Orlando Extended Metro Developments (Volusia/Brevard/East Polk)

[spenser1058]

I hate to lose this great old coquina house near downtown Daytona, but apparently the seller of the property has dropped the ball and buyer Brown & Brown is ready to go. 

Sadly, before you know it, the indigenous building material which was once on houses and buildings all over town, may only be visible on the Bandshell at the Broadwalk.

Or, there's always a drive to Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180731/brown-amp-brown-buy-daytona-coquina-house-property-for-400000?template=ampart

From the News-Journal

[gibby]

The site plan for that thing is pretty bad.  They'll be using up a crazy amount of land for a modest sized building right in the middle of downtown.  I'm surprised that something like this could be approved in 2017/2018.

[spenser1058]

23 minutes ago, gibby said:

The site plan for that thing is pretty bad.  They'll be using up a crazy amount of land for a modest sized building right in the middle of downtown.  I'm surprised that something like this could be approved in 2017/2018.

The Brown family in Daytona can pretty much have anything they want. The only family with the same type of clout there would be the Frances who own the Speedway.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Hyatt_Brown

From Wiki

Edited August 1, 2018 by spenser1058

[gibby]

It could have very easily been a great project.  The site plan makes it look like they literally tried to make it as awful as possible on purpose.

[spenser1058]

11 minutes ago, gibby said:

It could have very easily been a great project.  The site plan makes it look like they literally tried to make it as awful as possible on purpose.

It's sort of an ongoing theme in Daytona  - so much potential going unutilized.

[jrs2]

updated construction at One Daytona of the Marriott hotel:

[AmIReal]

I guess this goes here- https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/06/us/nascar-ceo-brian-france-arrest-dui/index.html

 

[orange87]

5 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

I guess this goes here- https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/06/us/nascar-ceo-brian-france-arrest-dui/index.html

 

I don't know much about NASCAR, but he's been the CEO of NASCAR since 2003, which seems to me to be right about the time NASCAR's problems started. If he resigns, do you think a new NASCAR CEO could save NASCAR?

Edited August 6, 2018 by orange87

[codypet]

Yes, but there was a couple of other problems.  NASCAR's biggest star Dale Earnhardt passes in 2001 along with two other drivers the year before.  (This includes Grandson of the legend of NASCAR Adam Petty.)  NASCAR's black eye and subsequent knee jerk reaction in the name of safety brought out some bland cars that all were on the same template (GM cars) meant the sport took the cars out of the race and made it about the drivers.   Also a series of bizarre rule changes in the name of safety started confusing drivers and spectators alike.   Then they started penalizing drivers with too much personality (fighting etc) which arguably was part of the sport.  So now you have bland cars and bland drivers, and you welcome the arguably the blandest manufacturer (Toyota) into the sport with the Camry who proceeds to pump so much money to make every small team a Camry.  While this is happening the blandest driver goes on a repeat championship run and basically becomes the Tom Brady of NASCAR.  So that really turned a lot of people off.

Then the downturn hits and GM and Chrysler have to reduce their investment, not to mention the rest of the sport is sponsor driven so then money starts to dry up.  Chrysler who had just returned to the sport 8 years earlier decides with the the decline in viewership and the old technology and pairity of the cars that money could be better spent building SUV's  and  high performance muscle cars instead of racing them in NASCAR.  All this means lower and lower viewership and NASCAR has ended up seeing struggles as a result.

[spenser1058]

Brian France, sadly, is the textbook case of the third generation of a family-controlled business.

It seemed as though Publix might escape the curse but lately I wonder (as their hand picked candidate for governor crashes and burns...)

Codypet, I just noted I somehow downvoted your comment and don't have a clue how I did that. I meant to like it. Sorry I did that!

