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The condo tower that replaced the H&R Block building....

I read that in the newspaper long time ago, so I include it there..supposed to be from a developer in Atlanta..btw, H&R Block moved out from there and 2 weeks ago when I passed by there, all the trees are removed and people are emptying the building. Kind of looks like it is ready to be tore down. Other than that, no news about it.

Tower on a car park near courthouse.....

This turned out to be Dynatech Center

A new project of developer of North Orange...

No news about it but it is mentioned on the website of the North Orange.

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I like how they added some trees on top of the parking garage in the new rendering of the Vue, but I really hope they don't put any parking spots up there as shown. Also, the tennis court looks nice, but without a fence there are going to be a lot of people getting pegged with tennis balls walking by on the sidewalk below. It might be expensive to maintain, but if feasible, I think a garden would be really impressive on the garage roof.

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The condo tower that replaced the H&R Block building....

I read that in the newspaper long time ago, so I include it there..supposed to be from a developer in Atlanta..btw, H&R Block moved out from there and 2 weeks ago when I passed by there, all the trees are removed and people are emptying the building. Kind of looks like it is ready to be tore down. Other than that, no news about it.

Tower on a car park near courthouse.....

This turned out to be Dynatech Center

A new project of developer of North Orange...

No news about it but it is mentioned on the website of the North Orange.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks! Don't you find it a bit odd that there is something new about to go up right in the middle of downtown, and that none of us "urban detectives" have a clue what it is? Very curious, indeed.

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Sunshine's May posting from the Orlando Senile

"

Plans developing

Rosario Poma, the businessman who beat out a half-dozen bidders to buy the commercial building at 44 E. Central Blvd. in downtown Orlando, has big plans to redevelop the property. Several possible joint venture partners have already made inquiries. Poma is considering 80 to 100 residential units plus office and retail space. The building is at the corner of Central Boulevard and Court Street.

"

Thanks!

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That makes sense. He (Rosario Poma) is behind Thornton Park's Wildsides BBQ and a few other restaurants in Kissimmee. He paid close to 1M for the site and its value will go up in the future. A block from Solaire, about a block from Dynetech and just a few from the Vue and 55W; can't lose. If someday he wants to build on it he's in the middle of everything.

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I thought there was a deck already there? The lumber does not look new and looks like they are tearing it apart. Dunno?

I walked by the H&R Block building today and it actually looks like its been gutted and now they are building a deck out front and redoing the inside.  I think they may be putting in a restaurant/club space there.  I may be wrong, but thats what it seems like.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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  • 3 weeks later...

info from Dyers' State of the City address via orlanodsentinel.com

"Declaring that "our best days as a city are ahead of us," Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer delivered a "State of the City" address today that touted his accomplishments reining in a runaway budget and encouraging downtown development.

Dyer starts his third year in office next month, leading the city through three years of budget deficits and last summer's three hurricanes.

"We faced these challenges and not only met them without raising property taxes but have moved our city forward in ways that many did not think possible even in good economic times," Dyer told a packed City Hall crowd this morning.

The mayor lauded booming downtown projects, including Premiere Trade Plaza, 55 West, the new CNL tower, Dynetech Corp.'s new tower, a Thornton Park mixed-use building that includes a grocery store, and the move of UCF's Film and Digital Media School into the Expo Centre. Downtown construction projects valued at more than $1.4 billion are now under way and proposed, he said.

Dyer also touched on the controversies he has sparked over the past year, including:

* Planning disputes that eroded the relationship between city and county governments. Dyer tried unsuccessfully to annex a sprawling stretch of pricey land near International Drive. County Mayor Rich Crotty fought off the attempt, but the two publicly traded jabs for weeks; at one point, their aides refused to speak to one another.

Today, Dyer announced that he and Crotty have agreed to spend the next year ironing out a new "joint planning agreement" that would lay out areas Orlando can annex in the future. The current agreement is set to expire and was all but ignored anyway during 2004's dispute.

*The mayor's recent move to consolidate the Orlando Utilities Commission's water division with City Hall's sewer and reclaimed water departments. OUC officials initially attacked the secretive manner Dyer pursued the merger but last week agreed to study it. Dyer today stressed the need to protect the region's water supply. "

hmm... at least some headway is getting done as far as crotty & dyer working things out. How much u wanna bet one side will end up dissasitified at the end?

Anyways, hopefully we can get the full details soon. The meeting happened today (1/24) at 10am...

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Irish pub to open

International tourists have been slow to return to Orlando since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. But those who do show up this summer -- particularly those from the British Isles -- will find another familiar place to wet their whistle.

Disney is putting in an Irish pub at Downtown Disney, to go with the British pub at Epcot. The Irish pub doesn't have a name yet, but Disney says it will have music from the Emerald Isle and traditional Irish food. And it promises to pour a good pint of Guinness.

There are many places in Orlando that serve the midnight-black beer, Ireland's de facto national drink. But few know how to pour it properly, filling the glass in stages to allow a nice frothy head to form.

