SPOTLIGHT
With the cruise industry thriving, Port Canaveral has decided to turn an existing cargo berth on the port’s north side into a cruise terminal that’ll be able to host the biggest cruise ships in the world. It’s slated to open by summer 2026.
This new plan will take less time, cost less money and require fewer modifications than the port’s previous $175-million plan to build a new southside cruise terminal. It turns out that would have taken five or six years.
The northside cargo berth is already deep enough to handle the world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Star of the Seas, which will be based at Port Canaveral when it debuts next year.
The cruise industry is the port’s biggest source of revenue. The port had 16 cruise ships calling it home last year, and soon it will host ships from Princess and Celebrity Cruises on top of the fleets it already has from Carnival, Disney, MSC, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
TOURISM
- The Orlando region attracted 6.13 million foreign tourists last year, a 25% increase over the 4.9 million international visitors it welcomed in 2022, according to Visit Orlando, the region’s tourism marketing bureau. The five most common countries they were from included Canada with 1.26 million visitors; the U.K. with 877,000; Brazil with 696,000; Mexico with 432,000; and Colombia with 302,000.
TRANSPORTATION
- For the first time since 2011, Allegiant Air is flying out of Orlando International Airport. It’s running flights between Orlando and Allentown, Penn.; Asheville, N.C.; and Knoxville, Tenn. Most of the airline’s service in Central Florida is based out of Orlando Sanford International Airport.
HEALTH CARE
- The Galen College of Nursing, one of the largest private nursing schools in the U.S., will open an Orlando campus. It already has Florida campuses in Gainesville, Pembroke Pines, Sarasota and St. Petersburg, and it signed a lease for 42,000 square feet near the University of Central Florida. Galen is owned by HCA Healthcare and trains nurses for its hospitals amid a nationwide nursing shortage.
- AdventHealth has launched a $145-million expansion of its Winter Garden hospital that will add 105,000 square feet and create more than 100 jobs. The addition of three floors to the patient tower at AdventHealth Winter Garden is expected to be finished by 2026. It will add more women’s services such as obstetrics and gynecology to the hospital, with one floor dedicated to labor and delivery.
DEVELOPMENT
- Homebuilder Taylor Morrison is launching three developments in Brevard, Lake and Osceola counties, including 900 homes. Windward Preserve in Cocoa will feature 385 single-family homes. Lochside in Mount Dora will have 150 homes. Canoe Creek Reserve, located along U.S. 192, will include 327 houses and 48 townhomes.
HIGHER EDUCATION
- Substantial funding from the U.S. Department of Defense will pay for the construction of a hypersonic testing facility at the University of Central Florida, further establishing UCF as a leader in hypersonics and space propulsion research. Hypersonic propulsion would allow for air travel at speeds of Mach 6 to 17, or more than 4,600 to 13,000 miles per hour, and has applications in commercial and space travel. The Defense Department is funding hypersonics research led by Kareem Ahmed, a UCF professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
- Full Sail University, which focuses on entertainment media and emerging technologies, might build its first dorms on a 13-acre vacant lot that it owns next to its campus in Winter Park. The university’s real estate arm filed plans with Orange County for up to three phases of dorm construction. The first phase would include 512 housing units with 1,332 beds, the second would have 574 units with 1,493 beds, and the third would have 636 units with 1,654 beds.
UTILITIES
- To keep pace with rising water demand in Central Florida, the Orlando Utilities Commission plans to tap an alternative water source. The 40,000-sq.-ft. Southeast Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant will drill up to 2,000 feet underground, reaching deeper into the Lower Floridan Aquifer to access an untapped source of brackish groundwater. Estimated to cost $125-$155 million, the plant will be built on 15 acres in the Lake Nona area.
ACQUISITIONS
- STV Group, a professional services firm that plans, designs and manages infrastructure projects across North America, has acquired MEHTA and Associates, also known as MEHTA Engineering. Headquartered in Winter Park, MEHTA has field offices in Bonifay, Jupiter, Ocoee, Pensacola, Port St. Lucie and Tampa. Employing more than 75, it specializes in transportation infrastructure projects including roads, highways, bridges, airports and rail.