Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[jrs2]

On 12/17/2022 at 8:16 AM, spenser1058 said:

https://floridayimby.com/2022/12/the-signature-orlando-could-comprise-182-residences-at-401-south-rosalind-avenue-orlando-florida.html

From YIMBY
 

adjacent to Lincoln at Delaney behind DPAC.  well, it infills it completely, which is good.  the design leaves a lot to be desired.

On 12/5/2022 at 5:47 PM, spenser1058 said:

Orlando defines what are bars, nightclubs and restaurants, as review of downtown continues
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orange-county/os-ne-orange-orlando-defines-nightlife-20221205-vt4bh7niczhm3cx2nfocvpsobi-story.html

From The Sentinel 
 

is this for that QUOTA policy they were bouncing around earlier in 2022?

[gibby]

What will be the next project to start up?  Feels like there's a bit of a lull in activity.

[codypet]

Modera/CPIII is probably the next one to go up.  If we see them build the new ATM go up next to CPII and the Waverly, then we know it's coming.

Edited January 16 by codypet

[dcluley98]

Hopefully CSP PH 2 (AKA "the Edge"). 

[prahaboheme]

30 minutes ago, dcluley98 said:

Hopefully CSP PH 2 (AKA "the Edge"). 

Is the CSS food hall linked to this project or is that still moving forward?

[dcluley98]

The food hall is in the Bumby Arcade, and was supposedly a separate phase from the tower construction, however, I would say they wouldn't want to open the food hall with demo and tower construction beginning on site directly adjacent.  Seems like they would want to complete them somewhat simultaneously. 

[gibby]

5 hours ago, codypet said:

Modera/CPIII is probably the next one to go up.  If we see them build the new ATM go up next to CPII and the Waverly, then we know it's coming.

I didn't realize this was so far along but apparently it's pretty serious.  Having this and CSP 2 under construction at the same time would be great.  Thanks.

[dcluley98]

Modera South Eola/CPIII is still under ARB review, if I am not mistaken. 

It was on the last agenda of 2022 for review and I have not seen approval. 

Not that I don't think it is a good candidate to go up soon, the funding and track record are there, but I hadn't seen it approved yet. 

[prahaboheme]

The state of Church Street has gone from dismal to downright depressing. When almost every major city in Florida is seeing improvements in downtown districts, it’s discouraging to see a once thriving area fall into its current state.

[JFW657]

Project  DTO 2.0 

https://www.projectdto.com/

https://www.downtownorlando.com/About/Project-DTO

https://www.wftv.com/news/local/plan-redesign-downtown-orlando-set-go-into-action-2023/5UHHF6DWTFB7HBKUWCYV3HBDSI/ 

 

[bqknight]

2 hours ago, prahaboheme said:

The state of Church Street has gone from dismal to downright depressing. When almost every major city in Florida is seeing improvements in downtown districts, it’s discouraging to see a once thriving area fall into its current state.

I mean, Church Street is....not good. But, it's remained unchanged basically since COVID started. How do you think it's gotten worse? I did see HAOS closed. That Cucina restaurant seems to be doing well though and we'll see how Solita does. 

[popsiclebrandon]

Solita won't be long for the world. Pricing is just insane.

[dcluley98]

Yeah, I was going to go but don't feel like spending 20 bucks on lunch. TBF, it looks tasty. 

[KJHburg]

I was just over in downtown St Pete and they have a thriving downtown.  Lots of residential construction, all locally based businesses that I saw.  Great mix of new tall buildings and smaller 2-3 story older buildings.  They have great bike lanes that are protected by shrinking very wide streets to having a bike lane and on-street parking.  Take a look at some of these examples of things Orlando can do.  all photos from St Pete.   They have made their downtown very pedestrian friendly and thriving and more high rise residential development is underway.  

[FrankNash]

Thank you so much for all the leg work you do to keep us updated on our southeastern region.  The photos are fantastic

[jrs2]

On 1/17/2023 at 11:20 AM, prahaboheme said:

The state of Church Street has gone from dismal to downright depressing. When almost every major city in Florida is seeing improvements in downtown districts, it’s discouraging to see a once thriving area fall into its current state.

it seems like it is all individual bars and their own capital investments irrespective of anything from the City itself.  The guys that opened The Robinson, Robinson Room, and Mathers et al, spent money.  Bellhop spent money.  The new sports bar in Angebilt spent money.  And, a new one near there with copper colored theming has a soft opening now.  The Woods people are revamping The Lodge.  At Pine & Orange, they opened up a vape shop upstairs and have VIP production rooms of some sort on the second floor.  Wahlburgers has been replaced and probably open now.  Latitudes has been revamped (new owners?).  Skybar opened up a year ago or so. A Mexican bar/eatery opened up within the past couple months on Court. Skyhouse opened that Greek place in 2022.  Radius is getting a place or two.   And I know there have been other new places as well.   Central is usual thriving near Lake Eola, and across from the History Center.  Pine St. lost Jimmy Hulas but gained another place and has bar activity, and that place Mai Tai has brunches on the weekend that attract big crowds. Corona always has a crowd and so do the few bars and Gittos across the street.  So the usual players ala locations are still usually busy.  Church St is spotty with business.

