popsiclebrandon

My viewpoint which is probably wrong on a few points. Downtown is dying because of landlords. We originally signed our lease for our little spot on Central in 2012. Our rent at the time was about $1300 a month. After 10 years our lease was up for renewal and the offer was around $2900 a month. Its just not a feasible number as we have seen foot traffic slow down (not to mention full rent was required during Covid so our billionaire landlords can keep their stock price up) and had to deal with a lot of crime and safety issues. Finding staff that wanted to work there at night was tricky and when the renewal came in at that price we had an easy decision. Would we have stayed if the rent was flat or lowered? Yeah probably but glad we didn't. Its now still sitting empty 10 months later so great math by our landlord. They loved to tell us there was a line of people wanting the spot but guess not. Next month we're opening our bar/restaurant in Ivanhoe and I could not be more bullish on an area. Ivanhoe is dense and walkable (mostly) and has a lot of great spots to eat/drink/shop. Downtown just doesn't have any of that anymore. I do think food costs are realllllly hard right now but if you know what you are doing and keep your menu simple and straight you don't need to raise prices to where I'm seeing them now. The biggest issue is still rent for every operator and until a correction happens, which I don't see coming, we're going to see a lot more closures around town. Its just sad because I was on the Project DTO board and enjoyed the process and even felt some of the meetings were good. The city refusing to provide incentives outside the CRA is going to be bad long term. I don't see any of these new spots trying to open on Church staying around long so the city is pouring money into zombie businesses that already got bit before they even open. Downtown is 5-10 years away from a comeback and with Tampa/St Pete lapping us I'm not even sure it comes back in that timeframe. I've seen no big company make a move into the general core in a long time and with the shift away from offices its may not come. We may see a few people with high incomes that are working from home move here for the weather or whatever but I think we just need to get comfortable with the idea that downtown is dead but the surrounding areas are thriving.

Orlando Health just added paid parental leave along with big jumps in adoption and fertility support. Finally feeling the pinch on the need to support your workforce or they will leave.

DoveCote was a fav before new owners. They made it absolutely horrible and they got evicted so no surprise they are leaving. Hope the owner never opens another place.

Really need to find a funding plan for SunRail to the airport now.

The Children's Pavilion is the center of the whole campus and really key to their plans there. Be really cool when its done.

Ahhh thank you. That makes more sense.

Will of Will's Pub fame is apparently opening a bar in College Park

I never thought Tampa could pull it off but they unlapped themselves and blew past us so fast. Lots of tiny reasons but the big one is simply Vinik is interested in his community and growing his investment around the Lightning and the Devos family doesn't have the same point of view so the private investment amounts in apartments/retail/hotels/etc are just massively different. I went to a Lightning game back in the spring and there are like 30 new restaurants near by and you couldn't get a seat in any of them. It was insane. Compare to the walking dead at Church St and its just so sad.

They also installed those at Colonial and Westmoreland. Not turned on yet but seem ready.

Its going to be like a real estate office or something incredibly boring like they did with the old snap space.

People should be prepared to be disappointed in what it becomes. Owners aren't going to take some low ball offer so someone can sell candles out of it or whatever.

Looks fine and this design is going to change a bunch before it ever gets built.

Crazy how much the Bento bros own now.

According to their newsletter Penzey's is considering a return to Orlando, this time at 1809 S Orange. Love them but not sure of that location.

I like that, still puzzled by the Orange Ave re-design there but this is good.