EA Sports moving Maitland HQ to Downtown Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - After months of speculation, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced on Wednesday that EA Sports is moving to Downtown Orlando's Creative Village.

The game development company, which makes popular sports games like Madden, is relocating its Maitland headquarters. The mayor announced the move during a State-of-Downtown address.

"Right here, right now, we're excited to announce, electronic arts is coming to put the creative in our creative village," said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer.

The $62-million project includes a 180,000-square-foot office building, with an outdoor plaza and parking garage. EA would relocate 700 high-paying jobs, with the possibility of adding more than 300 more positions.

"That's 700 new neighbors, working, living , playing, spending money in downtown every single day," said Dyer.

The economy isn't the only thing that will benefit from the move. University of Central Florida's downtown campus, home to the university's video gaming school could benefit from professional opportunities for its students.

"To have internships and sponsorships over there," said Sean Gunter, UCF Downtown Game Design student.

Gunter is one of those gaming students.

"I'm very excited to work with professionals and to work on my major, since I haven't had that much experience just yet," said Gunter.

"EA's presence here creates an immediate pipeline for our educational partners in and around the Creative Village, their presence here also serves as a magnet to attract other investment into the Creative Village, accelerating our industry cluster in digital media," said Dyer.

Student Sydney Glusak, excited to see the Creative Village grow.

"It would be cool add to all this new stuff that's down here," said Glusak, UCF Downtown student.

The five-story building will be located at the Creative Village's North end. The deal, with also includes a tax incentive for EA,  goes before City Council for approval Monday.

The project is scheduled to break ground in 2020, completion expected Fall of 2021.