Church Street Station

[prahaboheme]

Ceviche expanding to lunch service due to increased foot traffic on Church St: Biz Journal

[Jernigan]

I follow Stardust Coffee on twitter and they posted that Pine 22 (Burger place at Solaire) will now be competing with Hamburger Mary's new neighbor, FIVE GUYS.

So depending on how literal they used the word, neighbor, there may be a Five Guys opening up on Church St.

[John Hargrove]

I follow Stardust Coffee on twitter and they posted that Pine 22 (Burger place at Solaire) will now be competing with Hamburger Mary's new neighbor, FIVE GUYS.

So depending on how literal they used the word, neighbor, there may be a Five Guys opening up on Church St.

Ha! I just posted this on twitter as well. See my post in the 55 West thread.

The tweet:

Pancheros and Braxis went out of business in downtown Orlando. Five Guys is taking their spot. Woo! http://yfrog.com/gzc75elj

— John Hargrove (@JohnHargrove)

February 7, 2011

[prahaboheme]

Has anyone heard anything else about the potential Ale House at the former Cheyenne Saloon?

[Magicfan95]

Has anyone heard anything else about the potential Ale House at the former Cheyenne Saloon?

That has got to be wishful thinking. The Ale House's business model would never have them paying the rent that Cheyenne Saloon would require.

[prahaboheme]

^Good point. I suppose the downtown relocation of the House of Blues is also wishing thinking...

[prahaboheme]

^Good point. I suppose the downtown relocation of the House of Blues is also wishing thinking...

[Magicfan95]

^Good point. I suppose the downtown relocation of the House of Blues is also wishing thinking...

No clue. I just know Ale House pretty well. I'd be shocked if they spent the type of money on Cheyenne. Squarefootage and asking price.

[smileguy]

It looks like the "Church Street District" has received permission to close off West Church Street into a pedestrian mall for certain hours of the day.

Outdoor Festival Atmosphere Coming To Church Street

http://www.wftv.com/countybycounty/27028970/detail.html?taf=orlc

[bic]

A Hope For Rebirth on Once-Great Church Street

[gibby]

It's unfortunate that they didn't mention Sunrail in the entire article.

[jack]

They did not want to jinx it.

[prahaboheme]

Church Street lands another restaurant / bar -- this time across from Amway Center:

Restaurant-bar opening on Church Street

[alex]

Church Street lands another restaurant / bar -- this time across from Amway Center:

Restaurant-bar opening on Church Street

Thanks for the update. Not sure how they can say it's like nothing Orlando has seen though, considering there's Orlando Brewing by the Amtrak station and World of Beer just opened on University (among other places). But it's a nice option fore pre/post-games and pre-going out. I would definitely try it.

[steve_o]

Church Street lands another restaurant / bar -- this time across from Amway Center:

Restaurant-bar opening on Church Street

I've seen the signs for this and was always wondering what it was. Great for downtown! Though World of Beer has opened 3+ locations, there really isn't much like it downtown - yet. The old Beacon location is going to be similar (not downtown but close). They will have 48 beers on tap and it will be some sort of a sports oriented brick oven pizza restaurant/bar/. They are doing work on it now.

[prahaboheme]

Celebration Town Tavern also has something like 99 beers (a significant amount of which are on tap).

This is good news for downtown though, and this location is killer for Amway games. I wonder how it will do during non-event nights. It's the first "Church Street style" establishment to crossover the I-4 barrier.

Edited March 25, 2011 by prahaboheme

[smileguy]

There is a German Beer/Restaurant going in the old Forty VII Clothing location at the base of Solaire as well. Is craft beer the new froyo?

[John Hargrove]

There is a German Beer/Restaurant going in the old Forty VII Clothing location at the base of Solaire as well. Is craft beer the new froyo?

I hope so. I love places with tons of beer.

[VistaLakes01]

I firmly believe that the type of retail we will witness over the next decade will be business and commuter based -- chain retail will not come along for quite some time. The reason I believe Publix to be such a success is that it proves that locals are coming downtown, locals are living downtown, and it is sustainable. I personally welcome the influx of bars and nightlife to downtown Orlando, for the reasons mentioned above by bic. There are few unique urban environments in Florida, this is one of them.

I believe most of the new bars, restaurants, galleries and bits of retail are based much more on residents of the central city area, much different than the businesses of the 90's when clientele for the bars and clubs would drive in to downtown to party from the suburbs, Tampa and Jax. There would be a much larger mix of rednecks, curiosity seekers coming clubbing based on the party reputation of downtown, college kids, etc. The clientele now has shifted to a less rowdy customer who is more sure of himself and what he wants. (Manhattan in the 70s, 80s, 90s had a large Jersey, L.I. influx on the weekends trying to get in the clubs, not being "on the list" and paying $30 covers to get in. With nearly every Manhattan neighborhood revitalized now such as Chelsea, Meat Packing District, etc now containing their own residents, there has been a shift to more local customer based businesses, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.) You get the feeling in downtown Orlando that Chillers, Antigua, and Latitudes are nearly all that's left of the "let's go downtown" thrillseekers from Winter Haven type of crowd. Even Amway Center event crowds appear to "know" there are neighborhoods and residents downtown now and don't appear to "get out of hand" and relax more and enjoy the city. The maturity and establishment is coming to pass finally and the future is really looking promising for an established downtown Orlando with all sorts of options.

