Montierre Development, based in Hobe Sound near West Palm Beach, is moving forward on plans to build the largest mixed-use sports complex in Florida, which will be located in Ocoee. The complex will include 16 baseball fields, two hotels, seven restaurants, office space, two parking garages, and more. The developer has acquired roughly 132 acres of land along Ocoee Apopka Road, just east of S.R. 429, for a total of $9.5 million. The majority of the land, 95.1 acres, was previously owned by oil company Chevron while the other 37 acres was owned by the city of Ocoee. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2025 and is expected to have an economic impact of up to $900 million per year on the county once it’s built out.
The project is expected to generate 1,096 jobs and an extra $1.6 million in property tax revenue annually to the city. The property will also generate an additional $39.7 billion in direct spending impact and $91.8 billion of economic impact, resulting in 635,000 jobs.
“The big idea, our vision, is to bring the largest sports complex of its kind to the east coast, and the second largest in the country, to the city of Ocoee,” said Jaime Douglas, the owner of Montierre. “It will be a development that allows the patrons spending to stay right here. The future opportunity for Ocoee regarding the travel sports industry, in general, is tremendous. Not only can the travel sports industry be extremely impactful to the financial growth of this community, but it will be impacted very little by recessions and more importantly, would be built around family structure.”
Montierre Development approached city leaders more than a year ago with plans for the project near the southeast intersection of Ocoee Apopka Road and Fullers Cross Road, according to the city’s planning director Michael Rumer.
For the project, the developer is taking over city-owned land that has been used most recently for a haunted house attraction. The developer has also agreed to make improvements to Ocoee Apopka Road to address increased traffic around the site and give a portion of the profits generated by the project back to the city over a 30-year period.
“This is, I think, one of the most important projects for the city,” said Ocoee Mayor Rusty Johnson. “This will have a great, tremendous positive impact for the city.”
The Ocoee Regional Sports Complex will be the second largest in the country. The first largest sports complex in the country is the Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach, S.C., which has locations in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Aberdeen, Maryland and Elizabethtown, Kentucky.