Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[RedStar25]

15 hours ago, gibby said:

It's actually a very excellent paper.

It is! The did a feature story on me recently. 

[AndyPok1]

This.... is a sentence.

Quote

The Avrio Foundation — started by chamber of commerce Downtown Orlando Partnership — looks to create 10 to 12 projects around downtown Orlando through mid-2021, Josh Wyche, executive director of Downtown Orlando Partnership, previously said. Project ideas have ranged from painting footprints of Stuff, the Orlando Magic's mascot, to the Amway Center, along with a "noodle" installation on an alley wall. Other ideas are to paint Wall Street's brick road and to install a playable piano.

from: https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2019/12/10/church-street-restaurant-shutters-its-an-absolute.html

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, AndyPok1 said:

This.... is a sentence.

from: https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2019/12/10/church-street-restaurant-shutters-its-an-absolute.html

Looks like three sentences to me. 

[AmIReal]

Just too much to digest here... wish I was at the OBJ Doing Business Downtown meeting today which appears to have gotten a little testy. Main complaint, downtown is dead after 6pm and there is not enough office development going on.

Tom Sittema, managing director of RiverBridge Capital... "We've got a lot of construction going on downtown, most of it is residential and some is commercial. But we're not growing our business community downtown ..."

Scott Stahley, regional partner and executive vice president of Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co... "I don't think there's any reason for anybody in this room right now to be in downtown Orlando after 7 p.m. at night...That's why you're not seeing institutions come in and take a major involvement in downtown."

More in the article- https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2019/12/13/downtown-throwdown-developer-city-spar-over-urban.html?iana=hpmvp_orl_news_headline

But here is where I'm confused. The complaint is we don't build office towers downtown and instead build residential towers and yet we have a "dead" downtown...???

I think what all these older gentleman are saying is when they finish work and head out to their McMansions in the burbs, there is no reason for them to want to linger downtown.

 

[spenser1058]

27 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

Just too much to digest here... wish I was at the OBJ Doing Business Downtown meeting today which appears to have gotten a little testy. Main complaint, downtown is dead after 6pm and there is not enough office development going on.

Tom Sittema, managing director of RiverBridge Capital... "We've got a lot of construction going on downtown, most of it is residential and some is commercial. But we're not growing our business community downtown ..."

Scott Stahley, regional partner and executive vice president of Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co... "I don't think there's any reason for anybody in this room right now to be in downtown Orlando after 7 p.m. at night...That's why you're not seeing institutions come in and take a major involvement in downtown."

More in the article- https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2019/12/13/downtown-throwdown-developer-city-spar-over-urban.html?iana=hpmvp_orl_news_headline

But here is where I'm confused. The complaint is we don't build office towers downtown and instead build residential towers and yet we have a "dead" downtown...???

I think what all these older gentleman are saying is when they finish work and head out to their McMansions in the burbs, there is no reason for them to want to linger downtown.

 

Thanks for this - you’ve hit the nail on the head. We wanted a 24/7 downtown and we’ve almost got it. EXCEPT... between 6-9pm. You know, shopping and a family restaurant or two to wander with the kids.

You can work downtown, go to school downtown from pre-school through college now, go to church, the library, see a show, attend a sporting event, get drunk and sleep downtown, but you still can’t shop and take the kids to a restaurant where they easily fit in.

That’s the missing link.

Edited December 13, 2019 by spenser1058

[AndyPok1]

19 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

Just too much to digest here... wish I was at the OBJ Doing Business Downtown meeting today which appears to have gotten a little testy. Main complaint, downtown is dead after 6pm and there is not enough office development going on.

Tom Sittema, managing director of RiverBridge Capital... "We've got a lot of construction going on downtown, most of it is residential and some is commercial. But we're not growing our business community downtown ..."

Scott Stahley, regional partner and executive vice president of Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co... "I don't think there's any reason for anybody in this room right now to be in downtown Orlando after 7 p.m. at night...That's why you're not seeing institutions come in and take a major involvement in downtown."

More in the article- https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2019/12/13/downtown-throwdown-developer-city-spar-over-urban.html?iana=hpmvp_orl_news_headline

But here is where I'm confused. The complaint is we don't build office towers downtown and instead build residential towers and yet we have a "dead" downtown...???

I think what all these older gentleman are saying is when they finish work and head out to their McMansions in the burbs, there is no reason for them to want to linger downtown.

 

Cross-posting what I said in the Restaurants and Bars thread where this came up.

