The Court of Flags Resort - Orlando , Florida

Also known as the Delta Court of Flags, Ramada Court of Flags, Delta Orlando Resort

 

To our Big Florida Country Facebook page To our Big Florida Country Facebook page To our Mystery Fun House Facebook page To our Tropical/Florida Wonderland Facebook page To our Scotty's Facebook page To our Court of Flags Facebook page
BFC On Rides Mystery Fun House Wonderland Scotty's Court of Flags

 

The Resort was Demolished in 2006

 

Original websites for the resort

Delta Orlando Resort "Court of Flags" Website (1999 till closing)

Delta Orlando Resort "Court of Flags" Website (1995-1998)

 

 

 

Front of postcard - July 20th 1984

Description:

World's Largest Ramada! 824 Spacious Guest Rooms with Color T.V. - 17 Luxurious Suites, - 3 Heated Swimming Pools - 2 Lighted Tennis Courts - Glass Garden Restaurant and Peppermint Tree Children's Restaurant - Unique Worst Bar with Live Entertainment. Conventions, Meetings, and Banquets to Accommodate 10-1,000. 5715 Major Blvd
 

Rear of postcard

 

 

 

Our family video clip from the Court of Flags

 

This hotel was built by US Steel. It was built the same way as the Contemporary & Polynesian Resort's at Walt Disney World (Thanks Dad for the information).

 

See the Contemporary Video - Click here

 

It was built in 1972 and opened in 1974, had 800 rooms has 16 suites, three restaurants ( includes the poolside bar & grill), Tennis & Basketball Courts, three pools, three hot tubs, sauna, paddle boats, video games and 9 holes of mini golf all situated on almost 26 acres

24 hour gated security (added later)

Meeting facilities (20,000 sf) for up to 1000 people

It was renovated in 1996

Rates before they closed for a standard single room....... Low Season 99 High Season 169

Waters Edge Bar & Grill

Bloopers Sports Bar
 

In January 2001 it was sold to Universal Partners LLC and was to have a 38 million dollars remodel and be turned into a luxury Doubletree Resort. 9/11 stopped all that cold.

EB Developers now own this property and are planning on building something called Citymark of Orlando, This site has since been removed. I imagine those plans have been scrapped. Click here for an archive of the site. I also found more info here.

Toronto-based Delta spokeswoman, Susana Petti said that, while Delta Orlando used to be part of its chain, the hotel hasn't been an officially flagged Delta lodging place since November 1991. This seems to contradict some of the archived webpage files I have found showing it listed until 1999.

 

The old address and info

Delta Orlando Resort
5715 Major Blvd.
Orlando, FL
Phone: (1-800) 634-4763 (407) 351-3340

Fax: 1-407-351-1429 407-345-2872

Website: www.deltaorlandoresort.com

Archive of the site, click here for 2002 & click here for 2001

E-mail: deltaor@magicnet.net    info@deltaorlandoresort.com

 
 

 

 

 

The main pool

Rear of the rooms

Pool entrance

A view from across the Florida Turnpike, Resort was already closed

The Court of Flags from the Mystery Fun House's parking lot

 

1983 Court of Flags mentioned as race headquarters

 

1985 Giveway

Arcade Tokens

 

Following pictures from James, Thank you!!

 

 

Following pictures from Fiona's 1990 trip, Thank you!!

 

2000

 

 

OCTOBER 2001

 

 

2004

 

 

The before and after "Bird's Eye" Aerials

The clover pool

 

The last Aerial's of the resort before the demo!!!

Court of Flags

How the property looks in 2008

 

2014 Aerials

 

 

2001 thru 2013 aerial's

 

My brother and I during a visit on July 2012 - all vacant land

 

 

The Hotel's name

So according to this article the Court of Flags had three different Franchises when it opened. Two buildings for Sheraton, and the other two got one building each.

This could be where it got its name since some hotels called each franchise a "flag" but my dad (he was in management back in the 70's) also told me they had 52 flag poles when they opened so that would make more sense where the name came from.

