ORLANDO, Fla. — The Orlando Dreamers have a billionaire investor and plans for a state-of-the-art stadium. They now need support from Orange County if the proposed Major League Team will call the property on International Drive home. Some county officials are voicing concerns that it could cost the county tens of millions of dollars before construction on the proposed site even starts.
Commissioner Kelly Semrad met with the Orlando Dreamers last week about the proposed MLB team building on this high-value, county-owned land.
To build here, someone will have to foot the cost of moving this operating Orange County water treatment plant and an electric substation run by Duke Energy.
Orlando Dreamers’ Jim Schnorf says their architects believe this won’t be an insurmountable challenge in terms of time or cost.
“In the grand scheme of things, looking at the overall enterprise cost of stadium construction, parking garage construction, other surrounding infrastructure improvements, it’s very manageable,” Schnorf said.
But Semrad says her district has greater, immediate needs like fixing Wedgefield’s water supply that could cost upwards of $80 million.
“The county doesn’t have the money to contribute to fixing that problem there. It’s very difficult to then argue that we can spend tens of millions of dollars to move a working water plant so that we could move in a professional baseball team,” Semrad said.
In order for the Orlando Dreamers to call Orange County home, the MLB requires a public-private partnership.
It could be Orange County donating the land, waiving taxes, or paying to move these facilities.
Schnorf said the Dreamers are flexible on what the county pays for.
Semrad says she’s looking for more details on what this public-private partnership would look like and how the Dreamers could benefit the public. For instance, she told Channel 9 she wants to see how the Dreamers could contribute to infrastructure like SunRail.
The Dreamers say they plan to build six lighted youth baseball facilities and six lighted softball facilities in each commission district.
“The community then should be seeing hard dollars coming out directly to the community to impact their quality of life,” Semrad said.
Schnorf says the spot on I-Drive is ideal and preferred. However, the Dreamers are looking at other options both in and out of Orange County for the Dreamers’ potential home.
“We’re unconditionally convinced that there’s no other project or initiative that would remotely compare to the economic return that this is going to generate for Central Florida,” Schnorf said.
We reached out to Duke Energy for comment on the possible move.
They responded with a statement:
“Duke Energy Florida has not received site plans for this property. At this time, it would be premature for us to determine what infrastructure modifications would be required. We always look forward to closely working with future customers as they develop new property locations.”
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