For Cypress Harbour timeshare owners who may be just learning some of the details of the potential enormous changes coming to their resort, here is a brief history of the Cypress Harbour/Grande Pines Golf Course sale and possible development culled from news reports.
* During or before October 2013. It appears that Marriott Vacations Worldwide -- the 2011 publicly-traded spinoff (NYSE: VAC) from Marriott International, Inc. -- began exploring liquidating some real estate assets near the Cypress Harbour timeshare resort at least as early as October 2013 when it advertised a 20-acre parcel to the east of Cypress Harbour along International Drive. That land is adjacent to Grande Pines GC and was touted as being useful for a variety of purposes, including housing and commercial.
* In October 2013, the Orlando Business Journal reported that Orange County (Fla.) was being asked to entertain a radically different development plan for a far larger piece of property that would include Grande Pines GC itself. The developer wanted to put 2,384 apartments, 100 timeshare units, 150 hotel rooms and commercial space on the land. It was not clear from the news report whether the developer had control of the land owned by Marriott Vacations Worldwide. The report was not explicit in that regard. The report did mention that there was at least one community meeting about the plan. While it is not clear what further officials steps were taken regarding that plan, clearly it did not come to fruition.
* In November 2013, the Orlando Business Journal ran a news report reiterating Marriott Vacation Worldwide’s interest in liquidating the Grande Pines Golf Course. There were no further details on what such a re-purposing might look like.
* In February 2014, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Marriott Vacations Worldwide had sold the 170-acre Grande Pines GC -- which the precedent Marriott company had owned since 1997 -- to a potential developer. The report identified the buyer as AG-RW Grande Pines LLC and that it was represented by Angelo, Gordon & Co. The report said the sale was for $24 million. Marriott Vacations Worldwide said the sale was done to benefit shareholders. An MVW executive said that “when (Cypress Harbour) was being marketed, the golf course was not part of the resort” and the golf course “was never included as an amenity in the purchase,” according to the news report.
* In March 2015, The Orlando Business Journal reported that developers Angelo, Gordon & Co. (of N.Y.) , and Ridgewood Real Estate Partners (of N.J.) had presented a Master Plan to Orange County (Fla.), including a master plan map, that described a development of 700 apartments, 176 townhouses and 260 single-family homes on three parcels that encircled Cypress Harbour. There were also provisions for retail/restaurants to the far east side of the golf course property.
* In May 2015, Cypress Harbour sent an email newsletter detailing some of the above and describing negotiations it was having with developers to mitigate effects of the proposed development on the Cypress Harbor time share resort.
According to the link in Post #4 Marriott did own it, sold it in 2014 but continued to operate it for a year. Now the new owners have released their development plans.
