The developers are Euro-American Advisors, the Tampa-based arm of Euro-American Investors Group of The Hague; the Don M. Casto Organization of Columbus, OH; GDC Properties Inc. of Hawthorne, NY; Orlando-based music entrepreneur Louis J. Pearlman; and Tavistock Group of Orlando, bankrolled by Joe Lewis, the retired London industrialist whose family-run companies own two of Orlando's high-end residential communities, Lake Nona and Isleworth.

Orlando area brokers familiar with the Downtown redevelopment tell GlobeSt.com the first project off the drawing boards is expected to be Euro-American's $100 million, 30-story, 248-unit condominium and retail venture at the site of the 78,000-sf, 75% vacant Church Street Market building. Euro-American, headed by Harry Bessem, has owned Church Street Market since 1993.

Orlando-based Olde Town Brokers is marketing the condos and plans to open a Downtown preview center May 17. The project is tentatively called 55 West on the Esplanade and will offer 800-sf studio units to 6,000-sf penthouses with starting prices of $150,000 for the smaller units to $1.5 million-plus for the penthouse units. The project is tentatively scheduled to break ground in late 2004.