Ex-Software Developer Plans $120M Mixed-Use Project

ORLANDO-Mayor Buddy Dyer and five council members have voted to give suburban Windermere, FL developer Kevin Azzouz a $4 million, 10-year economic incentives package for his planned 30-acre, $120 million, mixed-use Veranda Park project at the 1,850-acre MetroWest community near Universal Orlando.

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.