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Lake Eola Neighbourhood.


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51 minutes ago, popsiclebrandon said:

Its a minor expansion at best and a total waste of money either way.

Fortunately, two former mayors and many of the folks who were born and raised here and have believed passionately in downtown’s preservation and resurrection since the beginning disagree.

Also, the urban land banks that just take on projects like this if they make long-term sense for their communities are signaling their participation.

Now, our city commissioner has bought in and if the City is considering a role we know that means St. Buddy is at the very least willing to let this move forward.

Heck, since he was such a big fan the last time around, maybe we can let @JFW657 operate the backhoe when it’s time to take down the 7-Eleven!


We’ll just have to see who has the stronger argument. May the best idea win!

Edited by spenser1058
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1 hour ago, popsiclebrandon said:

Its a minor expansion at best and a total waste of money either way.

I'm on the fence... on one hand I'm all for a park expansion, but on the other hand I like having a street wall at that intersection. The building frames that corner nicely. Plus heavy Rosalind traffic doesn't really facilitate the most park-like ambiance so I wonder if it's really worth doing away with viable commercial space. Maybe the city is planning for long-term parcel assemblage. First 7-eleven, then eventually down the road maybe the Rosalind Club will become available as membership wanes (I'm sure most of the women are getting up there in age). If the time ever comes, they should remain true to their cause and offer the city the right of first refusal to purchase the club property.

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7 minutes ago, nite owℓ said:

I'm on the fence... on one hand I'm all for a park expansion, but on the other hand I like having a street wall at that intersection. The building frames that corner nicely. Plus heavy Rosalind traffic doesn't really facilitate the most park-like ambiance so I wonder if it's really worth doing away with viable commercial space. Maybe the city is planning for long-term parcel assemblage. First 7-eleven, then eventually down the road maybe the Rosalind Club will become available as membership wanes (I'm sure most of the women are getting up there in age). If the time ever comes, they should remain true to their cause and offer the city the right of first refusal to purchase the club property.

This is just a guess (I have neither the pedigree nor the gender to know what goes on within their pristine walls ) but I suspect the ladies believe the Rosalind Club (which goes back over a century - Rosalind was a character in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” just as Orlando was) will live forever and they’re just pleased to move the riff-raff at the 7-Eleven along. Particularly delicious would be sending those folks over to DGX and letting the University Club deal with it. I may of course be wrong...

Edited by spenser1058
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It makes little sense to buy that corner isolated from the rest of the park. It's more about being next to the Rosalind Club, as Spenser points out, and stopping future development there and getting rid of the existing businesses such as the 7-11.  I don't think that it's all that altruistic. Would much rather see the city and donors focusing on spending money to expand the park eastward to connect with Thornton Park area. 

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5 minutes ago, dcluley98 said:

It makes little sense to buy that corner isolated from the rest of the park. It's more about being next to the Rosalind Club, as Spenser points out, and stopping future development there and getting rid of the existing businesses such as the 7-11.  I don't think that it's all that altruistic. Would much rather see the city and donors focusing on spending money to expand the park eastward to connect with Thornton Park area. 

I would also like that idea (much more bang for the buck) but this deal is happening waaaay above my pay grade among the FFO’s.

Since I share the goal of no further development “from Rosalind to Summerlin”, I am okay in supporting the current purchase.

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2 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Fortunately, two former mayors and many of the folks who were born and raised here and have believed passionately in downtown’s preservation and resurrection since the beginning disagree.

Also, the urban land banks that just take on projects like this if they make long-term sense for their communities are signaling their participation.

Now, our city commissioner has bought in and if the City is considering a role we know that means St. Buddy is at the very least willing to let this move forward.

Heck, since he was such a big fan the last time around, maybe we can let @JFW657 operate the backhoe when it’s time to take down the 7-Eleven!


We’ll just have to see who has the stronger argument. May the best idea win!

I don't even want the 7 Eleven building torn down, so I'd never take part in it.