 

According to my dad, he was on the management team back in the 70's, when the resort opened the two middle buildings were the Sheraton Motor Inn and had the tennis courts and the large pool. It also included the main lobby building which had the arcade, front desk, and the offices. The building towards I4/Turnpike intersection was the Admiral Benbow, he found brochures in a storeroom back then. It...

also had a small pool and meeting rooms. The Quality Motel had a small pool, a lounge, restaurant, and banquet room.
My Dad had to work with U.S. Steel on many issues. They seem to think they knew more in the hotel industry then they actually did.
He also assisted in the new layout of the housekeeping and laundry facilities. Again battling with U.S Steel in what was needed to clean 800 rooms. The other things he did was to add more arcades and four beverage centers with coke and snack machines.
The Court of Flags back then sold more coke than all of Sea World. That's alot of thirsty tourists.

 

Construction of the Court of Flags by US Steel 02-01-1972, rooms were stacked.

US Steel reps showing off the modular slide in/stack design

Rooms being constructed offsite

 

The Contemporary, Polynesian, and the Court of Flags were all built in similar ways.

Contemporary rooms were slid in, the Polynesian and Court of Flags had them stacked.

 

 

I ran across this blog

 

Employer Profile

Property Description

Delta Orlando Resort is an 800 room resort and conference center, located on 25 tropical acres at the main entrance to Universal Orlando. We are just 15 minutes from Walt Disney World, 5 minutes from International Drive, Wet' n Wild, Sea World and the Belz Factory Outlet and Designer Malls. Only a 15 minute drive to Orlando's International Airport. We have free shuttle service to Universal, Sea World and Wet' n Wild.

In addition to our 800 guest rooms and suites, our convention center offers 20,000 square feet of flexible banquet and meeting facilities, as well as outdoor spots in and around our lush, tropical gardens and pools, perfect for weddings, receptions and cocktail parties.

The Resort's 3 restaurants including a poolside bar & grill, and the Studio 70 Nightclub, provide to our guests a choice of dining and entertainment options.

Recreational amenities include: 3 heated swimming pools, 3 hot tubs, daily planned activities and entertainment at our poolside. Lighted volley ball court, tennis and basketball courts, Wally's Kids Club with year round supervised activities, and 9-hole mini golf course.

We have approximately 300 employees and over 200 different positions. We offer excellent benefits, including medical and dental coverage after 90 days of employment, personal days after 90 days, 10 vacation days after 1 year of service, employee recognition program, monthly luncheons and breakfasts, free uniforms, tuition reimbursement, direct deposit, hospitality certification program, and many other great benefits.

 

 

Articles

 

 

The 800-room Court of Flags hotel is sporting a...

NEW NAME.

November 24, 1986|By Vicki Vaughan of The Sentinel Staff

NEW NAME. The 800-room Court of Flags hotel is sporting a new name: the Delta Court of Flags.

Delta Hotels Limited, a Canadian hotel management company, now holds the management contract for the hotel, which is owned by the Bank of Montreal.

John Pye, Delta Hotels' vice president and the Delta Court of Flags general manager, said a $1.5 million refurbishing is under way and should be completed in February. The hotel's bedrooms, banquet rooms and pool area will be updated and its lobby expanded, he said.

Rooms will be priced in the $60-to-$70 range.

The Delta Court of Flags is one of the largest hotels within the Orlando city limits. ''We plan to keep this hotel competitive,'' Pye said. ''We want to be Orlando's affordable, 3 1/2-star resort.''

 

 

PROMOTIONS. The 800-room Delta Court of Flags hotel

August 21, 1989|By Vicki Vaughan of The Sentinel Staff

PROMOTIONS. The 800-room Delta Court of Flags hotel recently named Sid Wall resident manager. He joined the hotel in 1988 as room division manager. Wall succeeds Ruedi Bertschinger, who has been promoted to general manager of another Delta resort in Canada. Other appointments at the hotel include Sharif Aboushaba to rooms division manager and Kadi Kadihibai to front office manager. Steven Crist was appointed group sales manager.

 

 

Delta Orlando Resort Helps Save The Day For A Group From The NBA

June 13, 1995|By Leslie Doolittle of The Sentinel Staff

The arrival of The NBA Finals in Orlando prompted the Delta Orlando Resort crew to scramble almost as much as the Magic.