Everything is coming along like a shotgun pattern all around downtown; no real concerted district from what I've seen.

There are money people who are investing in downtown, but that's always been the case; one bar closes, another opens.  I've know a handful of them over the past twenty years.  But if the City continues with what they had announced in establishing a quota for total number of bars, then they will show that they are nothing but a hindrance on new business and not a facilitator.  They would be doing what Daytona did when they chased out MTV because they wanted to change the demographic of their average tourist- same with what DTO is trying to do ala type of businesses they consider desirable.

[aleonrivera]

On 1/18/2023 at 5:22 PM, jrs2 said:

it seems like it is all individual bars and their own capital investments irrespective of anything from the City itself.  The guys that opened The Robinson, Robinson Room, and Mathers et al, spent money.  Bellhop spent money.  The new sports bar in Angebilt spent money.  And, a new one near there with copper colored theming has a soft opening now.  The Woods people are revamping The Lodge.  At Pine & Orange, they opened up a vape shop upstairs and have VIP production rooms of some sort on the second floor.  Wahlburgers has been replaced and probably open now.  Latitudes has been revamped (new owners?).  Skybar opened up a year ago or so. A Mexican bar/eatery opened up within the past couple months on Court. Skyhouse opened that Greek place in 2022.  Radius is getting a place or two.   And I know there have been other new places as well.   Central is usual thriving near Lake Eola, and across from the History Center.  Pine St. lost Jimmy Hulas but gained another place and has bar activity, and that place Mai Tai has brunches on the weekend that attract big crowds. Corona always has a crowd and so do the few bars and Gittos across the street.  So the usual players ala locations are still usually busy.  Church St is spotty with business.

Everything is coming along like a shotgun pattern all around downtown; no real concerted district from what I've seen.

There are money people who are investing in downtown, but that's always been the case; one bar closes, another opens.  I've know a handful of them over the past twenty years.  But if the City continues with what they had announced in establishing a quota for total number of bars, then they will show that they are nothing but a hindrance on new business and not a facilitator.  They would be doing what Daytona did when they chased out MTV because they wanted to change the demographic of their average tourist- same with what DTO is trying to do ala type of businesses they consider desirable.

This is exactly what is going to happen. There are a few things going on here. We are reaching a moment where certain figures in the city are at a stage needing to 'pass the baton', so-to-speak, and are refusing to do so. Although this seems to be a common issue in many industries. I think maybe a more specific entertainment district narrowed down to a specific street or two (similar to Central Ave St Pete) and perhaps other attractions like a large food hall or museum. The city may also be naturally evolving away from a centralized bar area to those scattered around the downtown area, similar to other large cities, and into the other Orlando main street districts. Leading into another point here, those main street districts around Orlando and the downtowns of most of the suburban Orlando area municiplities (Winter Park, Winter Garden, Sanford, Kissimmee, Mount Dora, Clermont, even Disney Springs) have all done great revilatilzation projects keeping many residents 'in town' and also attracting people from other areas to enjoy whatever it is they have to offer. There are more options and more competition on a metro area level. This always goes back to the point of the Orlando metro area's decentralized, mutiple nuclei urban fabric. 

The pandemic also led many to stay home or local and those habits have continued. The homeless people in downton have always been there, they just used to be hidden amongst the daytime business crowd, the nighttime bar crowd and the family crowds around Lake Eola. The same thing has happened in so many cities.

Depsite this there are still great bar and coffee shop concepts serving great quality still opening up around downtwon and are flourishing. People will travel in deep from the subrubs, willingly pay for parking, walk and traverse through all the negative issues going on downtown for good stuff, people will not if it is mid.

