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One of the storefronts next to SoCo and Shari (Central & Summerlin) has a "LEASED" stamp on it. Was the one where Urban Think was back a few years ago. Anyone have any idea what will be going there?

I remember seeing an article recently that Ustler said Baoery and Verde spots are in discussions as well. Hopefully something can stick over there. 

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21 hours ago, bqknight said:

According to the OBJ, Walgreens has opened. 

According to Mrs. Strong it made her feel like she was actually downtown in a real city.  She went in.  The lack of an actual pharmacy is sad, but understandable.  She said she rode the SunRail, the Lymmo, had al fresco lunch on Wall Street, AND shopped at the downtown Walgreens in the same day.  Felt like some miniature metropolis. 

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28 minutes ago, HankStrong said:

According to Mrs. Strong it made her feel like she was actually downtown in a real city.  She went in.  The lack of an actual pharmacy is sad, but understandable.  She said she rode the SunRail, the Lymmo, had al fresco lunch on Wall Street, AND shopped at the downtown Walgreens in the same day.  Felt like some miniature metropolis. 

The funny part is that you used to be able to do that and including shopping at several department stores, upscale haberdashers and more (our favorite was shopping at the downtown Ivey's, then lunch at the very funky astrology-themed Morrison's, followed by Lake Eola and a visit to the library and a stop at Goff's for ice cream on OBT on the way home - no SunRail of course.) But then there was, ummmm, progress, and all of that disappeared (except for Goff's which will live forever!). Sort of fascinating.

Edited by spenser1058
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4 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

The funny part is that you used to be able to do that and including shopping at several department stores, upscale haberdashers and more (our favorite was shopping at the downtown Ivey's, then lunch at the very funky astrology-themed Morrison's, followed by Lake Eola and a visit to the library and a stop at Goff's for ice cream on OBT on the way home - no SunRail of course.) But then there was, ummmm, progress, and all of that disappeared (except for Goff's which will live forever!). Sort of fascinating.

Yeah, strange how a lot of the things downtown is missing in the way of creating the urban experience, used to be there in abundance decades ago.

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I suppose a lot of that happened because instead of building on vacant land, going concerns were forced to close and buildings demolished while the vacant land remained and in the interim people found other places to replace what downtown no longer offered.

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2 hours ago, Boomer136 said:

I suppose a lot of that happened because instead of building on vacant land, going concerns were forced to close and buildings demolished while the vacant land remained and in the interim people found other places to replace what downtown no longer offered.

Well that and the great suburban flight that occurred during the 60's and 70's caused downtowns across the country to lose residents and the businesses they used to patronize.

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6 hours ago, JFW657 said:

Well that and the great suburban flight that occurred during the 60's and 70's caused downtowns across the country to lose residents and the businesses they used to patronize.

This. This is clearly not an Orlando-only phenomenon. All downtowns across America basically died 40, 50, 60 years ago. We can reminisce all we want about how urban downtowns used to be but it was generations prior that killed off downtowns. It's taking a gargantuan effort to try to bring back urbanism to downtowns in this country but it's pretty hard when most downtowns are a shell of what they used to be from a population standpoint. For example, the population of Boston is lower now than it was 100 years ago!  Downtown Boston used to be incredibly vibrant pre-suburban America, pre-malls. 

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Orlando Sentinel is reporting Northland Investment of Boston (friends of yours, Praha? <g>) is purchasing the Paramount.

The purchase includes 266 of 313 units (wow, guess not many got sold which reinforces my thoughts on downtown demographics) plus the retail areas including Publix.

I'll post a link when I have access if no one else does.

 

 

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Just an FYI - the Nunziata's just sold the Walgreens space to some other buyer. Interesting note in the story from Growthspotter:

Quote

The Nunziatas said they're now hearing from local real estate brokers that CVS is also searching downtown retail space, drawn by the establishment of its chief competitor. 

Hmmmm....

Full of news today!

The former Church Street Tavern and briefly Hamburger Mary's expansion will now be a Pepe's Cantina, the WP restaurant. 

http://www.thedailycity.com/2017/05/winter-park-mexican-restaurant-opening.html

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On 5/13/2017 at 0:16 AM, leondecollao said:

This. This is clearly not an Orlando-only phenomenon. All downtowns across America basically died 40, 50, 60 years ago. We can reminisce all we want about how urban downtowns used to be but it was generations prior that killed off downtowns. It's taking a gargantuan effort to try to bring back urbanism to downtowns in this country but it's pretty hard when most downtowns are a shell of what they used to be from a population standpoint. For example, the population of Boston is lower now than it was 100 years ago!  Downtown Boston used to be incredibly vibrant pre-suburban America, pre-malls. 

