chicago native who said he came to the resort to escape gang violence and stayed; and Lisa, Tom\u2019s partner, who was hiding out in the back in what Tom called her \u201cwoman cave.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There were empty Gucci and Christian Dior boxes artfully displayed against one of the walls. \u201cLisa likes luxury brands and stuff like that,\u201d Tom explained. \u201c(Lisa\u2019s) giving you permission to enter her woman cave,\u201d Tom said, leading me to an alcove at the back of the room, hidden behind a curtain. Lisa\u2019s woman cave felt like a tiny dressing room fit for a Hollywood actress. In a tight but well-organized space, she had an abundance of hats, scarves, wigs, lotions, jewelry, and enough makeup to stock a Sephora.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some people think living like this is a failure, you know, and I don\u2019t think it is. I think it\u2019s survival. \u00a0\u201cWhy are people fascinated with the homeless?\u201d Lisa asked as I looked at her stuff. I didn\u2019t have a good answer, and she segued into her thoughts on how people perceive her. \u201cPeople think we\u2019re lazy, but we\u2019re not,\u201d she said. \u201cI worked my whole life since I was nine years old.\u201d Lisa said she and Tom had lived there for about a year after living previously in a home in nearby Intercession City. When I asked how she wound up at this place, she said, \u201cIt was a mental illness, and thankfully that\u2019s over.\u201d<\/p>\n When the conversation turned to the bulldozers that would arrive when construction commences on Ovation, the new development, Lisa said she wasn\u2019t bitter that they would soon be kicked out of their makeshift home, which she\u2019d spent so much time trying to make homey. \u201cWe benefited to stay here this long, you know, and that\u2019s a privilege,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n When I asked if any of the residents of the Bando had family members who could take them in, Lisa said many were too proud to ask relatives for help. \u201cSome people think living like this is a failure, you know, and I don\u2019t think it is,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s survival.\u201d<\/p>\n Back to the Bando<\/p>\n I returned to the resort on Black Friday with pumpkin pies, whipped cream, two dozen juicy dog bones and a few bags full of clothing and supplies. \u201cSorry man, I just woke up,\u201d Tom said when I knocked on his door around 9 a.m. \u201cI gotta get out of this place.\u201d Tom and Lisa had new neighbors\u2014Mel, a tall Black man with graying hair, his emaciated white girlfriend and another friend of his.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mel said he has a big house in Atlanta that he shares with his mom, and was living at the Bando for a few weeks because he was behind on his phone bill and because of his girlfriend. \u201c(She\u2019s) on drugs and I can\u2019t just take her to the [house],\u201d he explained. Mel and I took a walk through the trashed honeycomb clusters of buildings, and he told me his story.\u00a0<\/p>\n Originally from New York, Mel said he once had a maintenance business that had done well.\u00a0 But he isn\u2019t optimistic now. \u201cFlorida don\u2019t care about their residents,\u201d he said. \u201cThey care about their tourists.\u201d He said the country\u2019s inequality and lack of affordable housing are the reasons why squatter communities like this exist. \u201cThis country got too much money, too many billion-dollar people to have this many poor people,\u201d he said, nodding his head towards a sewage-filled pool full of mattresses, tires and debris.<\/p>\n My first visit to the resort was a sort of chamber of commerce visit where I was impressed with the unusual sense of community that had emerged in this unlikeliest of places. But this time opened my eyes to some uncomfortable realities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although Bella was excited about the pumpkin pie and the bones for her dogs, she looked sad when I asked her about the holidays. \u201cMe and Christmas are not best friends right now,\u201d she said. She said Christmas reminded her too much of her late daughter. \u201cI\u2019m going to celebrate (Christmas) with my dogs,\u201d she said and laughed.<\/p>\n Florida don\u2019t care about their residents. They care about their tourists. Data sourced from the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida <\/a>revealed that in January 2025, there were 2,781 homeless persons counted in the Orlando metropolitan area. That figure was nearly identical as 2024\u2019s homeless persons population. It\u2019s unclear if they counted the residents of the Bando and, in any case, the official count may not include families staying in motels, cars or with friends. More recent signs are worrying. Scott Billue, founder of the nonprofit Matthew\u2019s Hope, told news outlets<\/a> in January that his team is seeing 30% more homeless people this year compared to last year.<\/p>\n Orange County Public Schools also identified nearly 9,000 homeless students<\/a> in the 2024\u20132025 school year, the highest number of any district in the state, and a 50% increase since 2019. According to the Florida Council on Homelessness\u2019s Annual Report, there were 28,498 homeless individuals across the state in 2025, a 9% decrease from the prior year. But critics say<\/a> that HB 1365, a 2024 state law that bans sleeping in public and camping, is pushing the homeless deeper into the woods, or into places like the Bando, hindering accurate counts.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Change in the New Year<\/p>\n The holidays came and went before I returned to the Bando for a third time on Jan. 15. The uncertainty that once hung over the place had morphed into a collective sense of desperation. At least three residents were arrested, Matt lost his leg, a fire ravaged Bella\u2019s room and hopes for any kind of d\u00e9tente with the developers had collapsed.<\/p>\n Several residents told me they were given three weeks\u2019 notice to leave and I had arrived at the beginning of week three. Construction crews had already begun clearing vegetation and organizing debris around the property, though the main demolition hadn\u2019t started.