Orange & Robinson Apartments | 11-story residential [Under Construction]

[prahaboheme]

This is so terribly unnecessary - if going to do a mid-rise, at least try to make it blend in a bit.

[AndyPok1]

13 hours ago, gibby said:

Very cool that you took the time to do this.  I'd normally completely agree with the objection you had but the commercial does cover 50% of the frontage and the amenities area is basically an active use.  I'm not sure which corner of the building would be better for the apartment entrance.  I think either one will work fine.  I'm more bummed about the garage on the back street.  They've made zero attempt to make that look nice.  Did they discuss that at all today?

The ARB was there and commented that, yes, they are still actively working to make the garage acceptable.

Personally, State Ln is, well, a lane. It's facing a chiller plant.  I really don't care what the garage looks like.  Alleys like that are where garages are meant to go.

[codypet]

Agreed.  They should push it to the NW corner of the property as much as possible and have the "pretty" sides facing south and east.  The garage can face State Ln and the atm parking lot.

[Jernigan]

June ARB Staff Report: https://orlando.novusagenda.com/AgendaPublic/AttachmentViewer.ashx?AttachmentID=85370&ItemID=48038

[popsiclebrandon]

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[JFW657]

Could be worse, I suppose.

Better than the empty parking lot there now.

[nite owℓ]

The Diocese probably will probably never let go of that property because they still want to use it for parking; " The parking garage includes 200 spaces reserved for the Catholic Diocese offices, St. James Cathedral Church and the Jefferson St. post office. " The Diocese intended to build affordable housing for seniors so unless anything has changed, this lot was doomed from the beginning.

[spenser1058]

1 minute ago, nite owℓ said:

The Diocese probably will probably never let go of that property because they still want to use it for parking; " The parking garage includes 200 spaces reserved for the Catholic Diocese offices, St. James Cathedral Church and the Jefferson St. post office. " The Diocese intended to build affordable housing for seniors so unless anything has changed, this lot was doomed from the beginning.

Personally, I thought the NCNB drive-in tellers were picturesque as they collapsed...

[jrs2]

24 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Could be worse, I suppose.

Better than the empty parking lot there now.

that's exactly what I was thinking as I clicked on the link...but, at least it's not a wood frame 4-5 story Crescent-like structure.  Instead, it's like the Lakehouse on Ivanhoe and will probably be the concrete tilt-wall erector set-type of structure.    That one is 9 stories tall...  this one's design is so bland and non-descript that it will probably end up being the same type of construction...

[JFW657]

1 minute ago, jrs2 said:

that's exactly what I was thinking as I clicked on the link...but, at least it's not a wood frame 4-5 story Crescent-like structure.  Instead, it's like the Lakehouse on Ivanhoe and will probably be the concrete tilt-wall erector set-type of structure.    That one is 9 stories tall...  this one's design is so bland and non-descript that it will probably end up being the same type of construction...

I counted 11 stories on the elevation fronting Orange Ave.

[spenser1058]

28 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Could be worse, I suppose.

Better than the empty parking lot there now.

Even though some of the buildings are nondescript we are slowly but surely ditching the ugly surface lots downtown.

That’s got to be considered an improvement over places like Jacksonville where they’re about to tear down the Landing for...an empty lot.

[Jvest55]

"Rooftop Mechanical Equipment — Rooftop mechanical equipment must be screened to the height of the mechanical equipment with parapets, louvered panels and/or perforated metal screen walls. The color of the rooftop mechanical equipment should also match the roof color as closely as is feasible."

This is kinda humorous to me because so far, buildings of this size have had very ugly, black HVAC units littered all over the top of the roof. Very similar to 420 building and soon to be 520.

Picture courtesy of @ucfpatriot18

Edited June 17, 2019 by Jvest55

[AndyPok1]

This is the one I went to the MPB meeting to whine about right?  I don't care about the ugliness or the size.  I care about the lack of retail to draw people to this massively important corner.

[JFW657]

50 minutes ago, AndyPok1 said:

This is the one I went to the MPB meeting to whine about right?  I don't care about the ugliness or the size.  I care about the lack of retail to draw people to this massively important corner.

Renderings show a Starbucks, a burger joint and a fitness center. 

I'm guessing there will be a couple of other businesses in there that will generate some foot traffic.

[Xander]

2 hours ago, JFW657 said:

Could be worse, I suppose.

.

Nope. It's a concrete box with windows.

