John Hargrove

Yeah, well said. The retail places along Church and Pine that are being constructed right now are very much aware of this and are scrambling to be open by October 1st.

Yes, there is a breezeway that runs through the base of 55 West from Pine St. to Church St. It's lined with retail. 7-11 is taking up a Pine St. facing suite, and one suite behind that, that has a breezeway entry. they're using the second suite for an office and storage ... so, they're using about 3 feet by 18 feet of that suite in the breezeway-facing side to put up displays, advertisements, etc .. so there's not just some blacked out suite in the hall.

Apparently the 7-11 is being fast tracked and they want to be the first to open in 55 West. They've started build-out and they're holding a one day job fair in a couple of weeks to staff the place. Word is, they're trying to open before October 1st. Construction plans can be found here: http://www.vjaconstruction.com/Sub_Bidding.html From the signs in the windows, it looks like it will be a 24-hour location, which is very welcome. It will be nice to be able to get beverages/snacks/whatever without having to venture out onto the streets in the middle of the night. Exciting stuff.

That's the one ... That's a pretty big build out. Looks like the first floor, plus upper level and the pedestrian bridge. This and Heat will bring all new life to the CSM/55W courtyard. Things are looking up for this area.

It is taking up 2 spaces on the Pine St. side.

The space beneath the pedestrian bridge and adjacent to the sushi place in CSS is now covered with paper and construction notices are up. Not sure which business is taking this spot. The seven eleven coming soon signs are up, so that looks like it's a go.

Hoping to get some pictures this coming weekend. Spent all last weekend dealing with some medical issues (my right hand randomly became partially paralyzed .. and still is. i'm on a treatment), but I hope to spend this weekend grabbing some photos!

Quite a bit different from the previous design ... I'm not sure which I like better. Here's a very detailed document on the original proposal: http://www.cityoforlando.net/planning/cityplanning/MPB/2008%20MPB%20Agenda%20Minutes%20and%20Staff%20Reports/May/ZON2008-00003.pdf

Nice! I saw UrbanPlanet announce a new Orlando moderator on twitter. You were one of the people I figured it might be. Glad to see we have some administration here again. The next year or two will be very exciting to discuss! Congratulations on becoming a moderator!

I completely forgot about that public meeting.

Not sure. All the renderings I've seen show them only lighting up white.

Amway Center FUMCO

I'm really excited about the possibility of an east-west express route. It would go right by 55 West (where I live), so I could hop on and ride the loop to get to Thornton Park businesses, particularly Publix. The new North-South expansion would be cool too, as the CBD and Uptown may as well be 20 miles apart right now ... there isn't a lot of pedestrian traffic between those two sectors. I've been to uptown once in the 3 years I've been in downtown, and that was because I had the wrong address.

I hope the round building dies a very painful death. But not until there's a nice 15+ story replacement for it. It is immortalized in the background of scenes from Lethal Weapon 3. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=KKBsCGPqgwg Good times.

Yeah ... They have torn down all the awnings over all of the shops ... Hopefully to replace them with something that matches the arena facade better. They were previously horrendous metal things with clashing colors so that's an unexpected but welcome change. Wasn't someone just saying how hideous that building was to be across from the arena? Haha.

Amway Center

Amway Center FUMCO GAI Building Church St. Thought this was a pretty good view of Church Street ...

This place is going to look great at night when it's complete. I just took some shots from the 55W pool deck: Forgive the quality ... I'll have a new camera soon!

Still needs the red stripe! I can't wait for them to power up that I-4 accident causer. It's going to look nice!

I can speculate ... they're working on the rather large Amway Center logo thats going to be on the north side of the spire ... maybe the trees were causing problems with getting the cranes in the right spot? I hope they don't do palms.

The East-West route would help a lot of us living in the downtown core get to and from Publix for our grocery shopping. Right now, if I have to carry more than a bag full or so, I have to drive my car down from my 8th floor parking spot, outside, and over to Publix and in their garage. I might be able to carry a bit more if I knew I wasn't going to have to haul it such a long distance.

JumbotTron going in today. Also, the Amway Center logo above the JumboTron is going up ... From 55W garage:

Here's a graphic I made using Google Maps and the approach plate PDF I linked: The red marker is approximately when planes will be below 500 ft during approach, the yellow marker is approximately when theyll be under 1500 ft. This is very rough, but it's close enough. They could probably go higher in downtown ... and could even shift that approach slightly southward if they wanted to .. depending on where the MCO approach/hold is. West of I-4 certainly looks wide open for a new tallest, though.

I actually agree with that. And I live in 55 West. Not a big fan of the monolithic footprint or the squared-crescent shape ... If someone told you this building was built in 1975, you probably wouldn't second guess them. Alas, the location is what sold me. Being able to get to I-4 in less than 2 minutes is pretty awesome. The only downer (location wise) is that the Publix is so far away.