{"id":245504,"date":"2026-04-25T00:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/245504\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T00:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T00:13:09","slug":"developer-harb-planning-signature-suites-hotel-near-epic-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/245504\/","title":{"rendered":"Developer Harb planning “Signature Suites” hotel near Epic Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phoenicia Development\u00a0<\/a>CEO Tom Harb has refined his plans for a new 12-story hotel tower just north of Universal\u2019s Epic Universe theme park.<\/p>\n

Harb has submitted a master plan to the City of Orlando for a 391-room Signature Suites hotel at 7593 Universal Blvd. The property is next to the Bainbridge at Sand Lake<\/a> luxury apartments, which were completed in 2025. Spark by Hilton Orlando<\/a> on Universal Boulevard is to the south.<\/p>\n

Harb applied last year for an Environmental Resource Permit with the South Florida Water Management District for the\u00a0 5.4-acre site. At the time, the conceptual plans called for a seven-story building with 500 hotel rooms.<\/p>\n

Now the project is taller and more compact, with a build site of 3.14 acres, according to the site plan from Thomas & Hutton<\/a>.\u00a0Architectural plans from Paul Medley<\/a> show nine levels of hotel rooms over a three-story parking garage.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe hotel amenities would be located on the fourth floor, over the parking garage. They include a pool and cabana with an outdoor bar. There’s also a fitness center on this level. (Courtesy of PNM Architecture)<\/p>\n

The first floor would house the lobby, hotel offices and two conference rooms. The hotel restaurant would be located on the second floor.<\/p>\n

The amenity deck would be located on the fourth floor, over the garage. It would include a pool and a cabana with an outdoor bar. The fitness center would also be located on the fourth floor.<\/p>\n

The hotel itself would have multiple levels, stepping down from 12 floors to nine, then again to seven. All of the rooms would be studio units with kitchenettes.<\/p>\n

Harb owns the land through an entity called Shri Ram, Inc. The property has Activity Center, which allows for large, dense developments with a mix of residential, commercial, office, and industrial uses. It is also part of the North International Drive Special Plan overlay district that aims to create tourist commercial land uses that promote street activity and walkability.<\/p>\n

The I-Drive district has seen a resurgence of hotel construction and reinvestment leading up to and following the opening of Epic Universe in 2025. Universal opened three new hotels along Universal Boulevard in advance of the opening last May.<\/p>\n

\"HarbcoThe proposed 12-story Signature Suites Universal would rise at 7593 Universal Boulevard. (Orange County Property Appraiser)<\/p>\n

Harb\u2019s Universal Boulevard site is across from the former Crowne Plaza Universal, which sold at auction and reopened in 2024 as the Hotel Landy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nearby, IHG is building a dual-branded EVEN and Staybridge Suites hotel on Universal Boulevard, slated to open in June, and later this year, Unicorp National Development and Flag Luxury Group will break ground on a new InterContinental Hotel Orlando<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The planned Signature Suites hotel isn\u2019t the only project Harb has in the pipeline. He also owns the iFly Orlando attraction on International Drive and plans to add a new 13,462-square-foot building that will house Orlando\u2019s first Prison Island<\/a>\u00a0indoor adventure park and a new Chipotle franchise.<\/p>\n

Harb said the Swedish company, which recently expanded to the U.S., will lease 10,700 square feet for the attraction.<\/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":"Phoenicia Development\u00a0CEO Tom Harb has refined his plans for a new 12-story hotel tower just north of Universal\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,28,12687,114,1335,11477,139,141,140,480],"class_list":{"0":"post-245504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-hotel-hospitality-news","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-orange-county","13":"tag-orange-county-developments","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-headlines","16":"tag-orlando-news","17":"tag-real-estate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245504","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=245504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}