I'm happy it looks like they may able to buy the land, but I agree that a rinky-dink little park there is a waste. 

Maybe if they put some decent looking fountain or sculpture in there it might be cool looking.

But I'd rather see that building spruced up and kept there. 

As long as the two old buildings to the east of it are saved, that's the most important thing to me. 

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1 hour ago, nite owℓ said:

I'm on the fence... on one hand I'm all for a park expansion, but on the other hand I like having a street wall at that intersection. The building frames that corner nicely. Plus heavy Rosalind traffic doesn't really facilitate the most park-like ambiance so I wonder if it's really worth doing away with viable commercial space. Maybe the city is planning for long-term parcel assemblage. First 7-eleven, then eventually down the road maybe the Rosalind Club will become available as membership wanes (I'm sure most of the women are getting up there in age). If the time ever comes, they should remain true to their cause and offer the city the right of first refusal to purchase the club property.

That's the way I see it. Having an empty patch of grass there with some benches is not going to enhance the downtown feel of that corner.

If they do end up carrying out their plans, I hope they at least put up a nice stone knee wall around it.

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6 hours ago, JFW657 said:

I don't even want the 7 Eleven building torn down, so I'd never take part in it.

I'm happy it looks like they may able to buy the land, but I agree that a rinky-dink little park there is a waste. 

Maybe if they put some decent looking fountain or sculpture in there it might be cool looking.

But I'd rather see that building spruced up and kept there. 

As long as the two old buildings to the east of it are saved, that's the most important thing to me. 

I absolutely want to keep the house - I believe it’s over 100 years old and would make an amazing restaurant or bar.

The old Masonic Lodge is more problematic for me - the Kuhn redo was maddeningly generic and it’s just a blank street wall for passers by.

There’s no doubt it was at one time significant to the social life of the town (were women ever allowed in)?

From the back, there appear to be some amazing spaces within the building but something needs to happen to open it up to the street.

Winter Garden has a similar structure (I think the Masons are still active there) but it’s west of the main downtown area so it doesn’t have a similar impact to ours right on Eola.

Edited by spenser1058
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While we’re on the topic of Masonic lodges, there once was a sizable Scottish Rite facility on W. Gore St. 

Along with the Youth For Christ auditorium, these were big buildings that just seemed to disappear while I wasn’t looking. The medical buildings that replaced them are somewhat unremarkable and I’ve always wondered just how replacing the older structures worked out financially.

The other place on Gore that I miss is the deco-ish Coca-Cola bottler complete with jalousie windows. With the coming of Walt Disney World, the move away from glass bottles and the junction of I-4 and the East-West (FL 408) underway, I imagine the building was destined to fall.

As a kid, though, when Orlando was hardly the hipster paradise it is today (ahem) we often used to stop by and watch the bottles go by on the line.

Heading down Gore, a shout out to the Orlando Drive-In Theater at the corner of OBT (along with the VW dealer that always had Beetles in bright colors up by the highway that seemed so cool when I was a kid).

Finally, the Borden dairy (now a staging area for Mears shuttles) at Rio Grande. It was most notable for a billboard updated with the exploits of the Borden bovine family: Elsie, Elmer, Beulah and Beauregard. Borden was the Official Dairy Products of WDW when it was new, which they also proudly noted.

Edited by spenser1058
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8 minutes ago, popsiclebrandon said:

Its just rich old ladies keeping undesirables away from the entrance to their private club. Will laugh if it just ends up being a homeless campground instead.

Without it connecting to the actual park its a waste of everyone's time and money.

Rosalind Club should buy the U-Club space and sell theirs to the city and then open up that whole corner to the park and we're on to something.

So, by "....open up that whole corner to the park...."  do you mean tearing everything down? 

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5 minutes ago, popsiclebrandon said:

Isn't that what we're talking about? I'm fine with keeping the corner building but I think if you could assemble enough buildings there I won't really miss them.

Not what I was talking about.

I think the plan is to tear down the small 7 Eleven building on the corner while keeping the old house and the larger building.

