News
Apologies if this was already posted and I missed it, however I've seen no discussion regarding this, so I'm going out on a limb here.
BizJournals recently dug up a Universal proposed theme park sub-district (with a marked transit connect) based on their recently acquired land.
http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2016/05/universals-proposed-changes-to-i-drive-add-new.html
As the text is hard to read, here is some info:
The area at the bottom (marked with a 4) is Sea World, Aquatica, and Discovery Cove.
The main area outlined, 8, is land recently (re)purchased from Lockheed Martin. This plot is right behind major tourist attractions along International Drive, such as the Orlando Eye, Madame Tussauds, Ripleys, and Golden Corral (lol).
To put area 8 into perspective, it is nearly twice the size of IoA, USF, and CityWalk combined.
The little satellite area 8's, connected by a "transportation connection" are likely parking/entrance areas. Some sort of raised tram/train/monorail system is likely to be the transportation as it crosses over water most of the way.
Ultimately, we are looking at a new gate here. And with the amount of land we are talking about, it is very likely going to eventually be 2 new gates (or just one reallllly huge one).
Between Pandora, Star Wars land, Nintendoland, and whatever Universal has got cooking on this plot of land, the next decade is looking like a silver age (potentially golden) for theme park immersion and development.
I also find it interesting that the Orlando Eye is *right( smach dab in front of what appears to be one of the new entrances. Universal raised a big stink about the development of it, and people assumed it's because it could be seen from the parks... No one guessed it was because it would be right across the street from their new park...hah.