No surprise here, click the link to read the details.
The city of Orlando is like a lot of Central Florida homeowners who want to move into new digs: To help pay for its new arena, performing-arts center and renovated Florida Citrus Bowl, the city wants to sell its old venues.
City administrators insist they won't have any trouble finding a buyer for the Amway Arena and Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre. But experts say the city's selling price of $90 million for the land in the Parramore neighborhood might be unrealistically high given the stagnant real-estate market.
"The value was probably inflated to start with, and it certainly would have gone down since," said William Weaver, a finance professor at the University of Central Florida and expert in business and real-estate valuation.
Mayor Buddy Dyer's administration says there's no rush to sell and the new downtown projects are in no danger.
Construction is expected to start in August on the events center, which will host games of the Orlando Magic and Orlando Predators, as well as concerts and other touring shows. The arts center will break ground in late 2009. And later this month, the city is expected to hire an architect to give the aging Citrus Bowl stadium a face-lift.
Trust me, in a few years, that $90 million price tag on Parramore is going to look pretty low.
