The Wilf family, who own Orlando City SC and Orlando Pride, want to transform Osceola Heritage Park with an expanded headquarters and training facility for both teams and a soccer academy as part of a nearly $1 billion mixed-use redevelopment.

The proposed redevelopment, dubbed Project Next, would also deliver a mix of apartments, hotels, offices, restaurants, and retail space, resulting in millions of dollars in annual tax revenue for Osceola County and producing hundreds of jobs. A team led by Mark, Leonard, and Zygi Wilf submitted a bid in response to a request from the county, which owns Osceola Heritage Park. The price is to be negotiated.

The Wilfs’ interest in developing the long-under-utilized park has been known for weeks, but details obtained by GrowthSpotter this week show the scope of their ambition. The two professional soccer teams are riding high, with the Pride having just won their first league championship and City SC heading to their first conference final this weekend.

The bid, to be considered by the Osceola County Commission on Monday, proposes an unspecified amount of additional seating for Osceola County Stadium, a former baseball facility with a capacity of 5,300. Orlando City’s MLS Next Pro affiliate Orlando City B plays its regular season games there.

The training facilities would also be expanded from 4 to 18 practice fields, which would include a mix of 13 full-sized soccer fields and 5 partial practice fields. The Wilfs would also construct an additional 79,390 square feet of office space for the Orlando City SC and Orlando Pride headquarters and build a training academy with a gym and two dorm buildings totaling 108 units and 216 beds. The academy would attract top youth talent from around the country and the world, the proposal says.

The bid indicated that 3 to 4 of the practice fields would be available for public rental, with the rest exclusively for team and academy use.

The larger development plans fulfill economic development goals long sought by Osceola County, proposing 962 apartments spread out over 11 buildings, two 160-key hotels with a combined 320 rooms, a 241,540-square-foot commercial core with retail and restaurants, and a 66,000-square-foot free-standing emergency room. Additionally, there would be three parcels designated for future development just west of Silver Spurs Arena and another three future commercial parcels. The bid also proposes three parking garages with a total of 4,800 spaces.

The first phase of the plans would expand the Orlando City SC and Orlando Pride training facilities to 12 fields and include the new team headquarters space, along with five apartment buildings, a hotel, and a parking garage. The rest of the project would be built in additional phases.

“It’s a significant project for the county for a few reasons, but one in particular is that this could get some hotels placed on the site. That’s something that both Heritage Park and NeoCity need,” Osceola County Manager Don Fisher told GrowthSpotter.

The Wilf family became majority owners of Orlando City SC and the Orlando Pride in 2021, and also own the Minnesota Vikings and real estate firm Garden Communities. Orlando City SC opened its training facilities and headquarters at Osceola Heritage Park in 2020. The park is anchored by a 47,850-square-foot event center and the 8,000-seat Silver Spurs Arena, which has been home to the Osceola Magic, the Orlando Magic’s G League affiliate, since 2023.

Osceola County published a Request for Letters of Interest in September for a development partner to lease or buy the roughly 210-acre property and the adjacent 41-acre former Johnson University campus. The Wilfs’ bid proposed buying 62.2 acres of the site while maintaining the rest under public ownership. It didn’t include the former Johnson University property.

It isn’t yet known how much the Wilf family would pay Osceola County for the land. Fisher will recommend during Monday’s Board of County Commissioners meeting that the county begin negotiations for a development and sale or lease agreement with the development team, which goes by the name K&K Sports, LLC.

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If the commission approves the recommendation, the bid specifies a timeline of six months for negotiating agreements. The development team intends to submit a preliminary subdivision plan to the county by August 2025 and a phase 1 infrastructure design plan by September. The team could complete construction on certain portions of the training facility and headquarters within three years.

Fisher wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the proposal.

“I can tell you that we’re happy to see that the respondent is certainly qualified, has a long track record, and they’re known in the community,” he said.

Osceola County has been trying to redevelop Osceola Heritage Park for years but failed on three separate earlier occasions.

If built as projected, Project Next would have a huge economic impact. A Fiscal Impact Analysis estimates that the project could produce a net fiscal impact of up to $3.89 million annually for Osceola County upon full buildout after all revenues and expenses are accounted for.

The analysis also projected that Project Next would create 855 permanent jobs with an average annual wage of $47,579 and that about 615 of these jobs would be directly associated with the operation, administration, and management of the project.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at (407)607-8160 or TyWilliams@GrowthSpotter.com. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.