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Innovation Way

The Innovation Way Corridor is a development area that is planned to stretch south from the University of Central Florida to International Corporate Park, then West towards the Lake Nona area and finally ending at the Orlando International Airport. At the heart of this development plan is the expansion and extension of Alafaya Trail (SR 434) south from Avalon Park to SR 528 running between the county landfill and the OUC Curtis H. Stanton Energy Center, then continuing through International Corporate Park before it curves west towards the Lake Nona area and the airport. The entire corridor is planned to be approximately long.

Development

Phase 1

Phase I of the Innovation Way project is the extension of Alafaya Trail from Avalon Park to SR 528. The project as designed will include a 4-lane roadway complete with sidewalks and an on-road bike path and will cover a total distance of . The total projected cost is $30,098,953.25 and is set to begin in August 2006 with a completion date of August 2007.Update: It is August, 2008 and the road is not yet open.

Phase 2

Phases past phase 1 have yet to be funded.

Project Difficulties

International Corporate Park

A key cornerstone to the Innovation Way plan was to bring the UCF Medical Institute and the Burnham Institute to the International Corporate Park development, but both of those facilities have decided to move elsewhere closer to the Lake Nona area. Due to the loss of these two facilities, the developers of the Internal Corporate Park have floated the idea that warehouses and corporate distribution centers would generate more profit rather than High Tech jobs, 3,500 homes and town center as originally planned. The International Corporate Park area is already zoned for of industrial warehouses, which according to the developers would now be much more profitable when compared to building the residential sections of the plan in a declining housing market. In late November 2006 the International Corporate Park developers sent a letter to Orange County canceling a planned meeting on how to move forward with the Innovation Way plans and they have claimed there is a waiting list of industrial buyers to purchase warehouse space on their property.

It is currently unknown how the Innovation Way project will continue if the International Corporate Park developers back out of the plans. The developers expect to make a final decision in early January 2007.

Orange County Expressway Authority

In mid 2006 the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority canceled funding to an interchange on SR-528 which would have connected to the Innovation Way developments. The Expressway Authority has suggested toll increases to pay for this and other projects but has been unable to do so due to recent scandals and inconsistencies with the agency's handling of toll revenue.