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Developer Rob Miller is good with the big ideas – it is the smaller details that need some ironing out. However, the big picture is what has gotten him permission to build a massive multi-billion dollar project called Legacy Resort, which broke ground on December 6, 2005.
The resort will be a 1,600 acre development which will be used for different purposes. It will include 10,000 vacation rental units, a 50,000-square-foot entertainment center, and at least 100,000 square feet of meeting space. Miller has also proposed the development of an area for the use of U.S. Specialty Sports Association’s soccer and baseball field expansion. In addition, Miller would like to develop a 10,000-seat aquatic center, and parking spaces for 2,000 cars.
First, Miller must close a deal with the Bronson family to buy a 600-acre lot that adjoins the 1,000 acre lot that Miller currently owns for the Legacy Resort. He also has a pending deal with WCI Communities Inc. to develop 2,000 more units in a development project that would join with Legacy Resort but be called the Reserve at Legacy Resort. He is also communicating with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide about flying a Sheraton or Westin flag over the 50,000 square foot entertainment center, which Miller hopes to begin developing by spring of this year.
Paul Owne, the Osceola County Commission Chairman, who oversees the district in which the project will be built, supports the project because of the increase in jobs that the development will create. Miller’s five-year project will also keep residents’ taxes down by adding it its ad valorem tax base.
Miller has not always had a good relationship with Osceola County, and his developments have often been rocky. He proposed an enormous convention center, which he called World Expo that he said would be visible from outer space. In addition, Miller has been involved in a project for the failing county convention center. He has also been targeted by a former partner in the convention center deal, Austin based FaulknerUSA in a lawsuit that has yet to be resolved.
However, if the celebratory ceremony Miller put on to ring in the start of construction is any indication of the attention to detail he will pay to the development of Legacy Resort, then the project may very well go off without a hitch. In order to showcase his project, and the government’s enthusiasm about the development, Miller and his PR agency threw a party complete with half a dozen dignitary speeches, a van-load of snakes, tarantulas, alligators, and a Florida panther, and shiny, miniature gold shovel favors.