 

Quote

 

I don't understand this ghost town story.  There's more people in our downtown than Tampa or most other mid size cities.  The actual quote is fascinating.   "I don't think there's any reason for anybody in this room right now to be in downtown Orlando after 7 p.m. at night. "

Like... what?  What reason is there for anyone to be anywhere after 7pm at night?  You're either eating dinner or home or going to an event.  You can do all of those things downtown.  Just the people "in this room" happen to be rich car-dependent suburbanites.

 

 

[AmIReal]

2 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Thanks for this - you’ve hit the nail on the head. We wanted a 24/7 downtown and we’ve almost got it. EXCEPT... between 6-9pm. You know, shopping and a family restaurant or two to wander with the kids.

You can work downtown, go to school downtown from pre-school through college now, go to church, the library, see a show, attend a sporting event, get drunk and sleep downtown, but you still can’t shop and take the kids to a restaurant where they easily fit in.

That’s the missing link.

Is downtown Orlando a type of "bedroom" community...? Do the people that live in downtown also work there. I'd love to see a study on the swap numbers- how many leave downtown to go to work vs come downtown to go to work.

On the kid issue... ok, I don't want to go to restaurants where they want to go, but I ABSOLUTELY agree that is a missing component. I hate chains, but I feel that would help partially fill the problem gap.

[spenser1058]

10 hours ago, AmIReal said:

Is downtown Orlando a type of "bedroom" community...? Do the people that live in downtown also work there. I'd love to see a study on the swap numbers- how many leave downtown to go to work vs come downtown to go to work.

On the kid issue... ok, I don't want to go to restaurants where they want to go, but I ABSOLUTELY agree that is a missing component. I hate chains, but I feel that would help partially fill the problem gap.

Remember that downtown includes not only the apartment towers but also west to OBT, east to Mills and south to pick up Delaney Park.

So we have Thornton Park/ Lawsona folks working over toward the old Koger Center on Maguire, NOra folks working for engineering/construction firms downtown and Cherokee/Delaney doctors and lawyers at ORMC and in the downtown towers.

We also have the four millennials to a 2br working as waiters and at the parks. Folks in Parramore of course are getting by however they can. There’s also a lot of both these groups squeezing in school as possible.

Orlando’s core urban area  is quite unique among mid-tier cities in that we have so many income groups and also have a variety of schooling options for those with kids.

What we need is to continue working on transit options and for more retail options so it is possible to live without a car. Right now, most folks living downtown still need a vehicle for the basics of life if they don’t wish to spend hours on a bus or pay out the nose to Uber frequently. Given the cost of rent and our wage scales, the current balance is a challenge outside the single-family dwellings.

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by spenser1058

[Jerry95]

On 12/13/2019 at 8:03 PM, AmIReal said:

Is downtown Orlando a type of "bedroom" community...? Do the people that live in downtown also work there. I'd love to see a study on the swap numbers- how many leave downtown to go to work vs come downtown to go to work.

I live downtown and work near the airport. From my drive into work there’s absolutely more traffic heading to/through downtown for work than away. From the parking garage on my days off I’d say that a lot of people in my building don’t work downtown.

 

[aent]

12 hours ago, Jerry95 said:

I live downtown and work near the airport. From my drive into work there’s absolutely more traffic heading to/through downtown for work than away. From the parking garage on my days off I’d say that a lot of people in my building don’t work downtown.

 

Or they still drive to work. My old roommate did that, I could literally walk to work faster then he dealt with the 2 parking garages (both were free for him), but he always did it because he was generally able to avoid the sun and didn't want to get to work sweaty.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, aent said:

Or they still drive to work. My old roommate did that, I could literally walk to work faster then he dealt with the 2 parking garages (both were free for him), but he always did it because he was generally able to avoid the sun and didn't want to get to work sweaty.

I would imagine that when the cooler, drier weather gets here, more downtown workers who are also residents leave their cars and walk to work.

[dcluley98]

I think the key phrase in this  proclamative vocalization of one person's personal opinion is :  

"anybody in this room right now"

Edited December 15, 2019 by dcluley98

[aent]

21 hours ago, JFW657 said:

I would imagine that when the cooler, drier weather gets here, more downtown workers who are also residents leave their cars and walk to work.

Haha, for some, for the 3 years I lived with him, I only managed to convince him to walk to work once, it was a beautiful day, and then never again.

[JFW657]

58 minutes ago, aent said:

Haha, for some, for the 3 years I lived with him, I only managed to convince him to walk to work once, it was a beautiful day, and then never again.

