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Businesses I would like to see Downtown


ChadKRagland

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We really need some sort of "anchor" downtown that's open every day and not just the Events Center and PAC. Just can't think of what would work, unless a unique department store maybe, but these aren't times for anything "upscale." What is Dave & Buster's and why doesn't Orlando have one?

I would like a D&B but logically it is better served in the pointe orlando area. D&B is like a Chucky Cheese for adults.

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Sorry if any of these have been posted - but here is what I'd like to see downtown:

- CVS/Walgreens - this was in the original post. Even with Publix built (closes around 10) there is still room for one of these. I'm thinking near Orange and Pine. I've lived near Thornton Park and to be honest, we're pretty well served between the Publix and the 7-11 for after hours needs like pain-relief medicine or basic grocery. But maybe it's that I was recently in Boston where there is a CVS on every corner but I think one would do well with or without the pharmacy as people can pick up things they need on lunch break or after work.

- Italian Market - I'm the one who started the "Little Italy" thread but you really can't find a good Italian market anywhere in Orlando, so why not downtown? My parents are in Coral Springs, Florida and it turns out South Fla has a chain called Doris (dorismarket.com) so Orlando should have something like this.

- A really really good breakfast place. Breakfast Club is adequate and a 2nd location would not only be good in itself but might drive BC to become better. If it doesn't have a line out the door it's not a great breakfast place. And I don't mean $$$ "Brunch." Sure put salmon and caviar on the menu if your chef can do it big but it has to be about the comfort food.

- I know it's been posted - but a good liquor store. I don't know what the one on Orange between Central and Pine is going for but it's so hit and miss I don't even bother and just drive to Total Wine.

- I'd love an Apple store downtown.

- I'd love some advertising downtown. I mean big bilboards on buildings like in Times Square (and MANY other places). This goes along with the comment of "if you could take Mall @ Millenia and scatter it around downtown" - Obviously we could only have a few since we don't have that many tall buildings just yet...

- It would be great for UCF to move it's college of business (at least part of it) downtown. I know they have their name on 1-2 buildings but really it's not even as predominant as the VCC building @ Orange & Central. Going back to my Boston trip - it's college central there. And what does that equal? Foot traffic and potential customers. UCF is already 50,000 students - let the business school juniors and seniors take a few classes downtown. It would actually be a benefit/time saver for some students to go right from a downtown internship to a 6PM class and then take a Lynx back to UCF if they don't have a car.

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I would like to see a myriad of different kinds of stores but not inside of a complex like the Exchange. Just in random buildings & storefronts around downtown.

Sporting goods, hobby & crafts, electronics, hardware, musical instruments, etc. etc.

And lots of fast food joints.

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Sorry if any of these have been posted - but here is what I'd like to see downtown:

- CVS/Walgreens - this was in the original post. Even with Publix built (closes around 10) there is still room for one of these. I'm thinking near Orange and Pine. I've lived near Thornton Park and to be honest, we're pretty well served between the Publix and the 7-11 for after hours needs like pain-relief medicine or basic grocery. But maybe it's that I was recently in Boston where there is a CVS on every corner but I think one would do well with or without the pharmacy as people can pick up things they need on lunch break or after work.

- Italian Market - I'm the one who started the "Little Italy" thread but you really can't find a good Italian market anywhere in Orlando, so why not downtown? My parents are in Coral Springs, Florida and it turns out South Fla has a chain called Doris (dorismarket.com) so Orlando should have something like this.

- A really really good breakfast place. Breakfast Club is adequate and a 2nd location would not only be good in itself but might drive BC to become better. If it doesn't have a line out the door it's not a great breakfast place. And I don't mean $$$ "Brunch." Sure put salmon and caviar on the menu if your chef can do it big but it has to be about the comfort food.

- I know it's been posted - but a good liquor store. I don't know what the one on Orange between Central and Pine is going for but it's so hit and miss I don't even bother and just drive to Total Wine.

- I'd love an Apple store downtown.

- I'd love some advertising downtown. I mean big bilboards on buildings like in Times Square (and MANY other places). This goes along with the comment of "if you could take Mall @ Millenia and scatter it around downtown" - Obviously we could only have a few since we don't have that many tall buildings just yet...

- It would be great for UCF to move it's college of business (at least part of it) downtown. I know they have their name on 1-2 buildings but really it's not even as predominant as the VCC building @ Orange & Central. Going back to my Boston trip - it's college central there. And what does that equal? Foot traffic and potential customers. UCF is already 50,000 students - let the business school juniors and seniors take a few classes downtown. It would actually be a benefit/time saver for some students to go right from a downtown internship to a 6PM class and then take a Lynx back to UCF if they don't have a car.

When you mentioned advertising, I thought about a large HD sign showing the previews at the new theater. It could be somewhere down the street or at the theater complex.

