ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Orange County commissioners have approved spending $13 million to purchase the Developer Inn, a hotel near the Orange County Jail, as the county considers new uses for the property.<\/p>\n
One possibility is transforming the roughly 200-room hotel into transitional housing as the county works to address homelessness.<\/p>\n
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has previously discussed transitional housing as part of the county\u2019s approach to homelessness. Recent reports show nearly 2,000 people are experiencing homelessness in Orange County.<\/p>\n
The county has proposed a mixed-use community housing model for the property, but officials have not made a final decision.<\/p>\n
[WATCH: Orange County homeless shelters at capacity as demand grows]<\/p>\n
Commissioner Mike Scott, who represents District 6, said the property could eventually become part of a larger regional service center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the beginning of a potential, you know, West Side Regional service center,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
Scott said he does not envision the property becoming a traditional homeless shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t foresee a circumstance where it\u2019s just a regular shelter like what you would see in other areas,\u201d Scott said. \u201cIt really is going to be what the community wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
The possibility of transitional housing has raised concerns among some residents who live near the hotel.<\/p>\n
[WATCH: Matthew\u2019s Hope deficit hits $486K as homeless visits, costs climb in Central Florida] <\/p>\n
Michael Davis, who has lived in the Lakeshore Landings subdivision for more than 10 years, said he values the area\u2019s quiet atmosphere and is uncertain how redevelopment of the hotel could affect the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes you cringe a little bit when you first hear it,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n
Davis said he is not necessarily opposed to the county\u2019s plans but would prefer to see the property used for another purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it\u2019s needed,\u201d Davis said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be 100% against it if it was done properly. I\u2019d rather see it turn into a business, little business class or something.\u201d<\/p>\n
The county is still in the process of acquiring the property, and officials have not finalized how it will be used.<\/p>\n
County officials are expected to discuss potential plans for the Developer Inn at a community meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the Holden Heights Community Center.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Orange County commissioners have approved spending $13 million to purchase the Developer Inn, a hotel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2161,1192,1335,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-419455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-government","tag-homelessness","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419455","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=419455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}