Panacea Global Energy has received final site plan approval for its long-awaited $500 million Green Garden Village campus at the Poinciana SunRail Station site and is preparing to break ground in about eight weeks.
“We’re really keen to get going now,” CEO John Darling said. “Our design team is finishing off the building permit, and we’re going to submit by the end of the month. Once we’ve done that, we should get their building permits issued, and then we’re ready to rock and roll.”
Darling said the plans for phase 1 have been revised since the initial filing to create more manufacturing jobs. The new plan will create at least 500 of the 1,200 total jobs pledged for the GGV campus.
The first phase now includes two factories, a data center, and a 6-story office building that will serve as the corporate headquarters for the U.S. affiliate of French green energy company, CMG CleanTech.
The first factory will have approximately 150 workers and will produce the company’s Solar Assisted Heat Pump water heaters, its signature product category. It will share the building with GreenTech Industries, Panacea’s EV battery recycling center.
“That’s the fastest-growing company that we have in the United Kingdom right now,” Darling said. “So we see that as a big market-leading business in the United States, as well.”
The second factory will be built on land that had initially been proposed for a soccer stadium. Darling said they decided the land would be better used for job creation. It will be the new U.S. home for LumiVolt, which manufactures commercial-grade casement windows that double as solar panels. Darling said the LumiVolt factory will employ 200-250 workers.
“They’re the only solar window system that has NOA and Florida Code approval that can produce energy,” Darling said. That means they meet the highest standard for impact-resistant ratings. The company imports its solar film from China and laminates it into the window glass. The power receivers are hidden in the frame.
The company currently operates in the UK and Europe. “At the moment, they don’t have a U.S. factory, which is why it’s very key for us that we land this with them”.
The product is primarily intended for public buildings, hospitals, and offices that are at least five stories tall. “I’ll give you an example,” Darling said. “The commercial building on the Green Garden Village is six stories. That building will generate 120 megawatts a year just from the windows.”
The office building will be attached to a two-story welcome center, which will showcase the products manufactured at GGV and have a training center on the second floor. Panacea will occupy an entire floor in the office buildings. Other named tenants are Unity Group, a Singapore-based investment firm, and The Genius Group, a U.K.-based marketing group. Both are opening U.S. offices at GGV.
“The Genius Group do all the marketing and sales for the Panacea products,” Darling explained. “And we’re going to build up a minimum of 80 people in that sales team.”
The GGV campus will also have a mixed-use residential building with 42,000 square feet of retail and commercial uses on the ground floor. The building will have 80 apartments on the upper floors that will be offered exclusively to employees at the campus.
“The idea is that if you secure a job at the Green Garden Village, then you can rent an apartment from us at an affordable rate,” he said.
The campus will also have a two-story restaurant and amenities, including padel ball courts, golf simulators and walking trails.”We’re spending a lot of money on landscaping, as well, because we want to make this as much of a garden effect as we possibly can.”
The master plan was designed by KPM Franklin. Miami-based Remus Martinez Architects has joined the project as master architect.
CMG Clean Tech/Panacea has been working with Osceola County since 2023, when it first submitted a bid to purchase county-owned property next to Valencia College’s Poinciana campus. The company later shifted its focus to the Poinciana SunRail property due to intense opposition because of its location close to residential neighborhoods and fears about the safety of the proposed hydrogen plant.
County Commissioners voted in early 2024 to begin negotiations with the company to purchase the 63-acre SunRail site for the Green Garden Village campus.
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