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  • 3 years later...

Naysayers be damned! Gainesville is geting a Trader Joe's!

From (Gainesville) mayor Craig Lowe's facebook -

Trader Joe's has a lease agreement to go in Butler Plaza.

According to the agreement on file with the Alachua County Clerk of Court, the grocery store chain would go in Butler Plaza Central, the part of the shopping center anchored by Best Buy.

Orlando can't be too far behind... can it? Where would it go? I'd like to see Publix on Shine expand into a Greenwise (like Tampa's Hyde Park store) to compete with Fresh Market... is there space Downtown? Winter Park? Or will it be in the suburbs like Whole Foods and (until recently) Fresh Market have stayed?

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You want a Trader Joes? It's mostly frozen prepared stuff, or chips. I go there only because they have a few frozen meals I always eat, and good snacks! But I am surprised at how much people tend to get excited about the place before they come in, and then complain abput it afterwards.

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  • 1 month later...

Here's something I'd REALLY like to see downtown:

Amazon Locker Delivery

With Amazon Locker, you can receive your Amazon packages at secure locations. Amazon Locker locations can be found when selecting a shipping address during the checkout process or when adding a new address in Your Account. 2548469310.png



Since the good folks at City Hall think "retail" means yet another bar, 7-Eleven (count 'em, 4 downtown now!) or overpriced restaurant, those of us living downtown live via e-commerce. This would be sooooo helpful as I've had packages left by UPS and FedEx stolen from my door. amazon has just announced more locations in major metros.

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The idea of books themselves is in hiatus. In killing off most ogf their competition, they ironically killed off mush of their own business. Most people no longer shop for or even think about books now because they have nowhere to interface with them. What little is left for bookstores focus increasingly on best sellers list, which really only appeals to a small population. Most people who would purchase more than cheap paperbacks are looking for smoething more in depth. And while Amazon may give you some access to purchase a wide variety of books, you cant actually see what you are getting until it is delivered. That makes it a tough sell. So those people are turning more and more to the Internet and forgoing books altogether.

I think that actually will open up a new oppotunity for the independent booksellers. Large independent shops, that leverage Amazon marketplace, I think will start to spring up more and more. I think Orlando is a ripe area for a good size bookstore. While the Internet is great, it still lacks the ability to show off nice illustrations and good pictures.

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I'm a "heavy" user of books, on average about 3/week. For the books I buy, I get them on Kindle. Since I can't really afford that many books per month, I regularly use the Orange County Library System. It's an incredibly user-friendly lending library (they lease hundreds of copies for release on the publication date so I usually get them the same week the embargo ends for the bookstores and online services) and they will even deliver books to you at no charge. They also have a huge used bookstore in the main library downtown. More than a few folks in the book business have told me there's really no way to compete with such a top-notch, free service.

I actually posted about the Amazon Locker service more for things besides books. In the retail-free zone we have downtown *sigh*, it's just another way that amazon would be cementing my already growing relationship with them (I bought the Kindle rather than a Nook or an iPad mainly because I do so much business with amazon otherwise.) What's sad is retailers lost me, who grew up as a mall rat - I once worked in malls at both Ivey's and Brooks Brothers, as a customer because they refused to follow the trends back downtown. Oh well, more their loss than mine.

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  • 1 year later...

I'm going to bump this year-old thread, since Buddy is now admitting the ball has been dropped on downtown retail.  As a new yorker who transplanted to Orlando (initially downtown, now college park) I can think of a few things that wouldn't take moving heaven and earth to get started 

 

1. An "urban" hardware store - found every few blocks in manhattan, this is the place that has a small stock of just about everything one may need when moving in/out of an apartment; paint, nails/screws, tools, AC filters, toilet flappers, painting supplies, duct tape, WD40, small plants - etc.  With all of the apartment/condo traffic now downtown, one of these could absolutely thrive.  No one has a garage full of this stuff and people are constantly moving in and out.  The closest thing Orlando had to this was the Ace in college park, which sadly moved to a larger, less walkable location

2. A major drug store - another vote for CVS/Walgreens.  Publix does a great job trying to fill in for all of this missing retail, but a real pharmacy/drug store would have no problem surviving downtown

3. A bagel shop - I know, New York bias.  It seems very strange to me that there is no bakery (besides the Lake Eola Paneras, I guess) downtown.  In the CBD, a place like this would be great for quick breakfast/coffee for the business crowd, and maybe work the cupcake/dessert after a show/dinner angle in the evenings

4. A bike shop - it's been said before.  Orange Cycles is even expanding in CP.  Connect Gertrude's Walk to Lake Ivanhoe/urban trail and this becomes even more important.