You're definitely correct that it's not an Orlando-only phenomenon. I watched Jacksonville, Nashville, Atlanta and Tampa go through the same thing, albeit a few years later. 

What made Downtown Orlando's decline particularly poignant was the way it happened in waves.

Sure, we lost our department stores in the early going (Belk's popped in and out by 1956, Dickson and Ives gave up the ghost when Jordan Marsh arrived, Sears disappeared with the opening of Altamonte Mall in 1974 and then Ivey's in '76.)

After Mayor Bill (and Jake Stuart) announced plans to save downtown following Bill's election in 1980 (including new office towers and the Orange Avenue streetscape), it seemed as though the worst was over We still had JCPenney (until 1986), all the dime stores and Rutland's and Gibbs-Louis (oh and Sam Behr's shoe store was newly famous due to his Allied Tire commercials.)

The streetscape and cheap rent downtown attracted mom and pop retailers (Urban Gorilla, anyone?)

Then as those faded with the redo of OFS and the opening of Florida Mall plus the nationwide demise of dime stores, both Bob Snow and Lincoln got on the festival marketplace bandwagon. Chains like The Limited and Brookstone carried us until the death of Church Street Station in the '90s. Glenda Hood, desperate to show her tight-fisted Republican bona fides after the light rail debacle, chose to ignore the demise of downtown retail.

There things sat until Buddy arrived in 2003. Buddy sacrificed the Historic Jaymont Block to get a theater back downtown plus incentives to get Publix built (both have been more successful than anyone ever imagined and have outperformed similar projects in other Florida downtowns.)

Then, because Buddy is all about the mega projects, a decade of nothing in retail downtown until the new Walgreens.

Now, of course, chain retail is so messed up it's hard to expect much from that.

The irony is that more people now live in the downtown core than perhaps ever. It stands to reason that service retail (bike stores, hardware stores geared to apt dwellers, etc) should find success in the ground floor retail spaces of the City's parking garages if nowhere else. But no one at City Hall or DDB has shown the interest in using the bully pulpit to make that happen. More's the pity.

 

Edited by spenser1058
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3 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Orlando Sentinel is reporting Northland Investment of Boston (friends of yours, Praha? <g>) is purchasing the Paramount.

The purchase includes 266 of 313 units (wow, guess not many got sold which reinforces my thoughts on downtown demographics) plus the retail areas including Publix.

I'll post a link when I have access if no one else does.

 

 

Heard about this a few weeks ago. That moved quick. 

Downtown is a rental market, condos are a tough go.

 

Interesting note in the article is they took out $5 mill more in a mortgage than they paid for all the properties so either planning some upgrades or buying out even more units.

Edited by popsiclebrandon
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16 hours ago, popsiclebrandon said:

Heard about this a few weeks ago. That moved quick. 

Downtown is a rental market, condos are a tough go.

 

Interesting note in the article is they took out $5 mill more in a mortgage than they paid for all the properties so either planning some upgrades or buying out even more units.

I don't think they ever tried to sell them. After the foreclosure 9 years ago, they have only been for rent as far as I know. 

 

The building was marketed as value add. 

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On 2017-5-15 at 5:29 PM, spenser1058 said:

You're definitely correct that it's not an Orlando-only phenomenon. I watched Jacksonville, Nashville, Atlanta and Tampa go through the same thing, albeit a few years later. 

What made Downtown Orlando's decline particularly poignant was the way it happened in waves.

Sure, we lost our department stores in the early going (Belk's popped in and out by 1956, Dickson and Ives gave up the ghost when Jordan Marsh arrived, Sears disappeared with the opening of Altamonte Mall in 1974 and then Ivey's in '76.)

After Mayor Bill (and Jake Stuart) announced plans to save downtown following Bill's election in 1980 (including new office towers and the Orange Avenue streetscape), it seemed as though the worst was over We still had JCPenney (until 1986), all the dime stores and Rutland's and Gibbs-Louis (oh and Sam Behr's shoe store was newly famous due to his Allied Tire commercials.)

