Orlando elected officials are frequently criticized for handing out multi-million-dollar grants for projects that never get off the drawing board. But this time city officials are confident the Azzouz project will pay off in an increased tax base and other new development, planning department staffers tell GlobeSt.com.

The six-member council voted 5-1 for the package that includes property tax rebates and development fee credits. The incentives deal took a year of on-and-off negotiations between the developer and the city whose primary focus has been in redeveloping the core of the central business district, not in fostering non-CBD undertakings.

Azzouz, a fourtyish, former software developer who reportedly retired as a millionaire in his thirties, couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline. But subcontractors who have worked with Azzouz on area residential ventures tell GlobeSt.com the developer plans to break ground in July on the first of 500 planned condos and an undetermined amount of retail and office space on Hiawassee Road, one of MetroWest's main arteries.