Faith Deliverance Temple, the family-owned church in Parramore that refused million-dollar offers for their property back in 2013/2014, has apparently reconsidered their position on selling, according to a report by Richard Bilbao for Orlando Business Journal.
The family declined a $4 million offer to buy their land for the new stadium in 2014, hoping to hold out for a whopping $15 million. Rather than foot that considerable bill, the City filed an eminent domain lawsuit which ultimately failed, and decided to move their project immediately west of the church in response. At the time, the property was valued at $750,000.
The ownership behind Orlando City and Orlando Pride paid an estimated $3.45 million for the parcel, located at 625 W. Church Street [GMap], which has served primarily as VIP parking during games since the stadium was built.
Orlando City Soccer has shared that it doesn’t have anything planned for the land at the moment, but it will likely be used in concert with the adjacent vacant greenspace that they use for game day activations moving forward.
Mr Potter, you should very much reconsider the reality of traffic congestion in the downtown area; the church itself nor its purchase have anything at all to do with it. There are countless reasons for the traffic in that area, which is HUGELY due to the rivers of people created by the sporting events and concerts in venues, like the Orlando city stadium, while also adding the lack of better urban planning by local government.
I wish they would have never paid a dime for it. In addition to delays and design changes, that greedy church caused Parramore to be yet another “non-through” street, further snarling Orlando’s disastrous traffic on that side of town. They should have acted like a good community partner and sold it for market value (or even double the market value).