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Kissimmee in Transformation: the Public and Private Investment Redrawing the Region

Kissimmee in transformation: the public and private investment redrawing the region

For many Brazilians, Kissimmee is where you stay to visit the parks: a corridor of hotels, restaurants and vacation homes south of Orlando. That image is falling behind. Over recent months, government and private enterprise have announced projects that together put hundreds of millions of dollars into the city and into Osceola County, across more than one front: events tourism, entertainment, technology manufacturing.

This chapter gathers what is already public about that movement, with a source for every figure. And it ends with what the context means for anyone assessing a hospitality asset in the region — and what it does not mean.

A region growing in residents, not only in visitors

The starting point is demographic. According to the Census Bureau, Osceola County, where Kissimmee sits, had 481,718 residents in July 2025, against 388,656 in the April 2020 census: growth of 23.9% in a little over five years. Population growth on that scale pulls in investment in infrastructure, retail and services, and shifts the economic profile of a region that for decades was read almost entirely through tourism.

Downtown Kissimmee: a convention center with a hotel

In the city's historic center, on the site of the former Kissimmee Civic Center, a convention center with a hotel is planned, at a total investment of more than US$ 180 million, according to a city update reported by Spectrum News 13 in September 2026. Completion is expected at the end of 2028 or the start of 2029.

Two details of the project say a good deal about the partnership model. According to the city, the convention center is being built without public debt. And the approved incentive for the hotel, of US$ 1.5 million, works as a rebate on part of the taxes the development itself will generate, estimated at between US$ 5 million and US$ 6.5 million a year. Demolition of the old building was postponed to December because of environmental clean-up of the site, which had been industrial land since the 1920s; the city says the overall schedule holds.

I-4 and US-192: a former resort becomes a mixed-use district

At the interchange of Interstate 4 and US-192, on Kissimmee's main tourism corridor, sits a site of roughly 77 acres that housed, from 1972 to 2012, the former Hyatt Orlando, later the Orlando Sun Resort. According to Florida Trend, Accesso Partners bought the area for US$ 70 million and plans Ovation there, a mixed-use district with around 670,000 square feet of retail and entertainment, three hotels totalling 740 rooms, and condominiums, at an estimated cost of around US$ 1 billion.

Osceola County came in as a partner: it will reimburse US$ 6.5 million of demolition costs and return up to US$ 10 million in tourist tax to the developer over 20 years, as well as cutting by 90% more than US$ 1 million in fines accumulated on the site. It is the kind of incentive a local government offers when it wants to unlock an area that has sat idle for more than a decade.

NeoCity: the bet on technology

The transformation is not only about tourism. In May 2026, Osceola County announced that South Korean semiconductor manufacturer ELSPES will invest US$ 470 million in NeoCity, the county's technology district, with more than 600 high-paying jobs. The project occupies around 40 acres, the largest private site in the district so far, and will be built in two phases, each with roughly 289,000 square feet of manufacturing and research space. The company produces silicon capacitors used in artificial intelligence, automotive and aerospace systems.

For anyone assessing the region, the relevant point is diversification: industrial and technology jobs bring corporate travel, demand for longer stays, and an economic base less dependent on a single activity.

Tourism keeps setting records

Meanwhile the traditional engine remains strong. Osceola's tourist development tax, charged on short-term stays, collected US$ 7.6 million in June 2026, the highest ever recorded for a June, according to the Experience Kissimmee report. For the fiscal year to June (October 2025 to June 2026), collections totaled US$ 71.8 million, up 7% on the same period the previous year.

Osceola tourist development tax, charged on short-term stays. The two figures are not comparable with each other: one is a single month, the other a nine-month cumulative. They appear in separate panels, with no shared axis — bars side by side would suggest a proportion that does not exist. Source: Experience Kissimmee.

That tax is both thermometer and fuel: receipts fund tourism promotion and tourism-related projects, which includes, as with Ovation, incentives for new developments.

What this context means, and what it does not

Taken together, these projects describe a region being reinvested in on several fronts at once: events and conventions downtown, entertainment and hospitality on the main tourism corridor, technology manufacturing at NeoCity, and a tourism base still at record levels. For a hospitality asset, that is a favourable context: more reasons to visit, more types of visitor, more infrastructure around.

But regional context is not a promise of appreciation. Announced projects can slip, change scope or never break ground, as the postponed demolition in downtown Kissimmee itself shows. New hotels are also new supply, and the chapter on risks in this series showed what happens when supply grows faster than demand. The performance of any development still depends on its exact location, its operation and its brand.

Where Granero Realty looks

It is in this context that Ambar Residences Orlando, Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy, sits in Kissimmee. Granero Realty follows what happens in the region because that is what gives the curation meaning: a development belongs in the portfolio only when the product, the brand and the place tell the same story.

Ambar Residences Orlando, Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy are not owned, developed, or sold by Marriott International, Inc. or its affiliates ("Marriott"). Archies Investments LLC uses the Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy trademarks and trade names under a license from Marriott, which has not confirmed the accuracy of any of the statements or representations made herein.

This content is educational and informational. It does not constitute investment advice. The projects cited are public and at different stages; values, timelines and scopes may change. Regional context does not represent certainty of performance for any specific development. Consult licensed professionals before making investment decisions.

Fontes e metodologia

  • US Census Bureau — Osceola County population (481,718 in July 2025; 388,656 in the April 2020 census)
  • Spectrum News 13 (September 2026) — Kissimmee convention center and hotel, US$ 180 m+, completion late 2028/early 2029; US$ 1.5 m hotel incentive as a tax rebate; postponed demolition
  • Florida Trend — Accesso Partners' US$ 70 m purchase of the 77-acre former Hyatt Orlando site; Ovation district (c. 670,000 sq ft retail and entertainment, three hotels, 740 rooms, c. US$ 1 bn)
  • Osceola County — incentive package for Ovation (US$ 6.5 m demolition reimbursement; up to US$ 10 m in tourist tax over 20 years; 90% reduction of accumulated fines)
  • Osceola County (May 2026) — ELSPES US$ 470 m investment at NeoCity; 600+ jobs; c. 40 acres; two phases of c. 289,000 sq ft each
  • Experience Kissimmee — tourist development tax report (US$ 7.6 m in June 2026, a record for the month; US$ 71.8 m in the fiscal year to June, +7%)

Want to understand how this context translates into a specific development? Speak with the Granero Realty team. We work in Portuguese and English.