Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[prahaboheme]

6 hours ago, Jernigan said:

 I’ve never heard “purify” and “took  public transit ” used in the same sentence before 

I recently moved from SM to Hollywood for this reason. It's not so removed from Orlando - especially when you wait 20 mins in off peak hours to get from Hollywood to 7th.

[JFW657]

11 hours ago, prahaboheme said:

You may have missed the point.

OK, so are you going to tell me what the point supposedly was?

[Dale]

Sentinel article says shortest is 227 feet with two other towers being "about 90 feet taller." Wonder how that works ?

[dcluley98]

Looks on par with BOA and Courthouse for height. 

I am unconcerned with height. I am concerned with awkward layout of the towers and bulky pedestal design that does no favors to the pedestrian experience and visual aspects of the proposed structure.  Also would like to see some office/commercial as a component on this site, as one of the key points of this site was for it to be potential business oriented to tie into the Sunrail station right next to it. Remember the Orlando Trade Center idea? It makes sense to have more office and commercial in this space so that it serve the purpose of commuters from north and south areas to ride the train in to go to work in a centrally located area next to the courthouse, creative village and expanding downtown. A bunch of more overpriced apartments in a less than stellar design is not ideal for this particular location. 

Edited March 24, 2018 by dcluley98

[JFW657]

I'm wondering what the incentive would be to buy a unit in one of the two towers that face the back side of the next tower to the south. Even the southernmost tower only has a view of the BOA tower. Pretty poorly planned layout. Seems like one tall tower facing southeast would offer the best views of Lake Eola the downtown core.

[Dale]

Does anyone subscribe to Growthspotter ? Lead article says PMG wants to move quickly on its apartments and break ground this year.

[popsiclebrandon]

Some highlights:

Schapiro and his colleagues began analyzing and ranking cities where that high rent burden exists, coupled with strong employment growth, inward migration and other key factors.
Midtown Opportunities 3.57 acres N. Orange Ave

Orlando ranked near the top of their proprietary index, he said.

"Millennials and young professionals want to be in downtown Orlando, but have to pay such a high amount of their income toward that rent," Schapiro said. "So Orlando makes a lot of sense for the product we can bring to market, where our units may be a bit smaller than the market norm, but by doing so we can get the per-bed monthly rent substantially below market average, which at a few hundred dollars can make a big difference to the tenant. The numbers work for us as investors, but more importantly they work for the renter."

The company's downtown project, dubbed "X Orlando," would be the third in Florida for its new PMGX Living line of "social living community" developments, following the 31-story "X Miami" project and 41-story "X Las Olas" now under construction in South Florida. The first X-branded community opened in Chicago in 2016, and a second is in development there and in Denver.

PMGX touts amenities like constant social and educational events for residents, ample storage and Wi-Fi throughout, and a lifestyle app that serves as a digital key to enter apartments and common areas, track packages, control your thermostat and more.

"With PMGX, placemaking and a sense of community are very important aspects of the project. To facilitate that we must have a very high scale for our amenities," Schapiro said. "That includes the best co-working spaces in the building, a top-of-the-line gym, a pool deck that is active and the place people want to be on the weekend. That's what we want to bring to downtown Orlando, and we think it's ripe for it."

The design of PMG's Orlando project will be refined in the coming months. Introductory renderings provided to the city of Orlando were only massing studies for the initial Framework Master Plan filing, Schapiro said.

"A great deal of effort will be put into placemaking, in the sense that we want this to be a place that becomes a magnet for downtown, and to do that we recognize this must be something befitting Orange as a main avenue," he added.

PMG will likely bring an equity partner on to the project in time, based on its track record of development partnerships in South Florida, New York and Chicago.

Schapiro said the company is prioritizing this downtown Orlando project for fast-track development as soon as possible this year, and is not the type of investor to acquire such a property and then shelve plans.

"We are racing to get this thing approved and get a shovel in the ground as soon as possible," he said. A closing on the land is anticipated for the latter half of this year, pending plan and permit approvals by the city.

Schapiro declined to estimate a total project cost in Orlando. But based on construction budgets of similarly sized PMG projects reported in other markets, $100 million to $150 million per residential tower phase is within range.

It is positioning the PMGX brand as tailored for young professionals, particularly with its four-bedroom units, which account for 25 percent of the 867 apartments in Orlando over three phases.

