The Magic may “invest as much as $100 million in a sports and entertainment complex” across from Amway Center, according to Mark Schlueb of the ORLANDO SENTINEL. The project, “still in the earliest conceptual stage, could be built on city-owned land” just north of the arena. A city parking garage “is now on the site and would be torn down, potentially displacing a handful of largely African American-owned businesses.” Magic President Alex Martins said that it is “impossible to say with any certainty exactly what will be built until a yearlong feasibility study is conducted.” Martins: “This could be a $100 million development when all is said and done.” The project would be “anchored by the Magic’s own corporate headquarters.” The team’s current lease at RDV Sportsplex in Maitland, Fla., "expires in 2014, and the 145 Magic employees who work there would move" to downtown Orlando. The proposed “mid-rise building could also include a hotel and conference center, along with dining, retail and entertainment space.” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer next week “will ask the City Council to grant a one-year exclusive purchase option for the property to a newly formed development company, SED Development LLC.” The company is “led by the family of Magic owner Rich DeVos but would ultimately include other investors.” Over the next year, the company “would pay for the feasibility study -- estimated to cost $2 million or more -- to come up with a development plan.” The team would “pay the city $100,000 for the purchase option and a deposit on a future sale, half of which would be refundable if the plan falls through” (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 9/14).
