Seminole approves development plans for old Flea World site near Sanford

A vacant, weed-ridden plot of land where the once-popular Flea World attraction stood near Sanford moved closer Tuesday to becoming a complex of apartments, shops and offices.

Seminole County commissioners approved preliminary plans for Reagan Center, a development of up to 1,003 apartments, a 200-room hotel and about 1.3 million square feet of retail and office space on 75 acres off U.S. Highway 17-92.

County officials have called the vacant area — across from Seminole’s expanding Five Points government complex — blighted since Flea World was closed and razed in 2015.

“This is a good product and I’m glad to see you’re moving forward with it,” Commissioner Bob Dallari told representatives for the developer, Integra Land Co.

Randy Morris, an Integra consultant, said the empty land sits along one of the busiest highways in Central Florida and is surrounded by existing businesses and multifamily housing.

“This is a development in the urban area and not in the rural area,” Morris told commissioners. “If not here then where would it go?”

Tally Sinclair, a Winter Park resident who owns about 16 wooded acres adjacent to the property, told commissioners she has concerns about stormwater from the development exacerbating occasional flooding at nearby residential properties after heavy rainfall.

“Seasonal flooding occurs on an annual basis,” Sinclair said.

DeSantis tries to hide public records about migrant flights. Court says no | Commentary

David McDaniel, of Integra, said any stormwater coming from nearby U.S. 17-92 and the development would be contained on the property within retention ponds and 35 acres of mostly wetlands set aside for conservation.

McDaniel said development should begin in spring 2025 and be completed in about three years.

Commissioner Lee Constantine, who cast the sole dissenting vote, said he’s glad to see the land finally developed.

However, he’s concerned there are no safeguards that a future owner of the property would not apply for property tax credits for affordable housing under Florida’s Live Local Act even though current plans show no affordable housing units.

“All I wanted is a commitment that because they are not putting in affordable housing, that someone will not apply for the tax credits later,” Constantine said after the meeting. “I’m just looking out for the taxpayers of Seminole County.”

At 110 acres total, the Flea World land is owned by a subsidiary of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Florida Foundation. Orlando philanthropist and businessman Syd Levy, who started Flea World in 1983, willed the property to the nonprofit before he died in 2018.

Billed as “America’s Largest Flea Market” in its mid-1980s heyday, Flea World attracted thousands of bargain-seekers to its hundreds of booths. It also had Elvis Presley impersonators, musical acts and a small zoo with lions, tigers, bears and monkeys named after local TV personalities.