On August 14, a Community meeting was held at the Celebration Town Hall to update residents on various commercial projects here. Presentations were given by the West Osceola Library, Panera Bread, David Weekley, Publix, Verizon, Celebration Health, and The Celebration Company.
West Osceola Library
Construction is in progress, due to wrap up around the first of the year, with a projected opening of February 1. The Walt Disney Company generously made a $150,000 gift to the Library, which the Library accepted. The Celebration Company announced the donation of a parcel of land adjacent to the new library to CROA for civic and recreational use (see TCC below).
Panera Bread
Panera is on track to break ground soon. They estimate 4 months of construction, putting them at a possible opening date towards the end of the year. They stated that the first week’s profits will be donated to the new Library. There will be access from both 192 and Celebration Place.
David Weekley Homes
David Weekley announced a new mixed use community project: Spring Lake at Celebration. It will be situated along Celebration Boulevard between Siena and Celebration High School, on the same side of the road as Siena. Spring Lake will features homes ranging from the low $200k to the $400s, with unit sizes from 1600-2900 square feet. As opposed to the original David Weekley homes in Celebration, these will be block construction. The builder is working to finalize details, and are aiming to break ground at end of December, with a Sales Center opening in Spring 2013. Village amenities will include a pool, amenity center, trails connecting to the rest of Celebration, proposed fitness area, and a tot lot. The pool will be available to CROA members, and the existing CROA parks and pools will be available to Spring Lake residents (as they will be paying CROA and CDD fees). Total development size is 39 acres.
The question of NEV traffic came up. It was suggested that speed limits would need to be reduced to 35 mph along Celebration Blvd to handle NEV traffic.
SBA (on behalf of Verizon Wireless)
A new tower will be placed behind the substation on Celebration Blvd for mobile phone coverage. Verizon Wireless will see the first improvements. There is capacity on the tower for two additional providers to co-locate, and it was hinted that AT&T would want to locate on that tower.
Publix
The new Publix at Water Tower Place is slightly ahead of schedule, and it’s looking promising for a November opening. The store is 49,000 square feet, or about 4000 sf bigger than the current Xentury City one. There’s a large expansion of Greenwise Products. The store will feature a salad bar, olive bar, expanded sushi department (with on-site sushi chef), and custom meats counter. There will be an on-site pharmacy with drive-through. Wine selection will be about 1.5x the size of the current store.
There are only 4 of these types of stores in the company. The existing Publix will close the day before the new store opens.
Celebration Health
Celebration Health announced plans for two more buildings. One will be a four story, 80,000 square foot medical office building, with primarily women’s health services. It will be built out in stages — not all 80,000 sf will be completed right away. Construction starts in September 2012, with an 11 month build time.
The other is a parking garage. Current parking deficit is about 150 spots a day. The new garage will be 6 stories and 1032 spots, and begins construction on September 5.
The Celebration Company
The Celebration Company (TCC) had several significant developments to report. The first few updates relate to the Celebration Civic Corridor, a series of parcels dedicated to the civic needs of the community. The new library is part of that and opens in February. TCC has deeded another parcel to the Celebration Community Development District (CDD) for an office complex for their staff in support of community. One parcel is for Celebration Golf Course for back house facilities. That leaves two parcels.
One 4.75 acre parcel will go to CROA general civic and recreation use. This is the parcel adjacent to the new library.
The last parcel, a 23 acre plot next to Celebration Avenue, will also go to CROA, with exact use to be determined later by CROA. The Celebration Company will also donating $400,000 to clear and land fill the site. After these deeds, all of the Celebration Civic Corridor parcels are spoken for.
TCC is in final negotiations with a developer to build a new multi-family residental complex along Celebration Blvd. They are proposing 346 multifamily units on a site previously sold to a hotel developer that then went into bankruptcy. This project will bring apartments back into Celebration, and it’s expected that construction would start as soon as feasible once negotiations are completed. Residents of the apartments would be able to use CROA parks and pools, but, similar to Georgetown, Siena, or Artisan, the apartment facilities would only be open to residents of the apartments.
Concerns about traffic along Celebration Boulevard due to the new developments were expressed by several residents. TCC indicated traffic lights were previously planned and funded for Campus St. and Waterside Dr. They would need to work with Osceola County to make it happen once it’s decided the time is right.
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