Orlando's $4M Parramore land buy could host soccer stadium

On Monday, the City Council approved the $4 million purchase of four parcels of land in Parramore, a block west of the Amway Center, home court of the Orlando Magic.

There's no agreement to build a Major League Soccer stadium in Orlando, but city officials don't seem to be waiting.

City officials would not confirm the property is the favored site for a $110 million stadium sought by Orlando City Soccer Club, simply calling it a "strategic acquisition."

Mayor Buddy Dyer and city administrators said they have no specific plan for the property, perhaps for fear of driving up the cost of the additional parcels needed to assemble the full stadium footprint.

"It is one of the premiere blocks in Parramore," Dyer said. "It's one of the blocks that was identified by the Parramore Task Force about eight years ago for a public purpose, so it's a piece that we have wanted to have for a long time."

Still, the property is in keeping with a description of a proposed site "very, very close to downtown" by Orlando City Soccer Club President Phil Rawlins. Last week, Rawlins confirmed that city officials were eyeing land along West Church Street between the Amway Center and the Florida Citrus Bowl stadium.

"This would add to the sports and entertainment district proposal to create a whole plethora of sports venues and entertainment outlets on the Church Street corridor," Rawlins told the Orlando Sentinel.

The four parcels approved Monday are spread over two blocks bounded by Church Street to the south, Central Boulevard to the north, Terry Avenue to the east and Parramore Avenue to the west. It sits across the street from the Coalition for the Homeless shelter. Just to the east is City View apartments, completed a decade ago with help from city incentives. The Amway Center is another block east.

The city is paying $4 million for the land, with the smallest lot selling for $607,521 and the largest for $1.8 million. Two of the parcels are owned by Sean McElvaney, a hotelier and real-estate investor from County Kildare, Ireland, who began buying up Parramore land in 2005. A third is owned by Carolina Florida Properties, and the last by a company that manufactures awnings.

The sale price is $33.60 per square foot, well above the average value in Parramore. But it's not the most paid for Parramore property. In 2006, the city paid $6.8 million for five pieces of property along Central Boulevard — paying $70 to $140 per square foot at the height of the real-estate boom. At the time, city officials also called that purchase a strategic one; it's now a parking lot right next to the land commissioners agreed to buy Monday.

Orlando City Soccer Club is a minor-league team with aspirations of being a Major League Soccer expansion franchise. MLS representatives have said they plan to add two new franchises, one of them in New York and the other somewhere in the Southeast.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber has all but promised Orlando a franchise but said the club won't be allowed to continue playing in the Citrus Bowl long term if it joins MLS.