The streetscape and cheap rent downtown attracted mom and pop retailers (Urban Gorilla, anyone?)

Then as those faded with the redo of OFS and the opening of Florida Mall plus the nationwide demise of dime stores, both Bob Snow and Lincoln got on the festival marketplace bandwagon. Chains like The Limited and Brookstone carried us until the death of Church Street Station in the '90s. Glenda Hood, desperate to show her tight-fisted Republican bona fides after the light rail debacle, chose to ignore the demise of downtown retail.

There things sat until Buddy arrived in 2003. Buddy sacrificed the Historic Jaymont Block to get a theater back downtown plus incentives to get Publix built (both have been more successful than anyone ever imagined and have outperformed similar projects in other Florida downtowns.)

Then, because Buddy is all about the mega projects, a decade of nothing in retail downtown until the new Walgreens.

Now, of course, chain retail is so messed up it's hard to expect much from that.

The irony is that more people now live in the downtown core than perhaps ever. It stands to reason that service retail (bike stores, hardware stores geared to apt dwellers, etc) should find success in the ground floor retail spaces of the City's parking garages if nowhere else. But no one at City Hall or DDB has shown the interest in using the bully pulpit to make that happen. More's the pity.

 

 

I've been on an extended business trip for the past couple of weeks through Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Atlanta, and the infill development in all three of those cities puts Orlando to shame.  I think I mentioned repurposed shipping containers on this forum in the past, as a cheap way to bring pop-up retail to urban areas (which Orlando could sorely use).  Freakin' TULSA now has a container pop-up mall in its Blue Dome District!  I won't even mention the absurdly amazing Ponce City Market in the old Sears Roebuck building in Midtown Atlanta and all of the new development along the Beltline.  

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That empty northwest corner of orange/pine seems like a good space for a couple shipping containers with courtyard drinking/eating area. Something with better atmosphere then a couple food trucks that could seemingly work well there too.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

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14 hours ago, Nick@Night said:

That empty northwest corner of orange/pine seems like a good space for a couple shipping containers with courtyard drinking/eating area. Something with better atmosphere then a couple food trucks that could seemingly work well there too.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
 

Don't we have a couple of bloggers who read these forums that could champion such a thing and stir up some momentum?  The Tulsa mini-mall was very cool; I live in London and frequent the Boxpark in Shoreditch, and the Tulsa setup was obviously inspired by it (http://www.tulsaboxyard.com/).  Oklahoma City has a smaller version of it in its Bricktown area, but it is obviously a thing now in the States.

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32 minutes ago, jliv said:

Don't we have a couple of bloggers who read these forums that could champion such a thing and stir up some momentum?  The Tulsa mini-mall was very cool; I live in London and frequent the Boxpark in Shoreditch, and the Tulsa setup was obviously inspired by it (http://www.tulsaboxyard.com/).  Oklahoma City has a smaller version of it in its Bricktown area, but it is obviously a thing now in the States.

Believe Bungalower just did this maybe 2 weeks ago.

Would be nice if the city could lease this land and do something cool like that there.

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On 5/22/2017 at 10:22 PM, UngaBungalow said:

That's actually the plan. We just had a meeting with the City about it. More deets to come!

This sounds like we're cooking something up with them. Which we're not. We just were in a meeting about something else and it was mentioned that the City would love to do something there on that property. 

Just for clarification. 

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I'm sort of amazed this would take city involvement to ignite something.  with all of the artists and entrepreneurs, the owner must have offers?   Granted, it would help for the city to play ball on whatever permits they would need or to actively look the other way...

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On 2017-5-17 at 5:49 AM, AndyPok1 said:

Having lived in downtown Tulsa from 2010-2012, let me say that Orlando is light years ahead.  They've done a GREAT job with Blue Dome in the past 3 years, but still so much of downtown Tulsa is dead after 5pm.  

Yeah, the Tulsa downtown itself was a bit sad, but the Blue Dome District did redeem it.  Actually, Tulsa and Oklahoma City both impressed me, given the "Bible Belt" stereotypes I had upon arrival.  Oklahoma City has a lot of interesting infill in the Midtown, Automobile Alley, and Bricktown areas.  I'd love to see Eola South/Thornton Park take on more of that flavor.

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