Universal Orlando Resort Expansion (Part 1)

[princeinc]

I always wished they bought dr Phillips. They can Connect via large bridges. Island of adventures 2.0. Not neccesarily a third gate but double the size of IOA. Access through JP, kong, or another entry to the Wwohp. Put another hotel and parking deck over there and you will have one park with two gates. Have room for some other ip lands without the hastle of trying to operate a complete third gate

 

[Bobharlem]

It appears to have been purchaed on 2/5/2015 by CCM Universal Plaza, LLC a divsion of Coqui Development Co

http://www.ocpafl.org/searches/ParcelSearch.aspx?pid=292318823100020 at 21.5 mil, which is 20 million more than it sold for 20 years ago.

And if you look up the incorporation documents

http://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/Co...0114\00006113.Tif&documentNumber=M15000000190

It was only formed a few weeks before the purchase as a "Foreign Company" in Deleware via an service in Tallahassee. Draw your own conclusions there. If someone was trying to hide the "true owners" this is a pretty good way to do it.

 

[maxairmike]

Yep, the incorporation location shouldn't be a focus beyond tax and ownership purposes. In fact, you'll find a lot of businesses are, or rather were, incorporated in Delaware due to the very business friendly laws. One great example is Cedar Fair, a Delaware incorporated LLC, even though everyone knows they're really headquartered in Sandusky, OH.

 

[Brian G.]

For the record, this doesn't mean anything. It's just an interesting observation.

Seth Kubersky did some digging apparently and said that Coqui may very well be a legit company. I'm sure he'll pop up and share what he found.

 

[CatCatCat]

The article is a bit inaccurate, as it lists the Kobe as part of the sale, which it was not. Not a big deal, though.

In total, ~5.6 acres of land was purchased. Here are a few images showing off exactly what is owned by CCM Universal Plaza, LLC:

Also, the vacant parcel of land in the lower right of the last picture is owned by a development company that got approval last summer to build a new high rise condominium. Not sure if that plan is still moving forward, but the same company still owns the land, so if they do end up building it, it doesn't bode well for Universal's acquisition of the property. (If this even is in fact Universal buying the other properties...)

Here are the plans for that condo:
http://www.cityoforlando.net/city-p...14/06/MPBStaffReport2014-06_MPL2014-00015.pdf

 

[Teebin]

Interesting, thanks for the diagrams CCC. I don't quite understand the point of Universal purchasing such a small parcel and that is the end of it. Hmmm.

 

[ThreePack Shagur]

I'm expecting this to be used to relocate some of the non-guest buildings off-site, to clear up more areas for expansion within the park.

 

[MrRoamer]

That's not too bad of an idea. move some administration over to the existing buildings that are there slowly making room for something more permanent.

Side question what did they decide to do with the Dave School building after HHN?

 

[Teebin]

That's not too bad of an idea. move some administration over to the existing buildings that are there slowly making room for something more permanent.

I don't think they would spend 20 million for administration land. There is a lot of rentable office space just a mile or two away, over where they have warehouses for example.

 

[MrRoamer]

Oh I agree 20 million is a whole lot of money for administration land. I'm thinking that they want the full parcel of what they just purchased in the long term. For the short term they could be buying that property piecemeal (as cheap as they can pull off) and keep the physical buildings in place while using them for administration, warehousing, whatever until they own the full parcel. This could allow them to shuffle around some of the areas that need to be moved for expansion and buy the property cheaper than what it will become. I imagine that buying the hotel property is going to be a long term play anyways since everything they do increases the inherent value of the hotels.

 

[Teebin]

That said, I wonder how much of an impact Cabana Bay has had on the surrounding hotels, like the Doubletree? There must be a dent to their business.

 

[MrRoamer]

All pure conjecture

I don't think Doubletree has been getting hit that hard by Cabana. When we had our wedding almost all of our guests (7) stayed there instead of onsite at Cabana Bay (2) or any of the other 3 resorts (even thought he had a block room rate!!!!!)
Biggest factors: could use their points, low cost, hotel familiarity.

