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Church Street Station


downtowninvestor

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1 hour ago, Uncommon said:

https://bungalower.com/2021/07/22/new-gatsby-themed-club-opening-on-church-street/
 

I love this for Church St! Hopefully this is the beginning of a classier part of downtown, something like Park Ave.

Seriously guys this is another shady Tim Green project. Its already been shut down by the city and will be again soon.

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  • 1 year later...

Remember local rich guy Greg Mateer bought several properties on Church, one of which is the old train station. He has submitted plans to make some changes to the property including, "a second-floor balcony dining area, a four-story glass water tower with an elevator and stairs, as well as a third-floor catwalk at the train station at 78 W. Church St. in Orlando", per OBJ.

The 1st floor would be gift shop, bar and dining. 2nd floor bar and dining. 3rd floor VIP party room. And they propose adding an exterior kitchen and bar.

City staff said it does not recommend approval of the project as presented and they made several recommendations to limit the impact on the historic building.

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2022/07/28/orlando-church-street-station-florida-restaurants.html

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12 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

Remember local rich guy Greg Mateer bought several properties on Church, one of which is the old train station. He has submitted plans to make some changes to the property including, "a second-floor balcony dining area, a four-story glass water tower with an elevator and stairs, as well as a third-floor catwalk at the train station at 78 W. Church St. in Orlando", per OBJ.

The 1st floor would be gift shop, bar and dining. 2nd floor bar and dining. 3rd floor VIP party room. And they propose adding an exterior kitchen and bar.

City staff said it does not recommend approval of the project as presented and they made several recommendations to limit the impact on the historic building.

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2022/07/28/orlando-church-street-station-florida-restaurants.html

God help us. Just because you’re rich, don’t buy a historic landmark and think you can totally change it. If he wants something totally different than a historic train station, buy one of those empty asphalt lots around the corner and build what you please. Sorry, but it’s sad it has come to this. And to think he went on when he started talking about his roots in the community and blah, blah, blah…

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OK so Bungalower gives us pics, and may God have mercy on our soul. The only thing this abomination is missing is a Baker Barrios visor on the roof:

https://bungalower.com/2022/08/01/plans-submitted-for-historic-church-street-station-overhaul/

What’s most distressing is they think they can get away with this, otherwise they never would have proposed it.

Certainly not for either of Winter Garden’s train stations, because the vision for what’s acceptable is laid out in written form. What’s more, they know the community has bought into that vision and expect their leaders to act accordingly or give a serious discussion of any variations.

Whereas, in Orlando, they know there is a mayor who has, almost from the first day in office, moved to destroy historic buildings and structures and, even worse, turned a blind eye to the historic core for two decades.

So, why not present this monstrosity. Welcome to Buddy’s dangerous, declining and decadent downtown.
 

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4 hours ago, JFW657 said:

From the sound of the article, or comments within,  it doesn't sound like what's shown in the renderings have much chance of happening.  

Correct. When I posted this last week, I said staffers had given a thumbs down and listed changes that would need to be made. If you can't get into OBJ to read those, here it is non-paywalled along with more photos. Btw, Bungalower knew this was not being supported and should have mentioned it in their write up.

https://www.wftv.com/news/local/orange-county/orlando-historic-preservation-board-set-discuss-proposed-changes-church-street-station/LY4IKJ4KK5CJPAEW63RQG4IG2M/

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50 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

Correct. When I posted this last week, I said staffers had given a thumbs down and listed changes that would need to be made. If you can't get into OBJ to read those, here it is non-paywalled along with more photos. Btw, Bungalower knew this was not being supported and should have mentioned it in their write up.

https://www.wftv.com/news/local/orange-county/orlando-historic-preservation-board-set-discuss-proposed-changes-church-street-station/LY4IKJ4KK5CJPAEW63RQG4IG2M/

They did a short piece on channel 9 this afternoon and quoted where the powers that be said they wouldn't recommend the proposed changes.

The water tower is in theory, not such a bad idea, it just looked too "modern fake". 

The most hideous part is the gaudy Carmen Miranda mural on the turret. 

WTF????????????   :shok: 

 

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Hmm…putting some money in one of Orlando’s oldest and historical buildings huh?

Well let me open this link so I can see  how loving, classic, and respectful the few sparse buildings of our city are thought of and…OH MY GOD!!!…it looks like the Wonderworks building or something drove up from International Drive and puked on it!

Seriously, really? C’mon…

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18 minutes ago, angela1117 said:

I wish they would restore the train station without all the bells and whistles proposed.

If the product inside is good enough it should thrive without a wrapped turret and fakey water tower. I think the proposed public restrooms on the side of the building have potential to be horrific.

It needs to be something that gets gentle use, like a gallery or better restaurant. Sadly, in the tacky bar district which that part of downtown has lately devolved into, those uses would be somewhat out of place.

I always thought the DTO info center would have been a good use but they went in another direction.

Fwiw, both WG train stations are museums.

