Jump to content

Church Street Station


downtowninvestor

Recommended Posts

Ferrari (exotic cars in general) dealerships are like mini theme parks for auto enthusiast. I have friends who will visit the dealerships just to see these mean machines because you dream about them enough, might as well see them in person. It's like going to see your favorite celebrity, you know you have no chance but the mystique is still there. Accordingly, I think some dealerships cater to these dreamers. Some have gift shops where you can buy Ferrari replicas and gear (sunglasses, t-shirts, etc), and these are not cheazzy trinkets, Ferrari sunglasses will run you a pretty dime. Personally I think anything going into CSS is a good thing. I think this in particular is a good fit because I'm not necessarily sure Garland frontage has the same appeal it once did for retail and restaurants (not everyone wants to dine in the spectacular backdrop of I-4). Everything is centered around the interior streets and Orange now. Having this facing I-4 may encourage some people to take a brief detour and check it out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


From Scott Joseph's Chow Hound column in today's Sentinel:

"Word comes to the Hound that a Hamburger Mary's will open in the former Toojay's space in the former Church Street Station. Hamburger Mary's is described as "an open-air bar and grille for open-minded people," and its slogan is "eat, drink and be Mary." If you don't know what that means, you might want to stick with the burgers at Johnny's Fillin' Station. If you do, I know you're already getting excited about the prospect of singing along on Mary-oke night. Hope they have lots of show tunes ready. April, I'm told."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From Scott Joseph's Chow Hound column in today's Sentinel:

"Word comes to the Hound that a Hamburger Mary's will open in the former Toojay's space in the former Church Street Station. Hamburger Mary's is described as "an open-air bar and grille for open-minded people," and its slogan is "eat, drink and be Mary." If you don't know what that means, you might want to stick with the burgers at Johnny's Fillin' Station. If you do, I know you're already getting excited about the prospect of singing along on Mary-oke night. Hope they have lots of show tunes ready. April, I'm told."

