Comcast grabs 475 acres in Orlando for theme park

Comcast Corp.'s Universal theme park has acquired 475 acres of undeveloped land in Orlando's bustling and highly competitive tourism corridor – one of last big parcels for a new big entertainment complex in the area, Florida officials say.

The deal is potentially huge boost to the land-locked Universal Orlando, one of Comcast's fastest-growing business units.

Neither Comcast nor Universal officials have specifically confirmed the land grab in Orlando, though they have acknowledged acquiring real estate. Comcast CFO Mike Cavanagh told Wall Street analysts on Wednesday of the cable giant's $130 million expenditure for "land adjacent to one of our theme parks."

Added Steve Burke, the head of NBCUniversal, "We got 475 acres, so we have a lot of land to work with and we have some idea but we don't have firm plans at this point."

Universal's deal for former missile testing range has been an open secret in the Orlando area since early December, Bob Moser, editor of the subscription-only Growthspotter.com, said Friday. The service is part of the company that owns the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.

Moser said it was "a major competitive leap forward" for Universal, which faced running out of land for new attractions and hotels while "Disney has all the land in the world to keep growing" in the Orlando area.

The deal basically doubled the Orlando-area land available for the Universal theme park business.