JW Marriott sketch (Kimley-Horn/DCS)
JW Marriott hotel with 516 rooms planned near Disney World's Epcot
August 29, 2018
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -
Two construction workers were killed in Florida early Wednesday when scaffolding they were working on collapsed and they plunged six stories.
The accident happened at a hotel under construction in Orlando, Florida, at about 4:15 a.m. Officials said both men died at the scene.
The scaffolding was between the sixth and seventh floors when it collapsed, according to Orange County Fire Rescue. The scaffolding gave way "for reasons unknown," according to the authorities.
Four people were on the scaffold at the time, with one managing to get to safety before falling, and a third worker, who was able to hang on to the scaffolding and climb up to safety. He suffered minor injuries, authorities said, but refused transport to a hospital.
The workers were part of a group of about a dozen construction workers who were pouring concrete at the location.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Orange County Sheriff's Office will investigate.
The accident happened near Walt Disney World's Epcot Center, but not on Disney property.
The property is owned by DCS Investments of West Palm Beach. The project's owner/developer, West Palm Beach-based DCS Real Estate Capital Investments, chose Canada-based PCL Construction Services Inc. to build the 516-luxury room hotel. PCL will "self-perform" the 40,000-cubic-yard concrete package. The PCL team has "extensive experience with luxury resort construction," said Rick Goldman, district manager of PCL, in a prepared statement.============================
ORLANDO, Fla. --
Emergency responders say two construction workers fell to their deaths when scaffolding collapsed above the sixth floor of a hotel under construction near Disney World.
A third worker managed to hang on and climb to safety early Wednesday.
The accident happened in Orange County just outside Disney property, according to Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles.
He says there were about 18 workers at the scene when they got the call about the accident at 4:15 a.m. They were working at the top of the hotel, above the sixth floor, where concrete is being poured. Jachles says that the support structure gave way, sending two workers plummeting to their deaths. The third worker sustained minor injuries.
Jachles says the sheriff's office and federal investigators are examining what happened.
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2 workers die in 7-story fall near Disney; 3rd worker hangs on, survives
Incident reported at hotel site near Bonnet Creek Resort
By Daniel Dahm - Digital Manager
August 29, 2018
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -
Two workers died early Wednesday when they fell seven stories from a hotel that is under construction near Disney World, officials said.
The deaths were reported at 4:15 a.m. at the site of a future JW Marriott hotel in the 14900 block of Chelonia Parkway near the Bonnet Creek Resort in Orange County, just off Disney property.
According to Orange County Fire Rescue, about 20 workers were at the job site when three of them were preparing to pour concrete and the scaffolding they were standing on collapsed.
Two workers fell about 80 feet to the ground and were pronounced dead at the scene, officials said. Orange County sheriff's spokeswoman Ingrid Tejada-Monforte said the victims were men in their 30s. Their names have not been released
A third worker, a man in his mid-30s, was able to hold on and climb to safety with the help of others, officials said. That worker suffered minor injuries, according to Fire Rescue officials.
"This is a very sad tragic incident that occurred here this morning," Tejada-Monforte said.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office and federal authorities are interviewing witnesses and investigating what caused the scaffolding to collapse.
Construction of the eight-story hotel is expected to be completed in 2019.
No other details have been released.
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The Orlando area might soon have its second JW Marriott hotel, as developers have filed a plan for a new JW on 10.6 acres near Wyndham’s Bonnet Creek Resort and southeast of Disney World’s Epcot.
The property is owned by DCS Investments of West Palm Beach, also known locally as the owner and developer of the upscale Bella Collina golf resort development near Clermont.
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DCS plans a 516-room hotel, at 16 stories, with 50,000 square feet of meeting space, a rooftop bar and signature restaurant. Randall Greene of DCS declined to comment on the plan. The company obtained $240 million financing from the Bank of the Ozarks.
Kimley Horn, a planning and engineering firm, filed an application Monday on behalf of DCS for the new hotel, with bare-bones detail. The application identifies the project as JW Marriott at Bonnet Creek, with an address on Chelonia Parkway, placing the hotel at the southwest corner of Epcot Center Drive and Interstate 4.
JW Marriott sketch (Kimley-Horn/DCS)
The JW Marriott Grande Lakes is one of the largest hotels in the Orlando area at about 1,000 rooms. The JW Marriott brand is owned by Marriott International, named after John Willard Marriott, the hotelier’s founder.
According to property records, DCS bought the property for $2.2 million in 2013.The site, at the end of Chelonia, was previously prepped for a project that stalled during the recession, and some rough grading is already complete.
The architect on the project is the Orlando office of Huitt-Zollars (formerly Morris) which plans a modern look.
New JW Marriott property in red outline (Orange County)
If approved, the hotel would join a flood of new Walt Disney World attractions, including an immersive “Star Wars”-themed resort, a “Tron” ride and enhancements to Epcot that were just announced this summer.
Some of the additions will be timed to the 50th anniversary of Disney World in 2021, Bob Chapek, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said at a session of D23, the official Disney fan club in Anaheim, Calif.
At Epcot, there will be a new “Guardians of the Galaxy” ride, a new “Ratatouille”-themed ride in France, new films in China and within Mission: Space, which is also getting a table-service restaurant nearby.
The “Guardians” ride will be “rooted in an Epcot story” on the Future World side, Chapek said.
That’s all in addition to the Pandora land based on the movie “Avatar” that just opened at Animal Kingdom.
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The planned new $350 million JW Marriott Bonnet Creek hotel slated to be built near Walt Disney World has chosen the contractor that will bring it to life in 2019.
The project's owner/developer, West Palm Beach-based DCS Real Estate Capital Investments, chose Canada-based PCL Construction Services Inc. to build the 516-luxury room hotel. PCL will "self-perform" the 40,000-cubic-yard concrete package. The PCL team has "extensive experience with luxury resort construction," said Rick Goldman, district manager of PCL, in a prepared statement.
In addition to adding luxury rooms to Orlando, the new hotel will feature 50,000 square feet of meeting space, a spa, rooftop bar and several restaurants. The exterior of the property will have a 944-space parking garage, two swimming pools, a hot tub, outdoor pool bar, tennis court, basketball court and putting green.
This will be Orlando's second JW Marriott hotel. The existing 998-room, 500-acre JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes property, which features an 18-hole golf course designed by Greg Norman, was a $547 million project developed in tandem with the Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes in 2001.
The appeal for luxury accommodations is growing as more visitors continue to come to Orlando.
“You don’t casually put investor dollars into a project that size,” Susan Morris, president and owner of Orlando-based consulting firm Resource Development Investment Properties Inc., who isn’t involved in the project, previously told Orlando Business Journal. “Some travelers at a hotel like this will be spending a great deal of time at Disney, but some will be the business community and their conventions."
Luxury properties attract high-end travelers — and big spenders — to Central Florida, which allows locals businesses to tap into that lucrative market base.
Only the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort is ranked as a AAA Five Diamond Award, which means the region still has room for more ultra-luxury-level lodging. Orlando's $60 billion tourism industry is the region's dominant economic engine, and last year drew a record 68 million-plus visitors to town.