Hotels within a 1-mile radius of Orlando Sanford International Airport are nonexistent, but that will soon change.
The Sanford Airport Authority is close to inking a ground lease with SOIA Hospitality LLC to build a hotel on airport property.
The hotel, tentatively slated to be a Hampton Inn & Suites, would be located at the intersection of Airport Boulevard and Airline Avenue. It is less than a 5-minute walk from the domestic and international terminals.
The hotel would occupy about 3 acres of the airport authority’s 6-acre tact just west of Lake Golden. A site plan provided by SOIA Hospitality also shows a 3,500-square-foot restaurant.
No tenant has yet been named for the restaurant.
The airport authority may build a second hotel on its remaining 3 acre parcel. More than a decade ago, airport officials designated the property for hotel development.
The Sanford Airport is on pace to surpass 2.8 million passengers this calendar year, which would top last year’s record mark of the nearly 2.5 million.
Th airport’s substantial growth, combined with the official grand opening of the Seminole County sports complex later this week, is driving speculation that as many as five hotels could be built around the airport in the near future.
The sports complex, located on the southeast side of the airport within sight of the control tower, is expected to generate 36,000 hotel room nights this year alone.
Sanford, Fla. 