If you’ve driven to Walt Disney World more than a handful of times, you’ve probably seen it — even if you never knew what it was.
Right there at the northeast corner of I-4 and U.S. 192, across from Celebration (the not-so-perfect town that Disney built), sat a hulking reminder of what happens when a prime piece of tourist real estate gets stuck in limbo. It wasn’t hidden behind trees or tucked away on a side road. It was front and center on the theme park corridor — the kind of location most hotel owners would fight over.
And yet for years, it just… lingered. Boarded up. Fenced off. Slowly degrading in front of our eyes. Every time you drove past, it looked a little worse — and it always raised the same question:
How does nobody scoop up a plot like that?
When that corner was a Hyatt (and a landmark)
Long before it became a local punchline, that property was a Hyatt resort — the kind of big, highly visible hotel that felt like part of the “arrival” experience when you were heading toward Disney. It wasn’t on Disney property, but it might as well have been part of the scenery. You’d see it on the drive down I-4 and mentally file it away as one of those “big Orlando hotels” that had always been there. At one point, the Orlando Hyatt resort was even described as the largest hotel in Florida.
Over time, the name changed and the story got messier. It eventually operated as the Orlando Sun, and then it didn’t operate at all. And that’s when the property’s second life began — not as a resort, but as an eyesore everyone recognized and nobody seemed able to fix.
The strange part wasn’t the decline — it was the waiting
Hotels near Disney close, rebrand, get renovated, get sold, or get bulldozed all the time. That’s normal. What wasn’t normal was watching a location this prominent sit in a holding pattern for years.
The buildings didn’t just sit there quietly. They visibly deteriorated. The longer it dragged out, the more it felt like a mystery: was it ownership drama, county issues, developer math, or just nobody wanting to touch a complicated site?
Probably some combination of all of the above. Check out this video of the site from just a few years ago.
And it’s not like this was the only U.S. 192 hotel story that dragged on forever.
Just down the road, there was another property that seemed stuck in “almost, but not quite” mode: the former Radisson that rebranded as the Grand Celebration Hotel and spent years in a will-they/won’t-they situation with Marriott. It was one of those drawn-out sagas where the hotel felt like it was perpetually on the verge of becoming something better… and then it wasn’t.
Eventually, that one did get a real ending: after time, ownership changes, and renovations, it finally became a Delta Hotels property.
That’s what made the old Hyatt site feel even stranger. We’ve seen drawn-out hotel transitions near Disney before — but this one wasn’t transitioning. It was just decaying. In the most visible spot possible. And by this point, the former Hyatt resort was long past the “just renovate it” stage.
Now it’s finally moving: Ovation Orlando is back on track
According to GrowthSpotter / the Orlando Sentinel, South Florida-based developer Accesso, along with joint venture partner Meyers Group, has now closed on the purchase of the long-blighted site for more than $70 million. The deal reportedly closed on December 30, 2025, and the developer says demolition of the old buildings should begin within weeks.
That’s the key sentence there: demolition. Because once those structures finally come down, the psychological weight of that corner changes instantly. It stops being “that abandoned hotel” and becomes “that huge construction site near Disney,” which… honestly feels like progress.
The plan is for a massive mixed-use entertainment district called Ovation Orlando — a roughly $1 billion project with retail, dining, entertainment, lodging, and multiple themed zones. The developer has described five adjacent areas (with names like The Celebration, The Water’s Edge, and The Beat), designed to be walkable and packed with things to do beyond the theme parks.
The project’s hotel component is especially interesting: plans call for three hotels totaling around 740 rooms, including a larger full-service property and two select-service hotels.
Image from https://ovationorlando.com/
The question everyone will ask: Will a Hyatt come back?
Here’s the part I can’t help wondering about: does Hyatt return to the corner it once “owned”?
Hyatt’s presence near Disney exists, but it’s not exactly overwhelming compared to the way Marriott and Hilton dominate the area. There are notable options like Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress and a few limited-service properties in the orbit — but for a market this big, Hyatt doesn’t feel as “everywhere” as other brands.
And since Ovation is planning three new hotels, it opens the door for all sorts of possibilities: a familiar major chain flag, a lifestyle brand, a “new-to-market” name trying to make a splash in Orlando… or maybe even a return of Hyatt in some form.
Right now, there’s no announcement on branding — and it may be a while before we see names attached. But if you want to play armchair developer, this is the kind of site where brands love to plant a flag because the location does half the marketing for them.
Final Thought
For years, that abandoned resort at I-4 and 192 has been the background scenery of the Disney drive — a reminder that even “can’t miss” real estate can fall into a weird no-man’s land.
Now, it finally sounds like we’re getting the ending: demolition, redevelopment, and a project that (at least on paper) aims to turn one of Central Florida’s most prominent eyesores into a new destination.
And if a Hyatt logo ever ends up back on that corner again? That would be the most Orlando full-circle moment possible.
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