Skyview Companies, which is bidding for a mixed-use hotel and residential project at downtown Kissimmee’s Toho Square, will co-develop a mixed-use apartment tower next door that will bring a long-awaited grocery store to the Central Business District.
The mixed-use tower is proposed by Barron Collier Investment Partners, which won the competitive bidding in 2022 for the county-owned property at 400 W Emmett St.
The Naples-based developer outbid two Kissimmee-based firms for the 2.1-acre site with an offer to buy the assemblage for $3.85 million — more than double the next-highest bid.
Barron Collier is teaming up with Downtown Gather & Grow, led by longtime grocery store executive Rick Llewellyn, who will take the lead in the ground-floor retail. They recruited Skyview, which recently completed the award-winning Allen apartments in Kissimmee’s Beaumont district, to deliver the housing component of the mixed-use tower.
“We’ve been working with the city and county,” Llewellyn said. “They’re very excited about what we’re bringing. Their courthouse is right there, and obviously they’ll be there forever, and they’re going to expand eventually.”
The bidders not only offered the highest purchase price for the land. They also had endorsements from Kissimmee City Manager Mike Steigerwald and its downtown CRA.
“Critical to the goal of achieving a thriving housing market is the need for a grocery store downtown, which this project seeks to provide through a community-based co-operative model,” Steigerwald wrote, adding that the concept “fits perfectly” into the City’s vision for the future of its CBD.
Llewellyn told GrowthSpotter that Kissimmee Downtown Gather & Grow is still in its conceptual phase, but the plan is to build an independent grocery store, roughly 18,000 square feet, with a craft brewery and small food court on the ground floor of the building.
Llewellyn, who helped develop the Lucky’s Market grocery concept, has spent the last couple of years building relationships with local farmers, bakers and suppliers to source the products. The Kissimmee market is inspired by stores like Lucky’s and Publix Greenwise, as well as independent co-ops, like Pensacola’s Ever’man market. Winter Garden’s Crooked Can Brewery was another inspiration for the food and beverage portion of the project.
“I’m sure you’ve been to the bigger cities, and you’ll see the Whole Foods or a big grocer on the first floor, and it feels like the retail was thought of before the residential projects,” he said. “And that’s kind of what we do. We go in and we put a full-service grocery on the bottom floor with other amenities that the city specifically wants, be it a little food court, be it a microbrewery.”
The goal is to activate the site during the daytime and at night. “We have music and things put on all different functions for the city, as far as events and things like that, as well,” Llewellyn said. They recruited Skyview to the development team because they were impressed with the company’s work at The Allen, which was completed on time and under budget.
Skyview consultant Mario Farias said the residential portion is anticipated to include about 250 units and will share a parking garage with the ground-floor retail uses. The height hasn’t been finalized, but they’ve been cleared by the city to go over seven stories, if necessary.
“We feel like 250 is right at the sweet spot. The location is great for mixed-use development,” Farias said. “There’s probably not another spot in downtown Kissimmee where you could do this type of development.”
The Mosaic at Lake Toho apartments are right across the train tracks, and the recently completed Weston 400 and Allen apartments are just a few blocks away. Those three projects added over 800 apartments to the downtown submarket. The site is also just two blocks from the Kissimmee SunRail station.
Farias said the mixed-use project will complement the Toho Square development next door. Skyview teamed up with Kissimmee Place Development Group to create a mixed-use concept on the adjacent block that will include a Hyatt Place hotel and some type of condo or fee-simple residential use after neither developer won support from Kissimmee commissioners for a hotel-only proposal. They’re expected to submit a hybrid proposal to city officials in early June.
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