The pub will be owned and operated by an Irish company that created a similar pub for a Las Vegas casino. "I personally went out and tested a pint of Guinness," Downtown Disney Vice President Ed Baklor said. "This will be the best pint of Guinness you'll find anywhere."

We're presuming he means outside of Ireland. And only time will tell if the new pub will truly offer the best pint in Central Florida, with several solid establishments run by British and Irish ex-pats already in operation.

The new pub is set to open by summer, replacing the Pleasure Island Jazz Company. Though it sits inside Pleasure Island, Disney will not charge tourists to get into the pub.

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It just hit me ... will maybe it hit me before ... but it hit me again. The condo "Reeves House," Is it named after the legendary Orlando Reeves the "possible" namesake of the city?" The soldier who was killed by indians during the Second Seminole War.

There are several other stories about the name but the Orlando Reeves story is the most common. It goes something like this:

... After battling Indians back into the swamps on the east side of Lake Minnie (now Cherokee), the military troops settled there for the night. Sentinel Orlando Reeves was guarding the camp when he spotted a log floating toward him. Recognizing the Indian disguise and wanting to warn his fellow soldiers, he fired his gun. Arrows felled the poor fellow as the Indians came out to ambush the camp. The Indians were chased back again, and the south side of Lake Eola was chosen to bury Orlando Reeves.

I think that the City needs to build a sense of community with a sense of history. I think they need to hold up the founding fathers (mothers too). Most people have driven on Summerlin or Bumby ... but do they know who Jacob Summerlin or the cattle king Bumby were?

Yea, you can probably read about them in the history center, but I'm talking about statues! I'm talking fountains.

You know how in the front of the courthouse there is a big plaza. Well, now that the folks at the nu pizzuti want to build something with a sense of place. Why not combine plazas on both sides of Orange into one larger plaza. Then build an island in the the middle of Orange like a round-about with a fountain. Put a bronze of Orlando Reeves on the top firing his gun into the air. Maybe add a bunch of arrows in his chest.

I've got old FL roots that preceed Mr. Reeves by as much as Mr. Reeves preceeds us. But that's another story ....

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That sounds like a very cool idea. Maybe you should send an email or letter to Buddy Dyer! Orlando absolutely needs a grand statue downtown. I always felt like the city hasn't paid enough tribute to Zora Neal Hurston either. I actually thought that new Parramore park would be fitting for a statue of her or at least a namesake.

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Hi, cwetteland. I smiled when I read your post about how the city should honor its founding fathers and mothers, such as the Summerlins and Bumbys. My great-great-great grandfather, Joe Bumby, moved the family here from London in 1873, not exactly with the wholehearted consent of my great-great-great grandmother, Mary Flowers Bumby. Having made the long voyage across the Atlantic, down the eastern seaboard and later through the mosquito infested St. John's to Orlando (which I think was basically a dirt road and a trading post at the time, home to 12 families?), she never returned home to England, not even for a visit. Can't say that I blame her.

I think you have some nice ideas. As for statues, I do like the alligator wrestler bronze thingie in front of the history center, even if the wrestler is anonymous.

I think Summerlin was the cattle baron. Not sure. But Bumby was more into orange groves, pretty much large sections of Thornton Park stretching from Lake Eola east to Bumby were all of his groves at one point. After the groves were killed in the freezes, he started Bumby's Hardware, the big brick building on Church Street that is now about to be reincarnated as Toojay's.

Just my two cents.... nice to know there are still a few of us native Floridians left.

But I have to also add -- I love how all the newer arrivals are putting some life back into our city, too!

te=cwetteland,Feb 2 2005, 12:18 AM]

It just hit me ... will maybe it hit me before ... but it hit me again. The condo "Reeves House," Is it named after the legendary Orlando Reeves the "possible" namesake of the city?" The soldier who was killed by indians during the Second Seminole War.

There are several other stories about the name but the Orlando Reeves story is the most common. It goes something like this:

... After battling Indians back into the swamps on the east side of Lake Minnie (now Cherokee), the military troops settled there for the night. Sentinel Orlando Reeves was guarding the camp when he spotted a log floating toward him. Recognizing the Indian disguise and wanting to warn his fellow soldiers, he fired his gun. Arrows felled the poor fellow as the Indians came out to ambush the camp. The Indians were chased back again, and the south side of Lake Eola was chosen to bury Orlando Reeves.

I think that the City needs to build a sense of community with a sense of history. I think they need to hold up the founding fathers (mothers too). Most people have driven on Summerlin or Bumby ... but do they know who Jacob Summerlin or the cattle king Bumby were?

Yea, you can probably read about them in the history center, but I'm talking about statues! I'm talking fountains.

You know how in the front of the courthouse there is a big plaza. Well, now that the folks at the nu pizzuti want to build something with a sense of place. Why not combine plazas on both sides of Orange into one larger plaza. Then build an island in the the middle of Orange like a round-about with a fountain. Put a bronze of Orlando Reeves on the top firing his gun into the air. Maybe add a bunch of arrows in his chest.

I've got old FL roots that preceed Mr. Reeves by as much as Mr. Reeves preceeds us. But that's another story ....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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