Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer outlined a plan Tuesday to use tourist-tax revenue to pay for an upgrade of Camping World Stadium, improvements to Amway Center and an addition to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
Not counting interest, the bill would be over $700 million — including $400 million for the stadium and $256 million for Amway — and require the city to issue bonds that it would pay off with future revenue from the tourist development tax.
“The city will take on the obligation of constructing [both projects] and any cost overruns for that, which we think is a substantial risk in any type of construction project right now as prices keep going up,” Dyer said.
He discussed the idea at the end of a 2½-hour meeting of the Tourist Development Council, a nine-member advisory panel on which both he and Orange County Mayor Jerry Deming recommended spending revenues raised by the 6% tax be added to the cost of a hotel room, a home-sharing rental or other short-term lodging.
Orange County commissioners, who have the final say, tabled funding requests for the city venues Oct. 3.
Orlando venues shut out of Orange County’s tourist-tax funding – for now
The Orlando mayor laid out the plan in response to a question from fellow panelist, hotel manager Jesse Martinez, who cited gripes by some county commissioners that the city has not put financial “skin” into the venues.
Dyer pointed out the county-owned Convention Center’s operating expenses exceed its revenues every year, including $21 million in fiscal year 2022-23 according to the comptroller’s accounting, and deficits are paid off with TDT funds.
He said the city doesn’t receive similar supplemental TDT funding to take care of the stadium or Amway.
“We operate these buildings at our cost and we think these buildings are not, as some have suggested, city of Orlando buildings,” Dyer said. “We believe these are community buildings that benefit the entire region.”
County rules require changes to the Tourist Development Tax spending plan to be reviewed by the advisory panel before commissioners vote on an ordinance to codify the plan. Commissioners are expected to decide Nov. 28.
The existing plan already included another expansion of the convention center expansion, a $560-million project halted in 2020 because TDT collections hit record lows as theme parks closed and international travel stopped.
The panel endorsed two changes to the plan Tuesday: a pledge of $90 million — $10 million a year over the next nine years — to pay for a football tower at the University of Central Florida’s FBC Mortgage Stadium and a boost in funding for Arts & Cultural Affairs from about $6 million a year to $11 million annually.
“That goes a long way to help our various arts groups,” Demings said.
At their Nov. 14 meeting, commissioners will consider a cut in TDT funding for Visit Orlando, which receives about 30% of tourist-tax revenues to promote the region as the top destination for business and leisure tourism.
Mark Tester, the convention center’s executive director, told the advisory board the meeting place on International Drive had a strong fiscal 2022-23, staging 159 events that drew 1.5 million visitors to Central Florida.
He said he was optimistic about convention business, citing surveys of meeting planners.
“They found some very, very positive trends, some real encouragement, especially considering what happened during COVID,” Tester said. “The biggest thing is, with so many people now working remotely, they are way, way more likely to want to attend a face-to-face event.”
But he said competition is growing tougher for big meetings.
The Orange County Convention Center has slipped from second- to third-largest meeting complex in the U.S., behind Chicago’s McCormick Place and now Las Vegas, too, which is the national leader in convention market share.
“They are investing in their facilities in a big way,” Tester said. “Vegas wants it all …That’s the one we watch.”
But he also pointed out that Dallas and other competitors also are “sharpening their knives.”
shudak@orlandosentinel.com