I saw the signage today that said Hamburger Mary's open soon. Maybe the restaurants concept has change since the closing of several in different cities "Boystown." Maybe it's downtown's answer to Johnny Rockets or Cheeburger Cheeburger. Have to check out their website. The sign was a little campy though. Downtown has been being "revotilized" since the 1970's. It is just a typical (maybe a little better than typical downtown where the streets empty after 5. I don't think we are now revitilizing it, I think we are "citifyfing" it. That's the difference between downtown LA and downtown San Franscisco. We are trying to add residents and the businesses that go along with them. Not many cities have taken the risk of building residential units in the very core of the CBD. It is probably a very difficult task since hardly and city since Americas first cities have done this. The outskirts of CBD's have been succesful, such as our own Thornton Park, Montrose in Houston, SoHO and Hyde Park in Tampa. etc. I just read a newspaper article that Orlando and St. Petersburg are about the only two cities experimenting with this "new idea." Rember the nightlife in downtown Orlando in the 90's with the whole exctasy nightclub rave culture and the "Orlando Sound" Hyped up in Rolling Stone magazine. Those thousands of club goers were not central city residents, but it sure looked active. Let's face the facts that Orlando and St. Pete were always more residential than business oriented cities. Ft. Lauderdale also, which is trying to "city-fy" itself also. West Palm was never a big business center but they are showing much success with City Place, which probably should have been where our own "Millenia" should have located. Millenia is in the city of Orlando, built from scratch on undeveloped land in the city limits, it may have a small urban feel to it but imagine if it could have been put downtown, possilbly incorporated within the shores of Eola Park, maybe shutting down Rosalind or Central to pedestrian traffic. I believe that WPB has less than 100,000 residents but that is changing, Inianapolis, a smaller metro area than Orlando, built their successful Circle Center Mall in the heart of downtown. I know there is some residential being built in Indy's CBD, but not to the extent of Orlando. Indy also has an upscale shopping center in the northern edge of the city called Keystone at the Crossings. Florida Mall could have taken up that slack with Saks and Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, etc. Better use can be made of Orlando Fashion Square which if you've been to many malls, it's latest renovation looks beautiful and upscale. It could be Orlando's Channelside like in Tampa with a trolley connecting it with the center city and whatever Church Street or Parramore can become. Does Ybor come to mind? Baldwin Park also. Has anyone noticed lately that the other shopping areas around Fashion Square are full of "urbanites" dining and using the gym? It looks like the fashionably "Black dressed urbanites are frequenting local business in that area but seem to skip over Fashion Square. What ever even happened to "The Gap?" add an Abercrombie and Banana Republic and Hollister and the better designers stores may follow as the large urban population in the area grows. Just some thoughts!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw the signage today that said Hamburger Mary's open soon. Maybe the restaurants concept has change since the closing of several in different cities "Boystown." Maybe it's downtown's answer to Johnny Rockets or Cheeburger Cheeburger. Have to check out their website. The sign was a little campy though. Downtown has been being "revotilized" since the 1970's. It is just a typical (maybe a little better than typical downtown where the streets empty after 5. I don't think we are now revitilizing it, I think we are "citifyfing" it. That's the difference between downtown LA and downtown San Franscisco. We are trying to add residents and the businesses that go along with them. Not many cities have taken the risk of building residential units in the very core of the CBD. It is probably a very difficult task since hardly and city since Americas first cities have done this. The outskirts of CBD's have been succesful, such as our own Thornton Park, Montrose in Houston, SoHO and Hyde Park in Tampa. etc. I just read a newspaper article that Orlando and St. Petersburg are about the only two cities experimenting with this "new idea." Rember the nightlife in downtown Orlando in the 90's with the whole exctasy nightclub rave culture and the "Orlando Sound" Hyped up in Rolling Stone magazine. Those thousands of club goers were not central city residents, but it sure looked active. Let's face the facts that Orlando and St. Pete were always more residential than business oriented cities. Ft. Lauderdale also, which is trying to "city-fy" itself also. West Palm was never a big business center but they are showing much success with City Place, which probably should have been where our own "Millenia" should have located. Millenia is in the city of Orlando, built from scratch on undeveloped land in the city limits, it may have a small urban feel to it but imagine if it could have been put downtown, possilbly incorporated within the shores of Eola Park, maybe shutting down Rosalind or Central to pedestrian traffic. I believe that WPB has less than 100,000 residents but that is changing, Inianapolis, a smaller metro area than Orlando, built their successful Circle Center Mall in the heart of downtown. I know there is some residential being built in Indy's CBD, but not to the extent of Orlando. Indy also has an upscale shopping center in the northern edge of the city called Keystone at the Crossings. Florida Mall could have taken up that slack with Saks and Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, etc. Better use can be made of Orlando Fashion Square which if you've been to many malls, it's latest renovation looks beautiful and upscale. It could be Orlando's Channelside like in Tampa with a trolley connecting it with the center city and whatever Church Street or Parramore can become. Does Ybor come to mind? Baldwin Park also. Has anyone noticed lately that the other shopping areas around Fashion Square are full of "urbanites" dining and using the gym? It looks like the fashionably "Black dressed urbanites are frequenting local business in that area but seem to skip over Fashion Square. What ever even happened to "The Gap?" add an Abercrombie and Banana Republic and Hollister and the better designers stores may follow as the large urban population in the area grows. Just some thoughts!

I forgot thay many cities have failed in downtown retail. The very beautiful Colubus City Center in Ohio comes to mind. All of the latest upper middle stores of the time opened in their including Williams Sonoma. a Borders or Barnes and Noble, J Crew, Banana Republic, anchored by the high end Jacobsons out of Michigan (bankrupt) Marshall Fields which in the midwest was the equivalent of getting Bloomingdales, and all this was attached to the original downtown Lazarus store, a huge old downtown flagship of the chain. But it appears nobody thought of residents living in the area. Soon Jacobsons went out of business, Marshall Fields moved into a new upscale suburban mall called Polaris Fashion Place and was replaced by a Kaufman's (unfamiliar) and the Macy's-Lazarus made the decision to close the downtown location and move out to Polaris. The center still exists but is dying for sure and in such a short time. Downtown shopping moved in to the more eclectic and residential area called the "Short North" which is popular but lacks national presence. The city's downtown also has the German Village on the southside which is very historical and cool but very calm. I think one of the main reasons that downtown Orlando is stryving for very expensive residential is so when we get it, businesses won't fail as easily. The entire urbanized area from Orlando to Winter Park is very high priced with it continuing up 17-92 in a Midtown-Buckhead fashion with Maitland coming on line and uptown Altamonte which is an old inner suburb that has refused to die. The mall contains upper middle retail (not high high fashion) and residintial street shopping and dining is all going up around the park.

