AdventHealth has not revealed any details about its plans to redevelop The Holy Land Experience, but experts say the health care giant will likely need to demolish the site before starting construction.

JIM CARCHIDI

IN THIS ARTICLE

By Jack Witthaus  –  Staff Writer, Orlando Business Journal

Aug 5, 2021, 3:07pm EDT

Orlando’s The Holy Land Experience’s entire theme park likely will be demolished to make way for medical space, housing and more, experts say, as AdventhHealth plans to redevelop the site after buying the property. AdventHealth on Aug. 5 confirmed plans to make a significant investment and redevelop the site for health care services but offered no more details.

Orlando Business Journal first reported Central Florida’s biggest hospital system purchased 14 acres on Aug. 2 at 4655 Vineland Road for $32 million. The seller was Holy Land Experience Ministries Inc. — an entity related to Tustin, California-based theme park operator and landowner Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Construction and real estate experts who aren’t involved in the project say AdventHealth’s new development likely will cost tens of millions of dollars and may involve a mix of uses on site. The property’s proximity and visibility along Interstate 4 also makes it an important investment for the health care giant as it competes for market share locally.

The new AdventHealth development will rise in a part of Orlando that’s long been underserved for health care, said Terrence Hart, senior director of health care and retail for Franklin Street, who isn’t involved in the deal. The new health care development will allow AdventHealth to serve the thousands of residents who live nearby. “The MetroWest market is underserved and this is the gateway to the market,” Hart said. “So you’re capturing a big piece of the pie.”                            Terrence Hart – PAUL CIURA FOR FRANKLIN STREET

Still, the site’s nine buildings totaling roughly 103,000 square feet likely all will get scrapped, experts say. That’s because many of the buildings, built between 1997-2011, are likely functionally obsolete, and it may cost more to retrofit these structures versus demolishing and rebuilding, said Jason Albu, who owns Winter Park-based general contracting firm Albu & Associates Inc. Albu isn’t involved in the site’s redevelopment, but his firm has worked on health care and religious projects along with redevelopment construction. New development also allows AdventHealth to control how it wants the development to be laid out in terms of parking and where buildings need to be located, Albu said. Plus, new construction allows AdventHealth to build its property with the latest technology, and the health care giant won’t run the risk of encountering unknown problems working with an existing structure. That’s all going to go,” Albu said of the buildings. “Unless the owner has an attachment to an existing structure, it’s almost always better to scrape the site and go up new.”                                                                            Jason Albu – ALBU & ASSOCIATES INC.

Still, experts expect AdventHealth to build a mix of uses on the site, including residential. In fact, the health care giant is thinking about doing just that near its Altamonte Springs campus, as it has been mulling mixed-use development on roughly 50 acres it owns along Gateway Drive, as OBJ first reported. A mix of uses on the Holy Land site likely will require AdventHealth to seek city of Orlando approvals for more density, said Lisa Dilts, principal of Winter Park-based real estate advisory company Compspring LLC, who isn’t involved in the project. A more dense project, of course, increases the development’s value both to the people it serves and the revenue it can generate. “A hospital system’s goal is for people to see medicine as beyond what we’ve known it to be something more holistic.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Lisa Dilts – Compspring LLC