[spenser1058]

Church Street hops — but only on arena-event nights:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-magic-arena-business-20110409,0,1804018.story

Even the bar folks are saying we have enough bars downtown:

"Church Street needs more family-friendly entertainment, said Mike Murray, who manages the new Heat restaurant and nightclub.

"There's enough dance clubs," he said. "Let's get some different venues."

Here's where the city needs to step up. All the downtown churches, the Orlando Public Library and the History Center are programming stuff throughout the week for kids and families; now, it's a matter of coordinating dining and other options for these folks to fill in gaps when the arena has no events and earlier in the day when the party-til-you-puke crowd isn't out. Of course, the perfect bridge for these different audiences is RETAIL, along with menus at the restaurants downtown more geared for families earlier in the day.

Downtown can serve all these markets - it just has to be coordinated correctly so businesses target their efforts to the right audience at the right time of day.

[nite owℓ]

Parking is always a deterrent. I think people would go downtown more often if businesses were able to validate/comp parking. I know of a few businesses that used to validate parking but are no longer doing so.

Also, the LYMMO service needs to expand to accomodate the residents of ALL local neighborhoods. That would be nice.

[uncreativeusername]

Parking is always a deterrent. I think people would go downtown more often if businesses were able to validate/comp parking. I know of a few businesses that used to validate parking but are no longer doing so.

Also, the LYMMO service needs to expand to accomodate the residents of ALL local neighborhoods. That would be nice.

...or, we could just have a commuter rail service.

[prahaboheme]

Church Street hops — but only on arena-event nights:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-magic-arena-business-20110409,0,1804018.story

Even the bar folks are saying we have enough bars downtown:

"Church Street needs more family-friendly entertainment, said Mike Murray, who manages the new Heat restaurant and nightclub.

"There's enough dance clubs," he said. "Let's get some different venues."

Here's where the city needs to step up. All the downtown churches, the Orlando Public Library and the History Center are programming stuff throughout the week for kids and families; now, it's a matter of coordinating dining and other options for these folks to fill in gaps when the arena has no events and earlier in the day when the party-til-you-puke crowd isn't out. Of course, the perfect bridge for these different audiences is RETAIL, along with menus at the restaurants downtown more geared for families earlier in the day.

Downtown can serve all these markets - it just has to be coordinated correctly so businesses target their efforts to the right audience at the right time of day.

Church Street Station needn't look farther than it's former self if it wants family friendly inspiration. CCS in the 90s was retail/restaurant by day, family friendly fun by early evening, and party till you drop at night.

It would be great for CCS to land a House of Blues style venue. Also, it wouldn't hurt the CSS owners to reintroduce Terror on Church Street, if only for the months of September and October, as a downtown/local answer to Halloween Horror Nights/Mickey's Not So Scary. CSS could also do a "Winter Wonderland" for the holidays season, decoratively dress up the street with lights/ornaments, fake snow (tacky but people like it), music, Santa, the works. If Celebration can attract people by the thousands (with a serious parking situation), this should not be a problem for Church Street.

I think the possibilities are boundless (they seemed that way 20 years ago), but we haven't really seen a lot of creative juices flowing (at least publicly).

Edited April 11, 2011 by prahaboheme

[Deric_C6]

There is a German Beer/Restaurant going in the old Forty VII Clothing location at the base of Solaire as well. Is craft beer the new froyo?

[Deric_C6]

I'll tell you right now what by far is the biggest problem. Its really 90% of the problem. Its paying to park. This isn't NYC, Boston, of D.C. People in Florida don't want to pay to park. For an event like a Magic game or concert at the Amway, yeah they will. But just going out to dinner on the weekend or even worse a weeknight isn't happening. If no one has noticed every corner in this city and surrounding areas has either a Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Longhorn Steakhouse or whatever there. Plus the parking is over priced at that. Yeah, I guess $1.00 an hour under I-4 isn't bad, but thats more trouble than its worth. I bet more people would come if there was a flat $3.00 or even $5.00 fee to park instead of the $1.00/hr even if they're staying for only a couple of hours. The 55West garage is in a great location, but $2.00 an hour is bullsh*t. I live there and if my gf wants to spend the night we have to leave one of our cars somewhere because the parking ends up being like $30. And god forbid they could do some kind of validation system at the church st. businesses for parking here too.

If you're part of the "lets go to the club and get drunk" crowd, yeah that parking situation is no problem. But if the city wants families and the business they bring in the retail area to downtown the parking is the main hold up.

Edited April 17, 2011 by Deric_C6