5. A second grocery store - this may seem strange, but with the proliferation of apartments in "uptown" - not to mention the Vue, Skyhouse, and (later) Central Station - I think another grocery store located north and west of Lake Eola would work well. 

 

I don't see standard clothing (or even book, unfortunately) retail working downtown currently.  Services like above are more likely to work for the growing residential population, and more subspecialized retail like art galleries, furniture/home decor (just look at Ivanhoe row), bridal or sample sale garments are more likely to actually draw people into downtown to shop for things that aren't easily accessible at malls, outlets, (or on-line!)

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I want to say that the Central Station project had a proposed retail store called "bike and bark" or something suggesting you would get your

Bike and pet needs met along Gertrude's walk.

Hopefully bike share will be a catalyst for a CBD bike shop.

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I've been doing a lot of research on urban retail lately and it occurred to me that to really get Downtown specialty retail back on it's feet a major department store needs to be built. In fact, given that Fashion Square is 2 miles away, there are already stats that can show how well department stores are doing in this area.

 

More specifically, I think that Buddy or whomever is in charge should implement the same agressive strategy employed to get an operator for the Movie Theatre at Chase Plaza to underwrite the develoment of a major 30,000-50,000 square foot department store on Orange Avenue. I would especially like to see a Florida-based chain open an urban location.

 

Domestic urban malls like 34th St. in Manhattan or Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Union Square/Grant St. in San Francisco have identical compositions are their enclosed counterparts. Subsidizing the deconstruction and reversal of this trend is exactly what Orlando needs to kick off the retail  environment. Just make sure that it's a uniquely Orlando experience and not the cookie cutter "Anywhere in the USA" model.

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I vote for service retail. I have no confidence in the destination, clothing etc. 

 

FYI, we looked into a grocery store in uptown, but could not justify the numbers. CP and the Shine Publix were too close. But probably need to take a second look with the new apartments. 

 

Definitely need a hardware store in Thornton Park/South Eola. Probably in the Paramount (not sure if there is availability) or in the new Jefferson apartment building. 

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  • 1 month later...

I posted an idea for seeding a revitalization of retail in downtown Orlando in another forum a few months ago, and it received no notice or comments. Guess it was too practical, opposed to the idealism and fantasy that goes on in here, but I'll try again. Here in London where I live, these's a very successful retail experiment in one of the trendy east neighborhoods, Shoreditch, which involves the clever reuse of shipping containers to create a "pop-up mall":

http://www.boxpark.co.uk

I think it's brilliant. Most of the initial retailers were indie, youth-oriented clothing outlets mixed with a few well-known brands like Lacoste running micro stores. It's been such a success they've added more containers, along with a food court/dining space as a second floor. The interesting thing is, since my post Cleveland has gotten in on the act.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2013/11/shipping_containers_at_center.html

For 100k, there is no reason why a few enterprising urban activists couldn't do the same in Orlando. If I was back in my hometown of Orlando, I'd certainly be organizing a few people to kickstart a project. I don't think the cure to downtown's retail woes is an angel retail developer dropping a massive retail project with the same mall tenants you see everywhere else, but a magnet is needed for creative niche retailers with interesting products to sell. Alas, I'm far away and I can only lurk on urban enthusiast forums and chime in when an idea compels me.

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Interesting concept. I think with the right mix of retailers this could prove intriguing to shoppers who will otherwise drive their cars to the mall or strip center of their choice and park right at the front door.

As the article on the Cleveland project alluded, there's probably room for both independent and national retailers to live harmoniously in a project like this and complement one another. My fear is that a bunch of ragtag resale/vintage/etsy-rific container stores (a la the Milk District) may not be enough to move the needle for folks not living in the immediately surrounding neighborhoods.

DTO and its business leaders need to figure out what can make downtown unique and stand out from the region's vast and varied shopping choices. I wish I had an answer for them but it's a bit of a quandary.

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Here's another great example: http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/54385

 

I've been fortunate to live in places as varied as Atlanta, San Francisco, Berlin, and London.  One thing I've found in these places is that well-financed real estate developers don't necessarily help create the start-up culture that allows smaller businesses to thrive, which is where the best ideas come from. Startups go where rents and operating costs are cheap; I love Berlin because the city feels like a big international startup where everyone is invested in helping it succeed; the cost of doing business there right now is so low it allows people to take risks and be inventive.  Orlando doesn't have a large stock of historic buildings where rents might be lower, so containers can step in to fill the gaps.  It's the same reason street food/food truck culture has proliferated...it's lower risk for new concepts.  And if circumstances change (someone actually starts developing the lot hosting your pop-up mall), you just haul them to the next location!

 

A well-executed and tasteful concept would draw the urbanites out for a couple of hours of shopping.  A crusty aging hlpster like me who wouldn't be caught dead in Wal-Mart would certainly be there!

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