 

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23 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

It needs to be something that gets gentle use, like a gallery or better restaurant. Sadly, in the tacky bar district which that part of downtown has lately devolved into, those uses would be somewhat out of place.

I actually kind of like Ferg's. It was laid back and had a good ambience, thanks to the character of the station. It was a great spot to grab a drink and/or bite to eat before going to the Amway, Lions match, etc. 

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6 minutes ago, FLClarkKent said:

I actually kind of like Ferg's. It was laid back and had a good ambience, thanks to the character of the station. It was a great spot to grab a drink and/or bite to eat before going to the Amway, Lions match, etc. 

With its relatively small size, though, could a place like Ferg’s achieve the volume it needed? For whatever reason, they didn’t last long.

Downtown works best when it actively serves three day parts: 9-5, 5-11, and 11-2.

The middle section was ignored too long. Amway and DPCPA should have helped with that but it hasn’t. for whatever reason.

Meanwhile, the 11-2 bars are giving downtown a horrible reputation. When we first were brainstorming to bring downtown back in the early ‘80’s, it became readily apparent that for downtown to work you had to concentrate on the family element in that middle day part. That’s been lost somehow. Tbh, Thornton Park has picked up much of that as well as revitalized spaces in College Park, the Milk and Winter Garden.

Unless the administration decides to work on that again, downtown will be 9-5 only as the party-til-you-puke bars will be deemed more and more unsafe. It’s like kudzu, it’s forcing out the things around it and will eventually devour itself.

The hard use of older buildings will also make it harder with each passing year to restore the core. 

Folks on this board wonder why the downtown towers seem to be more like oversized dorms and largely unattractive to other demographics. That’s the answer.
 

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2 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

 

I always thought the DTO info center would have been a good use but they went in another direction.

Fwiw, both WG train stations are museums.

 

You read my mind on it would make a great spot for the DTO info center. 

We have visited the train station along the West Orange Trail and had a great chat with the friendly lady there.

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1 hour ago, angela1117 said:

You read my mind on it would make a great spot for the DTO info center. 

We have visited the train station along the West Orange Trail and had a great chat with the friendly lady there.

Were you there this weekend when I was there?  Were you in the train museum or the History Museum?  Both are in former train stations a block away from each other.

Edited by codypet
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16 minutes ago, codypet said:

Were you there this weekend when I was there?  Were you in the train museum or the History Museum?  Both are in former train stations a block away from each other.

If you’re ever in the History Museum and see the war bond issued by FNB of Winter Garden, that’s from me. It belonged to my grandfather.

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5 hours ago, codypet said:

Were you there this weekend when I was there?  Were you in the train museum or the History Museum?  Both are in former train stations a block away from each other.

No, it's been a few months since our last trip to Winter Garden. We were in the History, Research, Education and Visitors Center.

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On 8/4/2022 at 11:46 AM, spenser1058 said:

With its relatively small size, though, could a place like Ferg’s achieve the volume it needed? For whatever reason, they didn’t last long.

I think I know part of this answer.  It's because the restaurant was broken into 3 pieces because of what they could and couldn't do with the building.  It was awkward and it seemed like the staff turned into a game of Sims.  (I have never played Sims myself, since Sim City in the 90s, but I have a coworker that was obsessed) You'd walk in and there would be no one in section 1.  All the servers and staff had mysteriously meandered to section 2.  This meant that no one was also in section 3.  First we couldn't get seated.  Then we couldn't get waited on.  Then we couldn't pay.  It was really bizarre, but they weren't goofing off either.  It was like the staff kept getting sucked into a vortex.  They were all in one of the sections and none of the others.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A nice bit of sanity from the Sentinel’s Letters To the Editor:

Don’t mess with Church Street Station

The South Florida Railroad built the Orlando Railroad Depot on West Church and Gertrude Streets in 1889.

“In 1972, the station’s age, distinctive architecture, and importance to Orlando history made it one of the city’s first official historic landmarks.

”In 1978 it came under the jurisdiction of the newly-created Historic Preservation Commission and in 1980 became a contributing structure in the new Downtown Historic District. The National Register of Historic Places recognized the station in 1976.

“As an Orlando Historic Landmark, the Church Street Station enjoys protection from demolition, but proposed incompatible additions and alterations could drastically change its appearance (”1889 Church Street Station signaled Orlando’s ambition,” Aug. 14).

“The Historic Preservation Board can prevent the most egregious aesthetic and structural changes and has the proposal under review. Proposed renovations, including a large outdoor balcony, a glass skywalk, a stylized water tower where one never was, and a colorful mural, would obscure parts of the building’s architectural design and give an unwanted character to what remained.

“The HPB may deny parts of the plan, but the question remains: how can it ever be acceptable for a new business opening inside a Historic Landmark to so drastically alter the exterior of that structure as to make it nearly unrecognizable?”

Tana Porter Orlando

Tana Porter is a historian with Orange Preservation Trust.”

Edited by spenser1058
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