Meet the visionary behind Orlando’s boldest resort in years – Forbes Travel Guide Story

If Walt Disney World is the most magical place on earth, Iveymore Resort Orlando Must be the most diverse in the conversation. Evermore, a $1.5 billion project that debuts in January 2024, is a project in Mickey Mouse’s backyard that is creating buzz across the industry, including vacation rentals, Conrad Orlando Hotels, a dozen restaurants, a golf course and the stunning Evermore Bay Lagoon, which is larger than six football pitches.

But where the average person sees the pristine 1,100-acre playground as something that caters to all types of travelers, Chris Kelsey, president of the Dart Interests real estate company behind Evermore, focuses on areas that need improvement. He will tell you that he is versatile central florida He envisions a property that could use more pools and modify its move-in process. Sit down with Kelsey long enough, though, and he’ll also talk about his start in real estate and more about the future of Evermores.

How did you start your real estate journey?

I was pretty much the luckiest kid in the universe. I graduated from architecture school in 1994, which was not a good time to find work as an architect. I was dumb in college and didn’t really think about what all these choices meant.

I did go find a job in a company. But it was a slow time, so I eventually got the chance to work for Hines through a friend, a developer from the US. Houston. Not only do I get to work for Hines; AspenColorado. So, here I am, 27 years old, with a great job that comes with a ski pass, and a company willing to hire a dumb architect and teach him how to be a developer. What a blessing.

I’m assuming you learned a lot integrating Evermore.

We did. We are really lucky to have an incredible piece of dirt. (We own) 1,100 acres across the street from Disney World with incredible 50-year-old historic rights that basically allow us to do anything.

I grew up on a farm in Kansas and my grandfather always said “the blind dog in the meat house.” That’s the way it is. We can do (anything) because our rights are very flexible. Because of its location and character, anything we do to the property will work. Trying to figure out its best use can be frustrating at times. But at the end of the day, it’s been a joyful and fun ride. For us, we ultimately decided that the highest and best destination was in the form of a resort.

When we really started digging into this, we came up with the idea that we could create a new type of accommodation, a new way of hospitality that would combine the best of renting a private home with the right hotel services, for a better overall experience.

Our overall goal in developing real estate is to create assets that generate long-term cash flow. We are not tradesman builders. We’re not going to build it, stabilize it and then sell it to someone else. We want to own it for a long time.

That alone changes your perspective. What you’re trying to do has to do with longevity and quality. For example, our house is built with CMU (concrete masonry) blocks and has two full floors because we will have them forever. We want them to last. So, that’s part of it.

But the flip side is that the whole ownership model gives us a lot of flexibility. Things change when we think about what we want. We firmly believe there is a strong demand for multi-family, multi-generational travel to theme parks. We knew this because we had been talking to Disney for many other reasons at the time and they gave us some intel. We want to build these larger four-bedroom apartments all the way up to 11-bedroom houses. Given our financial model, and given that our entitlement allows us to do short-term rentals in Orange County (where short-term rentals are generally prohibited), it created this opportunity to do something unique.

We’re going to do something that no one has done on this scale before. That part is really exciting. If you say, “I’m going to design a house specifically for a week’s vacation instead of a house that I’m going to sell to the Jones family,” that’s a different house, right? This design process is very cool. This is how we ended up having multiple identical master bedrooms. You don’t do that when you sell your house to the Jones family, who need a master room just like dad. But in this case, we think, “Okay, we’re three families living together. We’re going to alleviate the problem of who has the better bedroom. We’re going to give everyone a great bedroom.”

Why is Conrad the perfect hotel partner for Evermore?

I think the decision we ultimately made to move Hilton and Conrad in was a great decision. While we have this really innovative residential component, and we have this incredible resort oasis experience in Evermore Bay, we also have this really wonderful anchor (at the Conrad Orlando), which is a great joint Brand activities. We have luxury offerings consistent with the rest of the resort. Our hotel will get a lot of conference guests and they’ll say, “Hey, those (amenities) are really cool. Maybe I’ll bring my family back.”

There are 12 dining options throughout the resort. Stretching from the food court to the signature restaurant on the top floor of the Conrad Hotel. It all flows together.

Will families in the holiday home have free access to the hotel restaurant and use of its facilities?

The only thing exclusive to Conrad guests is the special beach adjacent to the hotel. Conrad’s swimming pool and gym (also exclusive). But there is a very good gym at the landing on the other side of the lagoon. The restaurants, the spa and all those things are completely open to everyone in Evermore. Conrad guests have access to everything, but Conrad guests may not travel a third of a mile to the Landing gym; they may go to their own gym.

Among luxury hotels, Conrad Hotels are a good choice these days because they offer the same quality of service as the Waldorf Astoria, but they do so in a more modern setting. The overall design and art aesthetic associated with it is more modern. Our overall look and feel for the Evermore building is tropical modern. Conrad is a very, very good fit.

Another thing that Hilton and Conrad are really good at is driving the meetings business and creating great meeting experiences. You will notice that the hotel has absolutely superb conference facilities. The ballroom is 45,000 square feet. It also has parts you might not see – some of the best back-of-house facilities in the world, including kitchen facilities, lots of storage space, great places for staff. This is another example of Dart spending a little extra money on the front end because we’re going to be long-term owners.

What factors make a hotel memorable in your eyes?

I imagine the answer would be different depending on whether you are traveling alone or as a family. Let’s talk about it from a family perspective. We travel a lot. We only have one child so she is lucky. When we buy a plane ticket, we buy three. This gives us more flexibility. We have been to many places. But our default (accommodation) is to try renting a house first. Part of the reason I do this is so I can let my wife carry the luggage. We have a washer and dryer.

But we’ve found that when you travel, if your kids are small, putting them in a hotel room is fine. But as we get older, things get less so. The advantage of having a separate place to sleep and a bit of communal gathering space (very important). Even if it’s not a huge amount, (personal space) can make a world of difference in the overall quality of your experience.

Are there any other resorts?

Yes, but we’re a company that doesn’t announce new projects until we’ve committed money. Many developers do this. You see the renderings and then the project never happens. But I will tell you that we are actively working on the second iteration of Evermore. We firmly believe that the vacation home product we created is feasible and makes sense. We received great feedback. We think its economics are valid.

What we ultimately want is to have multiple Evermores in different locations with different types of entertainment and attractions. We are now focusing on mountain environments, which is comfortable for me because that’s where my career started. I would love to actively work on ski-in/ski-out. That’s what’s next. We’ll see. Knock on wood.