Because of a ''miscommunication'' with the Marriott's Orlando World Center, National Basketball Association officials learned about a week before the first Rockets-Magic game that the nearly 200 rooms they thought were booked for them weren't.

The biggest block of rooms they could find somewhat near the arena - 160 rooms - at such short notice was the Delta, which suddenly found itself NBA headquarters.

 

 

Delta resort near Universal scheduled for demolition

Aug 22, 2005|Orlando Business Journal

 

ORLANDO -- One of Orlando's original landmark resorts, the Delta Court of Flags, will be torn down to make way for Citymark at Orlando, a new mixed-use, high-rise residential development located minutes from the front door of Universal Orlando.

The 26-acre parcel where the now-shuttered Orlando resort was located is at 5715 Major Blvd. It was purchased July 29 for $28.4 million, about $1.1 million per acre, by Boca Raton-based E.B. Developers Inc. The land and buildings are currently appraised by Orange County at $8.5 million.

However, the broker says the purchase is all about the opportunity.

"It's a steal," says Ron Muzii, a director in Chicago-based Cohen Financial's Boca Raton office, who brokered the transaction. "The land is far more valuable than the old hotel structures. I think this is one of the most important mixed-use opportunities in Central Florida."

John Markey, senior vice president for E.B. Developers, says he cannot comment on the company's plans for the development until he has briefed Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer on the project.

But the company's Web site indicates Citymark will include 1,300 condominium units and a 500-unit luxury hotel. Renderings show a compound that fills the parcel with several connected, linear, gently curved buildings surrounded by open-air plazas and support structures.

"Its highest and best use was not as a hotel redevelopment, but as residential land, based on our zoning and market research," says Muzii.

The 31-year-old resort had a checkered past. Opened originally in 1974 as a group of several resorts bearing different operating flags, the property was developed in the hotel boom in Central Florida following the Walt Disney World opening.

After years of decline from a midpriced, tourist hotel property into a bargain motel, it was sold in January 2001 for $26.8 million to Winter Park-based Universal Partners LLC, which announced an ambitious $38 million plan for a turnaround from a thrifty overnight stop to a luxury Doubletree resort.

But financial problems and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks quickly spun the resort's plans out of control, and by January 2003, the now-shuttered property was nearly $30 million in debt and foreclosed on by its lenders. It has remained closed and on the market since then.

Muzii says he has had his eye on the property since 1999, when he worked for Promus Hotels Corp. of Memphis. After moving to Cohen, Muzii says he followed the property's demise and contacted Jonathan Roth, the principal at Canyon Capital, who knew of his interest when he was at Promus.

Muzii believes their pitch for residential use was the primary reason Canyon selected them. "Everyone else saw it as a hotel project," Muzii says. "Until we became involved, residential was never in the mix."

 

City Mark - the plan that never happened

 

Vacant commercial site near Universal Orlando sold for $10M

Dec 3rd, 2010|Anjali Fluker, Staff Writer

A vacant, 25.3-acre commercial site near Universal Orlando Resort sold for $10 million, or $395,257 per acre — one of the area’s largest land deals in the past two years.

Winter Park-based Dealer Property Holdings LLC, an auto dealership holding company, bought the foreclosed site formerly slated for CityMark at Orlando from Chicago-based Quality Properties Asset Management Co., an entity working for Bank of America NA, Orange County records showed.

Stephen Flanagan, Steve Ruoff and Mike Ripley of the Land Advisors Organization in Orlando brokered the deal on behalf of the seller.

The parcel last changed hands in July 2005, bought for $28.4 million by now-defunct Boca Raton-based E.B. Developers Inc. The company dissolved when founder Elie Berdugo died after a heart attack in 2008.

 

 

Rezoning of the property

Rezoning for City Mark

 

 

 

City Mark Plans

This idea was cancelled because owner passed away

Early idea of City Mark

Master Plan -all phases completed

Master Plan

Phase 1

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 2

Phase 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Numerous videos

iPhone - iPod - iPad ready videos

Please email me if you have anymore information or picture's and video of this resort. Thanks