OCPS unveils $50.1 million revamp plan for former campus

By Ryan Lynch – Staff Writer, Orlando Business Journal

Orange County Public Schools plans to spend an estimated $50.1 million to revamp a former campus. 

The district is seeking bids to design a replacement campus on 6.06 acres at 905 Waltham Ave. in Orlando, the site of the former Pine Castle Elementary School, which closed in 2019 and was combined with the Pershing School at 1800 E. Pershing Ave. in Orlando.

The school district wants to build an 82,000-square-foot, two- to three-story facility to house the Esteem Academy, hospital homebound and ESE (exceptional student education) transition programs. The project also would include a new basketball court, pickleball court, bocce court, a maze/labyrinth, a greenhouse and a calming area.

The proposed start of design would be February, with a goal to get the notice to proceed with construction in June 2026 and have it reach substantial completion by June 2027.

District executives were not immediately available for comment. Responses to the request for design proposals at RFQ 2406PS are due Oct. 1.

OCPS has proposed changes to underused campuses in the past. For example, It is considering new uses for the Cherokee School building at 555 S. Eola Drive.

OCPS is the fourth-largest school district in Florida, with more than 207,993 students at 210 schools. The district is also among the region's largest employers, with 24,685 employees.

The July 2024 American Institute of Architects Consensus Construction Forecast found education construction has continued to grow through the Covid-19 pandemic, with a projected year-over-year growth of 10.1%. For 2025, activity is expected to grow 4.4% year over year.

That growth in education construction has been driven by the increase in people younger than 25. "There were over 100 million persons under age 25 in the U.S. in 2020," the report stated. "This group is expected to increase by almost two million by 2030."

The American Institute of Architects report added that if immigration increases, those numbers could get even higher. Also, the pandemic put a lot of educational construction and reconstruction projects on hold, so many are starting up again.

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