Those four-bedroom units aren't meant to cater to families, but instead would be furnished and rented by the bedroom as a co-living option with shared common space.

"The idea with our co-living option is you have someone moving to Orlando, they don't know anyone and don't want to spend a lot on new furniture, but they want to live in the heart of downtown," Schapiro said. "The cheapest way to do that can be to choose our building and co-living. If they end up not liking the roommates, we can move them to another unit."

For the 41,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, PMG is negotiating now with a handful of large-scale tenants on its X-branded South Florida buildings that could also be drawn to Orlando, Schapiro said.

He declined to drop names, but noted typical large retail tenant profiles like a grocer, co-working space operator, coffee shop, bar and restaurant will be considered.

"The retail experience on the ground floor is an important component of our overall project. We want the public to be at our building, in the lobby often, making it a destination," Schapiro added.
Camden pays $80M+ for newest apartment complex in Orlando's North Quarter

He highlighted Pizzuti's successful lease-up of its former The Sevens building over the past 18 months in downtown's North Quarter as a project that gave PMG directors confidence their more centralized location would perform well.

That location, next to the Lynx terminal for SunRail and buses, was also significant because it offers the developer a unique opportunity to eventually market its entire PMGX portfolio in Florida as interconnected by rail.

"For our Miami, Las Olas and now Orlando locations, a common theme is that all will be Transit-Oriented Developments within walking distance of a train station that can all connect (via Brightline)," Schapiro said. "We think that can be special, that from a portfolio level you could eventually ride trains to all our properties across Florida."

[alex]

On ‎3‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 10:10 AM, I am Reality said:

Do you know if the project will be built in different phases? The different towers are labeled different phases, but they will all be built on the same pedestal. 

It looks like the pedestal is added to with each tower.

On ‎3‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 12:00 PM, dcluley98 said:

The big bulky pedestal is horrible design, and does nothing for the usability of the area and the pedestrian experience.  

Luckily, according to the article, "The parking garage would occupy much of floors 2-7, but a row of apartments would wrap the exterior of each garage floor." Along Orange and Livingston—and a section fronting Camden—it would be all ground-floor retail with apartment windows and balconies above it.

On ‎3‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 12:43 PM, codypet said:

Their garage is the size of Crescent Central.   That's also the worst place for a pool.  With towers blocking the south and west sides of the pool. 

"Amenities and two swimming pools would be located on the eighth and ninth floors." Still not a great layout, but maybe the second pool is in a better spot.

On ‎3‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 3:00 PM, Dale said:

Check that, just saw that the only Orlando-sanctioned architect, Baker Barrios, will be involved. Low confidence on appearance now.

The design architect—who leads the overall look of the building—will actually be Berkelhamer. Although, the firm's portfolio doesn't look too different from Baker Barrios...

On ‎3‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 2:43 PM, dcluley98 said:

Also would like to see some office/commercial as a component on this site, as one of the key points of this site was for it to be potential business oriented to tie into the Sunrail station right next to it.

Regarding the retail-commercial component, the article quoted the land specialist from Colliers International: ""Demand for high-density development sites locally is stronger than I've ever seen in my 40-plus years in the business. The 41,000 square feet of non-residential will be a challenge though, because on that first floor everything has to do with pedestrian count. The fact you're right at the Lynx terminal, courthouse and near Creative Village makes conditions favorable, but the difficulty factor is still high." 

On ‎3‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 5:16 PM, JFW657 said:

I'm wondering what the incentive would be to buy a unit in one of the two towers that face the back side of the next tower to the south. Even the southernmost tower only has a view of the BOA tower. Pretty poorly planned layout. Seems like one tall tower facing southeast would offer the best views of Lake Eola the downtown core.

Since it's apartments, the views probably don't affect rental prices as much.

2 hours ago, Dale said:

Does anyone subscribe to Growthspotter ? Lead article says PMG wants to move quickly on its apartments and break ground this year.

No mention of a starting date in this or the Sentinel article.

[Jernigan]

Wow - in the GS article, the developer is certainly saying all the right things....

Cheers, X Orlando.  Let’s do this.

[popsiclebrandon]

I was wondering how long it would be before Orlando got one of the "adult dorm" style setups. This sounds close to it. The article is very exciting.