Edited August 6, 2018 by spenser1058

[jrs2]

1 hour ago, codypet said:

Yes, but there was a couple of other problems.  NASCAR's biggest star Dale Earnhardt passes in 2001 along with two other drivers the year before.  (This includes Grandson of the legend of NASCAR Adam Petty.)  NASCAR's black eye and subsequent knee jerk reaction in the name of safety brought out some bland cars that all were on the same template (GM cars) meant the sport took the cars out of the race and made it about the drivers.   Also a series of bizarre rule changes in the name of safety started confusing drivers and spectators alike.   Then they started penalizing drivers with too much personality (fighting etc) which arguably was part of the sport.  So now you have bland cars and bland drivers, and you welcome the arguably the blandest manufacturer (Toyota) into the sport with the Camry who proceeds to pump so much money to make every small team a Camry.  While this is happening the blandest driver goes on a repeat championship run and basically becomes the Tom Brady of NASCAR.  So that really turned a lot of people off.

Then the downturn hits and GM and Chrysler have to reduce their investment, not to mention the rest of the sport is sponsor driven so then money starts to dry up.  Chrysler who had just returned to the sport 8 years earlier decides with the the decline in viewership and the old technology and pairity of the cars that money could be better spent building SUV's  and  high performance muscle cars instead of racing them in NASCAR.  All this means lower and lower viewership and NASCAR has ended up seeing struggles as a result.

fascinating stuff.  I remember that; when all the NASCAR cars all had like a fiberglass shell; each one almost identical in shape except for the banners on it.

They marketed NASCAR to WWE before; Joey Logano and someone else were guest hosts a few years back.  Racing is cool if you do it right. Crowds at events is always a good thing.

There were a lot of Earnhardt fans; he was huge.  I remember Richard Petty and his car.  Iconic.  They need iconic again.  Maybe that's why they improved DIS; they knew they didn't have iconic anymore so they made the facility iconic instead.

[orange87]

A lot of quality development going on in DeBary right now.

- DeBary Industrial Park - Duke Energy is evaluating a 255-acre parcel it owns north of W. Highbanks Road and west of the CSX train tracks for a possible project tentatively dubbed DeBary Industrial Park. Duke Energy said the land, which is near its DeBary power plant, will be examined for these possible uses:

• Manufacturing, both light and “advanced”
• Information technology/communications
• Biomedical/biotechnology
• Food and beverage manufacturing

- DeBary Town Center - Construction on the phase one luxury apartments near the DeBary Sunrail Station is expected to start any day now.

[dcluley98]

"Car of Tomorrow" and like rules ruined NASCAR. It seems rigged now. 

[spenser1058]

While Seminole is trying to save the Econ, New Smyrna Beach is going to attempt to preserve the Turnbull Creek Watershed:

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180818/nsb-will-ask-voters-to-borrow-15m-for-turnbull-preservation?template=ampart

From the News-Journal

Turnbull is one of the most picturesque areas along Volusia's Palmetto Curtain between NSB and Samsula. A save here will be huge for generations to come.

[spenser1058]

11-story Tapesty Collection by Hilton proposed as part of a redevelopment effort for downtown Melbourne:

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2018/08/15/hilton-hotel-downtown-melbourne/996769002/

From Florida Today

[AmIReal]

On ‎6‎/‎29‎/‎2018 at 6:20 PM, spenser1058 said:

This has the potential to be huge. Tomoka Land is buying the First Baptist Church property in downtown Daytona Beach which is close to the new headquarters Brown and Brown is building. I think it's safe to say downtown Daytona hasn't seen this much activity in decades. It will be amazing to watch what happens.

One thing that concerns me is the fate of First Baptist's sanctuary (the church is moving to the 'burbs, as good Baptists are wont to do), which is close to 65 years old. It would be a tragedy to lose that landmark.

Now if they could do something about the decrepit former car dealerships along ISB. Here's hoping.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180629/consolidated-buys-first-baptist-site-in-downtown-daytona?template=ampart

From the News-Journal

Update on the First Baptist's Church previously mentioned by spenser. Looks like the time is near...