[nite owℓ]

1 hour ago, Jvest55 said:

"Rooftop Mechanical Equipment — Rooftop mechanical equipment must be screened to the height of the mechanical equipment with parapets, louvered panels and/or perforated metal screen walls. The color of the rooftop mechanical equipment should also match the roof color as closely as is feasible."

This is kinda humorous to me because so far, buildings of this size have had very ugly, black HVAC units littered all over the top of the roof. Very similar to 420 building and soon to be 520.

Picture courtesy of @ucfpatriot18

 

I'm surprised more of these multifamily buildings aren't on OUC's chiller system. I guess OUC expected more of a boom which is why I thought they built additional plants to stay ahead of demand.

[Jvest55]

It's a good question. So far it seemed like only condos were on OUC's chiller system, but I am fairly sure Modena, the new rental building that went up is on OUC as well. I haven't seen a top-down view so I can't say for sure. There are several cons to these individual HVAC units on top of buildings. Other than that they are ugly, they create noise too. 

[aent]

18 minutes ago, Jvest55 said:

It's a good question. So far it seemed like only condos were on OUC's chiller system, but I am fairly sure Modena, the new rental building that went up is on OUC as well. I haven't seen a top-down view so I can't say for sure. There are several cons to these individual HVAC units on top of buildings. Other than that they are ugly, they create noise too. 

Are they able to individually bill each unit owner, in a practical manner, for the usage, or how does it work? That can be a big showstopper for apartments.

[nite owℓ]

I believe 55 West and The Vue meter chilled water for individual units. Although there was a time when some utility bills were over $500 at 55W, it was blamed on faulty meters on the consumer's end. OUC not only charges you for chilled water usage, but they also use a DeltaT factor (temperature difference) to charge more money if the water temperature returned to the plant is not within an optimum range. I guess the biggest benefit for getting on chilled water is that you have less "moving parts" to maintain and pretty much year-round uninterrupted service.

Edited June 17, 2019 by nite owℓ

[IAmFloridaBorn]

Trash

[AndyPok1]

18 hours ago, aent said:

Are they able to individually bill each unit owner, in a practical manner, for the usage, or how does it work? That can be a big showstopper for apartments.

Yup!  Here's a random bill from July 2016

[jrs2]

On 6/17/2019 at 3:35 PM, Jvest55 said:

"Rooftop Mechanical Equipment — Rooftop mechanical equipment must be screened to the height of the mechanical equipment with parapets, louvered panels and/or perforated metal screen walls. The color of the rooftop mechanical equipment should also match the roof color as closely as is feasible."

This is kinda humorous to me because so far, buildings of this size have had very ugly, black HVAC units littered all over the top of the roof. Very similar to 420 building and soon to be 520.

Picture courtesy of @ucfpatriot18

Sorry to quote and in essence repost this whole graphic, but, this is a great shot of The Sevens from the back.  Never seen this shot before.  Pretty cool.  You can see CV as well.

[Jvest55]

5 hours ago, AndyPok1 said:

Yup!  Here's a random bill from July 2016

Where's that from, if you don't mind?

[bqknight]

21 hours ago, nite owℓ said:

I believe 55 West and The Vue meter chilled water for individual units. Although there was a time when some utility bills were over $500 at 55W, it was blamed on faulty meters on the consumer's end. OUC not only charges you for chilled water usage, but they also use a DeltaT factor (temperature difference) to charge more money if the water temperature returned to the plant is not within an optimum range. I guess the biggest benefit for getting on chilled water is that you have less "moving parts" to maintain and pretty much year-round uninterrupted service.

Yup - 55W's utility bills are ridiculous. I was paying close to $200 in the summer for a studio (albeit a 1000 sqft one). I now pay $90 max for a 2 bedroom around the same sqft. Stupid chilled water. 

[nite owℓ]

My building is also on chilled water, however, the usage is billed to the HOA and not metered individually. What I like about being on chilled water is that I don't have to worry about an AC breaking down or the usual AC maintenance; all you have is a fan coil unit blowing air over the cold coils. I keep my unit around 72-74 degrees, but again we're billed as a whole so I'm not sure what the actual bill would be is since it's built into our monthly HOA fee which is about 0.54 cents/sq ft (and includes tap water hot & cold as well). Our problem is that we get "penalized" by OUC for returning the water too cold to the chiller plant (OUC wants the return water to be above X degrees) otherwise our OUC chilled water rates would be lower.

I think 55 West replaced the faulty meters years ago though. Found the old news article: https://www.wftv.com/news/man-blames-55-west-for-pricey-utility-bill/286552011

Edited June 18, 2019 by nite owℓ