ORLANDO-Stratford Land and Boyd Development Corp. have acquired about 600 acres of property in Horizon West in Orange County. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Known as “Town Center East,” the property is located on the northeast and southeast quadrants of the Western Beltway at the New Independence Parkway interchange. Boyd Development is working with Orange County to secure the road agreements necessary to extend New Independence Parkway and North Porter Road to improve Beltway access.

“The interchange location makes it prime for development--especially once the road network is extended,” Scott Boyd, president of Boyd Development Corp., tells GlobeSt.com. “This is prime residential property. Most of the active residential builders are active in Horizon West.”

Boyd notes that the southwest Orlando residential market is consistently in the top three markets for new housing starts in the metropolitan Orlando area. In fact, he says, during the bottom of the residential market in 2008 and 2009, the sub-market had more housing starts than any other sub-market in the region. Specifically, the market accounted for more than 30% of the housing starts during an 18-month reporting period during this timeframe.

“This project is the culmination of two-and-a-half years of work with this development group to provide much needed connectivity throughout the area and onto SR 429 for thousands of residents in west Orange County,” Orange County District 1 Commissioner S. Scott Boyd said in a statement. “This will be the first development in the ‘Town Center,’ and it will provide essential jobs and infrastructure for the west Orange County community.”

The mixed-use property is entitled for about 1 million square feet of office, about 300,000 square feet of retail and 1,700 residential units. The residential portion of the project will include multi-family for rent and for sale product, as well as single-family homes. The property includes about three miles of lakefront.

“This property will be the first project within the Town Center for Horizon West, and as such will pave the way for establishing building codes, etc for all of the Town Center,” Boyd says. “We have already met with county staff to begin this process. In addition, we are working on a global road agreement and master utility plan with the county. These things, while time-consuming, are not expected to hold up a projected third quarter, 2012 ground-breaking.”