[jrs2]

On 3/23/2018 at 6:01 PM, Jernigan said:

Oops.  Should I run out and buy one then?  

Like Bobby Brown said before me, that's your prerogative.  If you can make it work 4U without buying a car, then MP2U.  Getting Ubered, Taxied, Sunrailed, or bused to certain work activities or for certain work activities doesn't always translate with the car-less philosophy, especially in this sprawl.

[Dale]

Thanks, guys. I think we're all going to like this one.

 

[Jernigan]

1 hour ago, jrs2 said:

Like Bobby Brown said before me, that's your prerogative.  If you can make it work 4U without buying a car, then MP2U.  Getting Ubered, Taxied, Sunrailed, or bused to certain work activities or for certain work activities doesn't always translate with the car-less philosophy, especially in this sprawl.

Haha - absolutely true!  I drew some firm lines in the sand as to live/work decisions.   Once I had the work part solved (10 min bus ride) it became a bit like life hacking or cutting cable.  Write some big checks once in a while (rental car etc) but the savings have been there 

[jrs2]

11 minutes ago, Jernigan said:

Haha - absolutely true!  I drew some firm lines in the sand as to live/work decisions.   Once I had the work part solved (10 min bus ride) it became a bit like life hacking or cutting cable.  Write some big checks once in a while (rental car etc) but the savings have been there 

Good for you,   Not a lot of people do that.

[bic]

X Miami Hands Out Protection At Ultra; Rents Start In $1200s

(Coming soon to a downtown near you!)

[orlandouprise]

starting to feel a LITTLE bit better about this...at least hopeful

[HankStrong]

22 hours ago, popsiclebrandon said:

For the 41,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, PMG is negotiating now with a handful of large-scale tenants on its X-branded South Florida buildings that could also be drawn to Orlando, Schapiro said.

He declined to drop names, but noted typical large retail tenant profiles like a grocer, co-working space operator, coffee shop, bar and restaurant will be considered.

"The retail experience on the ground floor is an important component of our overall project. We want the public to be at our building, in the lobby often, making it a destination," Schapiro added.
Camden pays $80M+ for newest apartment complex in Orlando's North Quarter

Staying 100% ON-TOPIC I wonder if this ground floor retail will include a convenience store, maybe along the lines of 7-Eleven, a worldwide leader in the convenience store field?

Asking for a friend.

Edited March 27, 2018 by HankStrong

[RedStar25]

I was wondering if the Towers spacing was intentionally trying to mimic the three building court house art deco throne lay out.  

 

[XpressEnterprise]

The part I like most from the GS article is basically saying that this development firm is not likely to "shelf plans" once they get the ball rolling (based on their history). From the article, they look like they're very committed to this project. 

[Dale]

FYI: they revealed their FTL project as parallel towers, but are building them as perpendicular.

[bqknight]

24 minutes ago, XpressEnterprise said:

The part I like most from the GS article is basically saying that this development firm is not likely to "shelf plans" once they get the ball rolling (based on their history). From the article, they look like they're very committed to this project. 

The article is definitely encouraging. Even though articles are always going to have a positive spin - this one didn't seem to be just fluff and sounds legit. Fingers crossed - would be awesome for the area. I think the CV/UCF project is what is making this a good fit for them. Since these "X" projects have dorm like units - they could reach out to the student crowd. They have units starting at 1200 in Miami, they could be even cheaper here. 

[IAmFloridaBorn]

50 minutes ago, Dale said:

FYI: they revealed their FTL project as parallel towers, but are building them as perpendicular.

Photos?

 

Also side note.
I'm a bit on the disbelief side that this will happen at a fast pace. Jefferson,Novare, never got started on their second phases.. .
Second phases don't seem to be a thing in downtown Orlando.

[Dale]

9 minutes ago, IAmFloridaBorn said:

Photos?

 

Also side note.
I'm a bit on the disbelief side that this will happen at a fast pace. Jefferson,Novare, never got started on their second phases.. .
Second phases don't seem to be a thing in downtown Orlando.

Posted them on page 224

Edited March 27, 2018 by Dale

[jrs2]

Division & Anderson.  I-4 WB to 408 WB bridge installation progress.

[Jernigan]

Proposal to build 11 townhomes on Robinson just east of Hyer.  There’s currently a small office building on the corner now at 1000 E Robinson