[smileguy]

Orlando Lutheran Towers proposes new 21-story tower at downtown site

The tower would replace the current "commons" building along Lake Ave and come with a garage. 

https://www.growthspotter.com/news/gs-news-lutheran-towers-20230125-bwayyiutkncwzco3tgdwrukzvu-story.html

[jrs2]

On 1/20/2023 at 6:44 PM, aleonrivera said:

This is exactly what is going to happen. There are a few things going on here. We are reaching a moment where certain figures in the city are at a stage needing to 'pass the baton', so-to-speak, and are refusing to do so. Although this seems to be a common issue in many industries. I think maybe a more specific entertainment district narrowed down to a specific street or two (similar to Central Ave St Pete) and perhaps other attractions like a large food hall or museum. The city may also be naturally evolving away from a centralized bar area to those scattered around the downtown area, similar to other large cities, and into the other Orlando main street districts. Leading into another point here, those main street districts around Orlando and the downtowns of most of the suburban Orlando area municiplities (Winter Park, Winter Garden, Sanford, Kissimmee, Mount Dora, Clermont, even Disney Springs) have all done great revilatilzation projects keeping many residents 'in town' and also attracting people from other areas to enjoy whatever it is they have to offer. There are more options and more competition on a metro area level. This always goes back to the point of the Orlando metro area's decentralized, mutiple nuclei urban fabric. 

The pandemic also led many to stay home or local and those habits have continued. The homeless people in downton have always been there, they just used to be hidden amongst the daytime business crowd, the nighttime bar crowd and the family crowds around Lake Eola. The same thing has happened in so many cities.

Depsite this there are still great bar and coffee shop concepts serving great quality still opening up around downtwon and are flourishing. People will travel in deep from the subrubs, willingly pay for parking, walk and traverse through all the negative issues going on downtown for good stuff, people will not if it is mid.

yeah.  I've noticed over the years that you have your Washington St. bars and eateries, Magnolia, Central, Pine St, Wall St (such as it is), Orange Ave, Church St., and the Central corridor by Publix (including Sanctuary, 101 Eola, and the 420 and 520 buildings), along with Summerlin and Washington St, east (and the place on Eola Drive & Robinson).  It's all over the place.

I think if they keep building residential, they will continue to be able to support those businesses.  But we need more leased office space downtown as well for the daytime crowd.  What's funny is that midrises like CNL 1 & 2 and Lincoln Plaza/BOA are at the southern tip of downtown, and the closest places are in Citrus Center and across the street in the Suntrust complex.  I'm not sure how far people are willing to walk.

If Kuhn gets his project built at Washington & the RR tracks, that will add a lot of units to the corridor where Tin, Elixer, Planet, Gringos, etc are...

I'll tell ya, I really like the Latitudes trio of dive bars...  but at 5pm or whenever, it is tough to want to stay downtown and not want to bug out...dunno...

[dcluley98]

There are workers on site doing underground/utility work on the Art² Park project in DT. 

[JFW657]

On 1/26/2023 at 12:50 PM, smileguy said:

Orlando Lutheran Towers proposes new 21-story tower at downtown site

The tower would replace the current "commons" building along Lake Ave and come with a garage. 

https://www.growthspotter.com/news/gs-news-lutheran-towers-20230125-bwayyiutkncwzco3tgdwrukzvu-story.html

Another "20 something" year old building demolished to make way for something else. 

I think the commons building went up in the 90's if I'm not mistaken. 

5 minutes ago, dcluley98 said:

There are workers on site doing underground/utility work on the Art² Park project in DT. 

What's it been, like three years that thing's been in the planning stage? 

Coulda put up a 50 story building by now.

I think it was first announced before Society broke ground. 

[bqknight]

Looks like DT will be getting another eatery - looking forward to this one. "Mason's Famous Lobster Rolls".

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2023/02/03/masons-famous-lobster-rolls-2-south-orange-downtow.html

[gibby]

On 1/26/2023 at 12:50 PM, smileguy said:

Orlando Lutheran Towers proposes new 21-story tower at downtown site

The tower would replace the current "commons" building along Lake Ave and come with a garage. 

https://www.growthspotter.com/news/gs-news-lutheran-towers-20230125-bwayyiutkncwzco3tgdwrukzvu-story.html

Is there any additional info on this?  I still can't find any info on line.  Thanks.

[Gtothree2748]

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2023/02/27/walgreens-location-in-downtown-orlando-to-close.html?csrc=6398&utm_campaign=trueAnthemTrendingContent&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

[bqknight]

36 minutes ago, Gtothree2748 said:

https://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2023/02/27/walgreens-location-in-downtown-orlando-to-close.html?csrc=6398&utm_campaign=trueAnthemTrendingContent&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

I'll be perfectly honest, I typically avoided it due to either homeless people, canvassers or preachers almost always stationed in front of it.