When I lived near Pine & Summerlin, I had about three different jobs downtown over the course of a few years. In one of them, using my car was part of the job, so I had to drive it. But in the other two, I was happy to walk to and from, weather notwithstanding.

[spenser1058]

1 minute ago, JFW657 said:

When I lived near Pine & Summerlin, I had about three different jobs downtown over the course of a few years. In one of them, using my car was part of the job, so I had to drive it. But in the other two, I was happy to walk to and from, weather notwithstanding.

He was keeping in fine shape for the ladies!

[JFW657]

1 minute ago, spenser1058 said:

He was keeping in fine shape for the ladies!

Trying, anyway.

[codypet]

I biked to work today.  Milk District --> NQ and back, but the amount of times I've done it in the years I've worked at my job probably would amount to a month or 2 worth of workdays.   And that's with the bike ride = the time to drive.   That's pretty pathetic for someone who preaches the advantages of alternative transportation (me).  There's probably 0 motivation for the average Joe.

[spenser1058]

11 minutes ago, codypet said:

I biked to work today.  Milk District --> NQ and back, but the amount of times I've done it in the years I've worked at my job probably would amount to a month or 2 worth of workdays.   And that's with the bike ride = the time to drive.   That's pretty pathetic for someone who preaches the advantages of alternative transportation (me).  There's probably 0 motivation for the average Joe.

You get a pass, though. Once you’ married and have a Jr. Codypet, you’re allowed to have a dad pudge!

[Urban Mail Carrier]

22 minutes ago, codypet said:

I biked to work today.  Milk District --> NQ and back, but the amount of times I've done it in the years I've worked at my job probably would amount to a month or 2 worth of workdays.   And that's with the bike ride = the time to drive.   That's pretty pathetic for someone who preaches the advantages of alternative transportation (me).  There's probably 0 motivation for the average Joe.

Orlando is just to Sprawled out. The weather really isn’t helpful. Average joes probably don’t mind walking at least a block but biking 5-10 miles isn’t what they look forward to.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, codypet said:

I biked to work today.  Milk District --> NQ and back, but the amount of times I've done it in the years I've worked at my job probably would amount to a month or 2 worth of workdays.   And that's with the bike ride = the time to drive.   That's pretty pathetic for someone who preaches the advantages of alternative transportation (me).  There's probably 0 motivation for the average Joe.

Go to Crazy Lenny's. 

[Jvest55]

On 12/13/2019 at 5:24 PM, AmIReal said:

Just too much to digest here... wish I was at the OBJ Doing Business Downtown meeting today which appears to have gotten a little testy. Main complaint, downtown is dead after 6pm and there is not enough office development going on.

Tom Sittema, managing director of RiverBridge Capital... "We've got a lot of construction going on downtown, most of it is residential and some is commercial. But we're not growing our business community downtown ..."

Scott Stahley, regional partner and executive vice president of Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co... "I don't think there's any reason for anybody in this room right now to be in downtown Orlando after 7 p.m. at night...That's why you're not seeing institutions come in and take a major involvement in downtown."

More in the article- https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2019/12/13/downtown-throwdown-developer-city-spar-over-urban.html?iana=hpmvp_orl_news_headline

But here is where I'm confused. The complaint is we don't build office towers downtown and instead build residential towers and yet we have a "dead" downtown...???

I think what all these older gentleman are saying is when they finish work and head out to their McMansions in the burbs, there is no reason for them to want to linger downtown.

 

Is there a calendar for the next one? I'd love to go. 

[AmIReal]

1 hour ago, Jvest55 said:

Is there a calendar for the next one? I'd love to go. 

Its an annual thing- every Dec. If you're not a subscriber then Downtownorlando.com will post the signup info Oct/Nov.

[JFW657]

6 minutes ago, AmIReal said:

Its an annual thing- every Dec. If you're not a subscriber then Downtownorlando.com will post the signup info Oct/Nov.

Is there food?....   

[Jvest55]

1 hour ago, AmIReal said:

Its an annual thing- every Dec. If you're not a subscriber then Downtownorlando.com will post the signup info Oct/Nov.

Odd, what's the point of an annual meeting. Does anything even get accomplished there, lol.

[JFW657]

Went to an OUC Community Forum last Tuesday evening at Beardall.

Catered by Fratelli's on Orange Av and Livingston.

Lasagna, meatballs, stuffed shells, chicken, cannolis, cheesecake....

By the end, they were dishing it up in styrofoam take out trays.

Heaven.... 

I think they talked to us about something or other, too.