\u00a0<\/p>\n I was back at the resort because Bella said there would be a meeting with representatives from the Meyers Group and she said she wanted me to come. Residents hoped that they would receive information, resources or perhaps some help. Lisa and Dianne, an out-of-work accountant who moved into the Bando a month ago, waited at the entrance to the resort for hours but no one came.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was really hopeful,\u201d Lisa said of the meeting that didn\u2019t materialize. \u201cWhen we heard there was going to be a meeting, we thought maybe something good was finally happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Matt was arrested on a parole violation after officers found him at the resort. While in custody, he was taken to the hospital for an untreated leg wound he\u2019d sustained. The infection turned severe. \u201cHe got gangrene,\u201d said Carlos, a Chicago native who has lived at the resort for more than a year. \u201cThey ended up cutting his leg off.\u201d<\/p>\n Another resident, Jessica, said her boyfriend was arrested after police found drug paraphernalia in a room adjacent to the one they were cleaning out to live in. And Dianne said that nine police officers showed up to arrest her boyfriend at the resort on a parole violation two days before Christmas.<\/p>\n Despite the chaos, many residents pushed back against the idea that the people living here are lazy or unwilling to work. Diane said she moved into the Bando in her RV after losing both her job and her apartment within a month. She bristled at comments left on my YouTube videos about the place, labeling residents as addicts and freeloaders. \u201cWe\u2019re not here just\u2026doing nothing and being drug addicts or whatever,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Bella\u2019s apartment at the resort burned down in a recent fire, and she lost most of her belongings, though she said she\u2019s lucky to still have two tents. \u201cI know the days of this place are done,\u201d she told me. After losing her home, her husband, and her daughter in a tornado years ago, she now faces eviction again.<\/p>\n Days after my third visit to the Bando, a large sign was posted warning residents to vacate as demolition would commence on Feb. 2. The sign advised residents to contact the United Way\u2019s 211 hotline for help. Flamingo reached out to the United Way and to the Meyers Group for comment. The Meyers Group did not respond. A spokesperson for United Way Heart of Florida said that they do not directly provide housing, but rather information, referrals and pre-screenings for shelter. No one I met had been approved for assistance.<\/p>\n Bella emailed me two days after demolition began to say that the police forced everyone out on Feb. 2. She had to leave some of her possessions at the resort and now she cannot access them. \u201cAll I was able to get out was three suitcases and my dogs,\u201d she said. When I asked where she was, she wrote back, \u201cIn hell in the woods with no tent because my dogs ripped it to pieces. Wanting to die.\u201d<\/p>\n Dianne said more than a dozen police officers arrived at the resort on Feb. 2 around 11 a.m. and gave them just 30 minutes to leave. They later extended the deadline to 3 p.m., but she couldn\u2019t get the lift on her RV to work and was arrested for trespassing. While in jail, someone stole her bike and many of her other valuables. She says she exhausted her nest egg paying bail and an $800 bill to tow her RV out of the resort.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Osceola County Sheriff\u2019s Office said that 20-30 residents were still at the resort past the demolition deadline. Most, they say, left without incident. They claimed that one resident was arrested because he had a warrant for his arrest. Dianne was arrested because they claim she \u201crefused to leave.\u201d (She denies this claim.) They say her RV wasn\u2019t towed by the police, but rather by Peace of Mind Demolition Company.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bella also had sad news regarding Matt.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s with a sad heart that I\u2019m writing to you,\u201d Bella wrote in one message. \u201cMatthew passed away yesterday. We don\u2019t know any details. But I just thought you would like to know.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Just weeks before, Matt was giving me a tour of the Bando, and now he was dead at 36. I found out that four days before his death, Matt was convicted of possession of methamphetamines. A representative at the County medical examiner\u2019s office said that he was found unresponsive in an abandoned building (the resort) on Jan. 26. His next of kin was notified, but more than a week after his death, his body still hadn\u2019t been claimed. \u201cIf his kin don\u2019t claim him after thirty days, the county will bury him,\u201d the representative said.<\/p>\n A tour of the Orlando Sun Resort in the 2010s. <\/p>\n The Good Samaritans<\/p>\n A week after demolition of the Bando had started, I got a text from Bella telling me I should meet a couple whom she called \u201cGood Samaritan snowbirds\u201d, Johnny and Trish Badaliacco, who feed homeless people living in the shadow of the Magic Kingdom. I had sent my video series to more than a dozen charities tasked with servicing the homeless in the area but none had responded. And so I jumped at the chance to spend a Monday afternoon with the Badaliacco\u2019s because Bella said they knew nearly every homeless person in the area.<\/p>\n![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Flamingo_Oralndo-demo_2026-2.webp.webp\" "\\"Inside")
From left: Dave Seminara, Trish Badaliacco, Hollywood, Johnny Badaliacco. Photography by Dave Seminara.<\/p>\n
\u2014Matt, a Bando resident<\/p>\n
\u2014Lisa, a Bando resident<\/p>\n
\u2014Mel, a Bando resident<\/p>\n![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Flamingo_Orlando-demo_2026-6.webp.webp\" "\\"Inside")
The Bando was recently fenced in with a \u201cNo Trespassing\u201d disclaimer. Photography by Dave Seminara.<\/p>\n
![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Flamingo_Orlando-demo_2026-7.webp.webp\" "\\"Inside")
Seminara and Hailey at her campsite. Photography by Dave Seminara.<\/p>\n