Though I'd just as soon keep the 7 Eleven building, the important thing (to me) is keeping the other two.

But flattening everything and turning the entire corner into just more boring landscaping and lawn I personally think, is a terrible idea.  

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4 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Not what I was talking about.

I think the plan is to tear down the small 7 Eleven building on the corner while keeping the old house and the larger building.

Though I'd just as soon keep the 7 Eleven building, the important thing (to me) is keeping the other two.

But flattening everything and turning the entire corner into just more boring landscaping and lawn I personally think, is a terrible idea.  

If they demo-ed the club and 7-11 buildings to open up the park and only kept the house to use as an event venue I would love that. City could generate good revenue like WP does with their farmer's market building for weddings and the like.

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Just now, popsiclebrandon said:

If they demo-ed the club and 7-11 buildings to open up the park and only kept the house to use as an event venue I would love that. City could generate good revenue like WP does with their farmer's market building for weddings and the like.

The old house is definitely the more important of the two.

Seems like another renovation could the City Centre building into something really nice too, though.

They're probably dead set on tearing down the 7 Eleven, so I'm not realistically thinking of what they could do with that one, but I'm hoping any park or new space they replace it with will be more than just a bare, open, shadeless patch of grass with some benches.

It has the potential to be turned into a really inviting, ensconced little shady nook. 

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Everything has to start somewhere, I'm all for the 7 eleven deal. Then over time the options for adjacent property may become available and the city can incorporate the buildings into the park. I'd love a nice and square park. If it were up to me I'd tear down the Fifth Third Building as well!

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About 50 protesters just went by on Eola Drive, mostly young, completely peaceful, and thank God, about 90% had masks.

’Tis a privilege to live in Central Florida. May God (and the Flying Spaghetti Monster if you prefer) Bless America.

”Is it a republic, Mr. Franklin?” “It is, madam, if you can keep it.”

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Belanger Bagels, which just opened in College Park after a stint at East End, will also be the new bagel provider at Eola General (fka Handy Pantry):

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/food-restaurants/os-et-eola-general-new-vendor-is-belanger-bagels--20200607-h5v5l63fqzdbtl4hje7lkp7toi-story.html
 

From the Sentinel 

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2 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

Belanger Bagels, which just opened in College Park after a stint at East End, will also be the new bagel provider at Eola General (fka Handy Pantry):

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/food-restaurants/os-et-eola-general-new-vendor-is-belanger-bagels--20200607-h5v5l63fqzdbtl4hje7lkp7toi-story.html
 

From the Sentinel 

Best bagels I've had in Orlando. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

From GS- https://www.growthspotter.com/news/downtown-orlando-developments/gs-news-mariposa-arb-20200618-oacucihkrrexhpk4des5qlzvwq-story.html

I know this has been mentioned previously I just don't remember where. The lot at 417 E. Jackson- next to Star Tower- is proposed for13 story, mixed use, 139 age restricted apartments; 75% low income/ very low income and the remainder market rate. The current plan separates the building from Star and the $500,000- $1,500,000 residences by 13 feet. However, "They are protecting three mature oak trees on Jackson Street and they expanded the landscape areas around the trees to ensure they survive."

Mr. Chapmon said, “The elephant in the room guys is that this is affordable housing attempting to locate in what might be the most desirable neighborhood in downtown Orlando, in the proximity of premium housing with the Star Tower next door,”

The ARB seems all in on this project.

Needless to say some people are not happy with this. As of Thursday afternoon, 147 people had signed an online petition opposing Mariposa Groves.

 

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1 hour ago, popsiclebrandon said:

Build that. Its just rich people who refuse to buy the land wanting the city to keep it empty for them.

As long as they save the trees, I’m all in. It’s odd to me. given the retirement towers were built as affordable housing for seniors and were here first. Now, the johnny-come-latelys at Star Tower think they get to moan and groan.

It’s like moving next door to a 50-year old airport and complaining about the noise.

Edited by spenser1058
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