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180818/time-runs-out-on-daytona-landmark

 

[spenser1058]

41 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

Update on the First Baptist's Church previously mentioned by spenser. Looks like the time is near...

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180818/time-runs-out-on-daytona-landmark

 

It looks like this one is First Methodist, which apparently adjoins First Baptist. Either way, rather sad, especially losing the mural. Not to mention that their idea of progress seems to be a strip center, which Florida definitely needs more of, particularly in a downtown setting (yes, that's sarcasm, folks.)

It's interesting to compare this with downtown Orlando, which managed to keep its legacy churches for the most part (albeit the 1950's versions that were built during the Great Orlando Steeplechase.)

Kudos to Jim Henry and company for preserving what became Downtown Baptist even as First Baptist morphed into a megachurch off 33rd Street. Pastor Henry greatly expanded the size of the relocated congregation and went on to lead the Southern Baptist Convention (before it went off into far right land). After retiring, he's back at Downtown Baptist helping to revitalize the original flock.

Edited August 19, 2018 by spenser1058

[AmIReal]

I must say I'm conflicted on development of the church property. I agree they are nice looking buildings- which Daytona has few of. On the other hand, that is a huge double lot that has Ridgewood and ISW frontage and the usage should be improved since the church has  vacated it. 

[spenser1058]

 

12 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

I must say I'm conflicted on development of the church property. I agree they are nice looking buildings- which Daytona has few of. On the other hand, that is a huge double lot that has Ridgewood and ISW frontage and the usage should be improved since the church has  vacated it. 

I suppose it depends on what they do with it. If they do something SoDo-ish it could be the jumpstart downtown Daytona has long needed. If we get a Sav-A-Lot strip center, Daytona's core just keeps on going downhill. 

As long as they have the Krispy Kreme on ISB, I'll keep hoping.

 

[Dale]

8 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

11-story Tapesty Collection by Hilton proposed as part of a redevelopment effort for downtown Melbourne:

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2018/08/15/hilton-hotel-downtown-melbourne/996769002/

From Florida Today

I miss my time in Space Coast. Downtown Melbourne is underrated. My wife and I would drive there, from Cocoa Beach, just to hang out.

[orange87]

DUKE ENERGY UNVEILS $70M DEBARY SOLAR POWER PLANT

Article: http://debarylife.com/duke-energy-solar-power-plant-open-house/

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, Dale said:

I miss my time in Space Coast. Downtown Melbourne is underrated. My wife and I would drive there, from Cocoa Beach, just to hang out.

Back in the 70's when I was growing up in that area, downtown Melbourne was pretty dumpy. Haven't been there in quite awhile. I guess it's improved somewhat. I'm sure they could use a couple of new high rise residential buildings, though.

[Dale]

1 hour ago, JFW657 said:

Back in the 70's when I was growing up in that area, downtown Melbourne was pretty dumpy. Haven't been there in quite awhile. I guess it's improved somewhat. I'm sure they could use a couple of new high rise residential buildings, though.

It is highrise challenged, but downtown has become a lively place.

[jrs2]

Here comes the sun....it's al-right....  this building is now taller than Tower 1 of Wyndham to the south.  It will become taller than Tower 2 of Wyndham (shown) when it tops off.  The footers for the second tower of this project appear to be in already; they've been working on that for the past few months.

Edited August 20, 2018 by jrs2

[jrs2]

I'm not sure if anyone has seen this, but B. Braun now has a massive warehouse distribution center off of Clyde Morris to the south of LPGA Blvd.  It looks like it is close to the size of the Trader Joe's Distribution Center, but smaller.  It's on Google satellite view.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20170410/bbraun-to-add-distribution-center

2017 article discussing it.

2016 article below

https://www.enterpriseflorida.com/news/b-braun-will-add-175-jobs-in-daytona-beach/

...things are happening...