SoDo may help the southside since there are many wealthy areas down there too. Maybe we are in a slump but will catch up with ourselves once all these new medical research facilities and hospitals open in the Lake Nona area and metro area incomes will rise!!!$$

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Cheyenne Saloon Opens Its Doors Thursday

The Cheyenne Saloon returns to its former glory Thursday, seven years after closing its shutters.

The saloon has been completely refurbished by its original developer Bob Snow, and it is part of the multimillion dollar effort to revitalize Church Street.

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/2/...s_thursday.html

0071(4).jpg

0056(8).jpg

0061(5).jpg

0044(6).jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lonestar is playing tomorrow nite, Collin Raye on friday, and Lee Greenwood on saturday.......I think i just wet myself :yahoo:

Yikes, but the admission for the concerts is $55, and $10 daily when no headliner.

that does seem kind of steep but I guess that would be normal for a concert... is beautiful inside there... I enjoyed it there when it was open back in the day and look forward to going back in soon... that is if I can convince a friend of mine to go

BTW thanks for posting the pics Sunshine

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wouldn't it be nice for Bob Snow to reclaim all of Church Street Station and return it to its former glory? Rosie O'Grady's was then, and remains, superior to any live shows over at Pleasure Island or Citywalk (which apparently put it out of commission). It's peculiar that seven years of faulty management were blamed on downtown Orlando's sustainability, and within months this venue has risen again and will feature headliners.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

$55 is very reasonable for an intimate concert setting like the Cheyenne. I would much rather pony that up than than the same amount for an upper row ticket in a much less personal arena. I wish they had the same type of venue for other types of music like r&b or jazz.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

$55 is very reasonable for an intimate concert setting like the Cheyenne. I would much rather pony that up than than the same amount for an upper row ticket in a much less personal arena. I wish they had the same type of venue for other types of music like r&b or jazz.

Checkout BB King's Blues club in Pointe Orlando - probably just what you're looking for... a GREAT venue!

http://orlando.bbkingclubs.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lonestar is playing tomorrow nite, Collin Raye on friday, and Lee Greenwood on saturday.......I think i just wet myself :yahoo:

Yikes, but the admission for the concerts is $55, and $10 daily when no headliner.

He ought to start selling yearly memberships like they used to do at Rosie's

AND BRING BACK NICKEL BEER NIGHT!!!!!! :alc:

(ok, maybe QUARTER beer night, what with inflation & all....) :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He ought to start selling yearly memberships like they used to do at Rosie's

AND BRING BACK NICKEL BEER NIGHT!!!!!! :alc:

(ok, maybe QUARTER beer night, what with inflation & all....) :rolleyes:

That was at Phineas Phoggs, which is now Bliss. I miss nickel beer night. I always brought a mug for each hand and sometimes a friend or two.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That was at Phineas Phoggs, which is now Bliss. I miss nickel beer night. I always brought a mug for each hand and sometimes a friend or two.

If you were an old timer like me, you'd remember when Nickel Beer Night was in Rosie's.

Where it belonged, if you ask me.

And there was also a little thing on Mondays called Membership Night.

Show your membership card & you got in free, plus they gave you tickets (cinema type) that along with 50 cents would get you a food item or a mixed (well brand) cocktail. They had sub sandwiches (roast beef, ham or turkey), potato chips & pickle spears & I think a couple of other things too.

Lotsa fun.

Edited by JFW657
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I dunno if anyone notice, downtown Orlando updated their website with the new Hilton page and rendering.

333 hotel rooms, 25 stories, 970 parking spaces, rooftop restaurants.

So if the basketball players stay there, are they going to walk to the arena or drive there?

An underground tunnel to there would be cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dunno if anyone notice, downtown Orlando updated their website with the new Hilton page and rendering.

333 hotel rooms, 25 stories, 970 parking spaces, rooftop restaurants.

So if the basketball players stay there, are they going to walk to the arena or drive there?

An underground tunnel to there would be cool.

If my memory serves, back in the day, wasn't there an underground tunnel for athletes and celebrities to get to Madison Square from the Hotel Pennsylvania?

With this hotel and the arena built, it'll be amazing how the skyline's focus orientation from that above view will have shifted from N/S to E/W in the last several years...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.