Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[UngaBungalow]

Demo started already for the 520 building site 

Edited January 17, 2017 by UngaBungalow

[JFW657]

3 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

The original building facing Wall St. with the terra cotta tiles was the home of Orlando's original telephone company, which Southern Bell eventually took over. The Gothamish monolith facing Washington St. was added later for additional telephone equipment.

And of course, who can forget that hideous looking microwave transmission tower that used to "grace" the top of it?

[orlandoguy]

Holy cow ... almost unrecognizable!

[nite owℓ]

AT&T's still riding on the good deed of removing the tower as part of downtown's beautification project. It was no longer in use so developers and the city raised money to have it removed.

[JFW657]

I'm wondering how they got that crane to just stand there and pose for the picture after they let the gator out of the transport cage they hauled him there in for the photo shoot.

 

[cwetteland]

Actually, it's a great blue heron. Our local sand hill crane population is more of a open grass bird.  Pretty sure the herons can take off faster than that gator can move. I see them that close all the time and they don't get spooked unless and until the gator makes a move towards them.  The only odd thing is that I've never seen gators at Lake Eola.

[codypet]

13 hours ago, nite owℓ said:

AT&T's still riding on the good deed of removing the tower as part of downtown's beautification project. It was no longer in use so developers and the city raised money to have it removed.

Yea there were towers all over Orlando with those Microwave units on them.  I've noticed they've slowly disappeared the last 15 years.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, cwetteland said:

Actually, it's a great blue heron. Our local sand hill crane population is more of a open grass bird.  Pretty sure the herons can take off faster than that gator can move. I see them that close all the time and they don't get spooked unless and until the gator makes a move towards them.  The only odd thing is that I've never seen gators at Lake Eola.

Probably hasn't been a gator anywhere near there in close to a century.

Looking more closely at the photo, I'm thinking that maybe they took a pic of the gator lying in the grass somewhere else then, using primitive, early 80's pre-Photoshop techniques, somehow cropped him and the surrounding grass into the picture of the bird next to the lake.

Maybe they cropped them both in.

58 minutes ago, codypet said:

Yea there were towers all over Orlando with those Microwave units on them.  I've noticed they've slowly disappeared the last 15 years.

I don't remember ever seeing any other that that one. At least not the same kind.

[codypet]

1 hour ago, JFW657 said:

I don't remember ever seeing any other that that one. At least not the same kind.

The tower north of Narcoossee and Moss Park Intersection used to have a number of microwaves on it.

At Apopka Vineland and Turnpike the tower has been shortened but it still there with microwaves on it facing Claremont.

[FLheat]

On ‎4‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 5:11 PM, alex said:

Wow, this place will be a bigger attraction than I realized:

• 250 new jobs
• 2 venues (The Barn and The Backyard)
• 3 eateries (with additional stage)
• 3 motor-centric tenants (TBD)
• Coffee shop (will open at 6:30am with breakfast menu)
• Oklahoma Joe's BBQ restaurant

Finally, some activity on Ace Café, http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2017/01/18/ace-cafe-orlando-to-hold-job-fair-for-175-jobs.html

 

[prahaboheme]

^Beautiful renovation - thankful to the Ace Cafe  group for preserving a piece of Orlando's urban fabric. These buildings were so badly damaged that any other developer would likely have chosen a demo.

[JFW657]

5 hours ago, codypet said:

The tower north of Narcoossee and Moss Park Intersection used to have a number of microwaves on it.

At Apopka Vineland and Turnpike the tower has been shortened but it still there with microwaves on it facing Claremont.

Ah, OK.

I thought you meant downtown.

[spenser1058]

OC was quite unusual in that we had 4 local phone companies into the 80's: Southern Bell (AT&T), Winter Park Telephone, Florida Telephone and Vista-Florida.

The AT&T building at Orange and Amelia was also significant as it was built to house the attorneys assembled to fight the antitrust case in the 80's. The company eventually decided not to fight and the world changed.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, spenser1058 said:

OC was quite unusual in that we had 4 local phone companies into the 80's: Southern Bell (AT&T), Winter Park Telephone, Florida Telephone and Vista-Florida.

The AT&T building at Orange and Amelia was also significant as it was built to house the attorneys assembled to fight the antitrust case in the 80's. The company eventually decided not to fight and the world changed.

I used to go there to pay my phone bill back then and signed up for phone service once.

That was in the early 80's.

[Jernigan]

Just a general note - doing a complete loop on the free LYMMO Grapefruit line will give you a nice tour of everything from the soccer stadium to Modera to Citi Tower/420/520.   10 minute frequency so hop on and hop off or explore a little.   

[nite owℓ]

Just be prepared to loose a few dental fillings, because riding the Lymmo is one of the most teeth-jarring rides I've ever experienced.

[orlandoguy]

The Sentinel has been publishing this series of articles on 2017's business forecast. This one talks specifically about the downtown office situation over the next year as well as a couple projects in the hotter 'burb markets.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/realestate/os-cfb-orlando-commercial-20170120-story.html

[dcluley98]

I heard a rumor that the Metropolitan is shopping to developers to sell the property and redevelop as a 760 unit condo tower.  Anybody else hear anything on this or is it just a far-fetched sales pitch rumor?

[codypet]

On 1/18/2017 at 1:52 PM, JFW657 said:

4 minutes ago, dcluley98 said:

I heard a rumor that the Metropolitan is shopping to developers to sell the property and redevelop as a 760 unit condo tower.  Anybody else hear anything on this or is it just a far-fetched sales pitch rumor?

 

Wouldn't they have to close on each individual condo?  Wouldn't that be cost prohibitive?

[nite owℓ]

31 minutes ago, dcluley98 said:

I heard a rumor that the Metropolitan is shopping to developers to sell the property and redevelop as a 760 unit condo tower.  Anybody else hear anything on this or is it just a far-fetched sales pitch rumor?

Who did you hear this from?

[dcluley98]

Somebody that works for a large construction firm said they talked to a board member about it.  It is secondhand rumor at this point, so don't know anything more about it.  Seems a little far-fetched to me.

[jack]

A resident asked me to help them find a buyer back during the recession. She said the residents would sell in a heartbeat. I could not make the numbers work and thought it would be a pain in the butt to assemble and we were in the middle of deep recession. In hindsight, I should have attempted it. 

[nite owℓ]

Speculation has occurred for years, but there is no real timeline. The cost to repair vs replace has been discussed due to the building's age while considering the highest and best use of it's prime location and large footprint. Something that favors condo owners financially has been advocated whether that be via a buyout or rights to own in the new building similar to the University Club property, etc.

Edited January 23, 2017 by nite owℓ

[JFW657]

For those of you who might remember the Colony Plaza, and old 60's era, seven story hotel in Ocoee that went condo then eventually became abandoned and fell into disrepair, the city wanted to demolish it but couldn't until they straightened everything out with the owners of each and every unit.

Took them years to straighten it all out before they got all the deeds cleared etc, and could proceed with the demolition.

Of course, exacerbating the problem there, was that a lot of the owners were foreign investors who'd never even been there, so tracking them down was likely more of an issue than it would be with The Metropolitan, but then again  you never know.

[alex]

That would be too bad since it's one of the few older (i.e. affordable) places downtown. Just looked at Urbanista and you can buy a 1/1 for $110,000 or rent a 1/1 for $1,150. 

That said, it's definitely a prime lot...