I think the hotels south of them have felt the pain from Cabana pretty bad though. Hilton Garden Inn, La Quinta, etc.

I think Sapphire Bay with the conference area if priced correctly will have the best chance to impact Doubletree.

 

[blue180]

I mean, just logically thinking it through, it would take years/tons of money for them to acquire all of that land. Just think about how once other business owners on that property get word Universal wants to expand, how much they are gonna use that to their advantage to rip them off.

 

[Teebin]

I think the hotels south of them have felt the pain from Cabana pretty bad though. Hilton Garden Inn, La Quinta, etc.

I think Sapphire Bay with the conference area if priced correctly will have the best chance to impact Doubletree.

As you can probably tell, I getting at hurting the Kirkman hotels and in turn lowering their values.

 

[agentj]

And BTW, could one of you wallstreet smart types please explain the details of Comcast's finances on their wiki page right column? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast

Looking for defs of Operating income vs Net income vs Equity... more of the others would be welcomed.

To keep it all in perspective, Comcast's Total Revenue is approx. 68 Billion, NBC/Universal is Approx. 25 Billion and the theme parks are Approx. 2.6 Billion (about 3% of the Comcast Total. The 2.6 is nothing to sneeze at, especially since it is giving a nice return on investment to Comcast, but its still a small piece of the whole pie.

 

[Mad Dog]

As you can probably tell, I getting at hurting the Kirkman hotels and in turn lowering their values.

I would think that as Universal expands their hotels they will cease some of the partnership deals, since they can only use X number of early entry's before it gets too crowded. Plus, why give another hotel special packages so they can compete with your new hotels. So if Universal wants to have a competitive edge they can slowly isolate the outside hotels from their business plan, therefore lowering the value of those hotel properties. But Universal was in no position to do that when they only had three on site hotels. Now, once they have 6,7 or 8 it's a whole new ballgame.

 

[Teebin]

Ok, so we have Bara Universal out of the way. Staying within the Major Blvd loop, they still need to make deals with each of these LPs and LLCs. All of the hotels appear to be franchises, including Doubletree.

 

[UniversalCityFL]

Ok, so we have Bara Universal out of the way. Staying within the Major Blvd loop, they still need to make deals with each of these LPs and LLCs. All of the hotels appear to be franchises, including Doubletree.

I think we are all sniffing up the wrong tree. A shopping center developer out of DC bought some property across the street from UO. I don't think it's UO snatching up property -- that would be ridiculously costly. If one person didn't sell, UO would be royally effed.

I'd more likely see Universal buy the Dr. Phillip's property (~55 acres) for a cheap price from the city. Universal would then pay to build a new state of the art Dr. Phillips High School somewhere else. Everybody wins, it's cheaper, and Universal looks like the hero.

 

[Teebin]

I think we are all sniffing up the wrong tree. A shopping center developer out of DC bought some property across the street from UO. I don't think it's UO snatching up property -- that would be ridiculously costly. If one person didn't sell, UO would be royally effed.

I'd more likely see Universal buy the Dr. Phillip's property (~55 acres) for a cheap price from the city. Universal would then pay to build a new state of the art Dr. Phillips High School somewhere else. Everybody wins, it's cheaper, and Universal looks like the hero.

Oh. Well then. Nevermind.......... :blank:

 

[BamaToTheBone]

Just a thought, but who says that has to be an either/or situation?

I think we are all sniffing up the wrong tree. A shopping center developer out of DC bought some property across the street from UO. I don't think it's UO snatching up property -- that would be ridiculously costly. If one person didn't sell, UO would be royally effed.

I'd more likely see Universal buy the Dr. Phillip's property (~55 acres) for a cheap price from the city. Universal would then pay to build a new state of the art Dr. Phillips High School somewhere else. Everybody wins, it's cheaper, and Universal looks like the hero.