alex

Great example of what should be built in our historic downtowns around Central Florida (and even areas like Mills50, Virginia, Curry Ford, etc.).

Same...they were adding players so late that hopefully, with some time to practice, they'll be more cohesive in upcoming games. Maybe we'll have a flip of our other seasons: weak start with a strong finish. For the development around the stadium, it would be interesting to see them take on some of the projects conceptualized in the Parramore Comprehensive Neighborhood Plan. I'd love to see them take advantage of the Parramore Square park idea and adjacent apartments. (Although I'm not sure why whoever did the rendering would remove the historic church across from CityView...)

Daaaamn, three games into the season and already throwing shade

A land trust for Parramore sounds like a good plan. Still, the Hannibal Square trust only created 21 homes in10 years?

Orlando International Airport exec shares more on Brightline's timeline, plans via OBJ Not sure if this article was posted already, but a few good tidbits: Orlando leg to be operational by the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021 Coming down from State Road 528, coming to the property from past Narcoossee Road through Lake Nona, start to come on property on the northern edge underneath Goldenrod Road 70-acre Vehicle Maintenance Facility built on Orlando International Airport property

It looks like the pedestal is added to with each tower. 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. "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. 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... 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." Since it's apartments, the views probably don't affect rental prices as much. No mention of a starting date in this or the Sentinel article.

I love Brightline as a whole, but always lamented that they didn't come to downtown Orlando. But maybe there's still hope with all the expansion they're planning. I'm really disappointed in Lake Nona's lack of public transit. Early on it was partially billed as an "aerotropolis," a community where you can hop on a flight real quick and get to anywhere in the world and anyone can visit us for top-notch medical treatment, education, and recreation. So far it's just a generic suburb in an "aircraft noise overlay district" with no easy way to get to the airport (or the train station).

It actually looks like the pedestal that the towers sit on will be glass, which is a nice change from the parking podiums we're used to (*cough* Modera, Citi Tower *cough*). I'm sure final designs and renderings will look much better. More from the article: Property Markets Group (PMG) is proposing downtown Orlando's largest mixed-use multifamily project ever Three-phased residential towers of 16 to 24 stories 867 apartments overall 1,374 structured parking spaces 41,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial The project was filed with the city as "Golden Sparrow" but is dubbed "X Orlando" on its conceptual site plan. Phase 1 would include 290 residential units, the 41,000 square feet of retail-commercial, and approximately 498 structured parking spaces in between.

Brightline Selling Naming Rights To Stations, Trains via The Next Miami Maybe we'll have the Mickey's Magical Christmas Express™ entering the 7-Eleven® - Camping World© Station at the new Orlando International Airport - Avengers: Age of Ultron™ Terminal C. Supposedly "work on the Orlando segment will start in the coming months."

That part of the building has always been white, at least as far back as the 2016 rendering, above (far right of photo). The rest of the buildings will be mostly brick. Updated rendering of the above: The whitewashed façade and the mix of brick and white accents look sophisticated, but not as severe as continuous dark brick. I would love to see more of this style in the CBD or Parramore to tie into our historic downtown streets.

Based on the renderings, that part of the project will stay whitewashed:

I agree. Pine is going to dead-end in the stadium anyway (and looks like an alley behind City View), so I wasn't as concerned about it. But the new plan really turns its back on Central, which was just redone with a Lymmo route and faces one of my favorite buildings in Orlando (trigger warning: the Ninth Circuit Courthouse).

Yeah, it's strange that they didn't submit the amendment with new renderings... Comparing the two site plans, I would expect the new plans to look fairly similar massing-wise. The new site plan still shows "Residential above Parking Garage" and "Hotel Tower." The office building—even if it stays at six stories like in the original rendering—will match the five-story HD Supply building next door. It also won't dwarf the Amway Center across the street, so it's a good fit for that corner. As for Pine Street not going through, I'm OK with that. It'll be safer (think terrorist attacks, people tripping over curbs), it would probably be closed off during events, anyway. I'm personally a fan of pedestrian-only streets. I just wish they would have kept the curve to line up with Pine across Hughey and to add some interest to the site. 2014 Site Plan vs. 2018 Site Plan:

Update: Sports and Entertainment District Planned Development Amendment Second Reading (via The Daily City) Second hearing scheduled for Monday. New plans include: 200,000 sq ft of office space 166,000 sq ft of retail space, 250-room hotel with 80,000 sq ft expo center 310 dwelling units 2,500-space parking garage Interestingly, the new site plan shows the north half as one structure, while the submitted signage plan rendering still shows the Rescue Mission and other buildings in the northwest corner. Don't love that they went with one big footprint for the northern portion...that will probably mean that 1) anything off Central Blvd will look very "back of house" and 2) Pine Street won't line up across Hughey like in the old plans, when the Pine Street continuation curved through the site.

Aaand @orange87 is banned from Urban Planet. (I kid, I kid.)

Obligatory Modera update:

Interesting points about the parking deck...

I agree with @spenser1058 that the SoDo development itself is way better than Mills Park—particularly this half-built, toned down version of the original we ended up with. Orlando Health is a major asset for SoDo, the Lake Lucerne project will be transformative, and the surrounding residential neighborhoods are generally nicer. But as an admittedly biased resident of Mills50 (Colonialtown North), I have to say that Mills and Colonial are at the cusp of becoming a vibrant extension of downtown Orlando, while everything under construction or planned in SoDo feels disconnected and/or extremely suburban. Mills50 has a transit-ready grid system; is not as confined by expressways, industrial uses, or lakes; is bounded by great neighborhoods like North Quarter, Ivanhoe, and Audubon Park; and is minutes away from Downtown, Winter Park, and Baldwin Park. It also feels more like a city, with various community anchors (The Center, YMCA, Hillcrest Elementary, Fern Creek Elementary [TBD], Asian cultural institutions), a robust arts scene (Snap gallery, Will's Pub, music scene in general, cultural festivals, martial arts schools, ballet school), plenty of "Orlando institutions" (Colonial Photo & Hobby, Track Shack, Wally's, Viet Garden, vintage Publix), independent specialty stores, and a couple of 1920s-50s architectural gems. But I also agree with @Jernigan that it can be hard to get why it's so popular. On the surface it's just a worn-out looking commercial corridor—although the murals, recent renovations, and street crossing improvements have helped. But what I tell out-of-towners is that it's all about the businesses. I could make an even longer list for Mills50 (and Audubon), but nowhere else in Orlando are you going to find places like Lineage, Lazy Moon, Snap Space, Dandelion, Lack Viet, Black Bean Deli, Sanctum, Pho 88, The Strand, King Cajun, Tako Cheena, Wally's, Will's, Guesthouse, Pig Floyd's, Uncle Lou's, Hawkers, etc. all in a continuous urban setting. If we had a stronger urban history to rehab like other cities (old brownstones, substantial warehouses, streetcar lines, etc.) Mills50 would be up there with Wicker Park in Chicago or Burnside in Portland, OR.

I've never been to Poinciana, but looking at the map it doesn't seem to have a historic core/city center. I think it's pretty normal for these bedroom communities on the metro's outskirts to have stations that are more of a park-and-ride situation for commuters.

If only there were some large, empty parcels with high-density zoning to accommodate people wanting to move to this popular neighborhood...

Man, somebody did a grand tour of Orlando today—thanks for all the photos!

If I remember right, the project name was on the west side of the building, facing the train tracks/Orange Avenue. The two silos/tanks are still there, so I assume they're staying.

The block is actually three lots: 1010 and 1022 are this new project, shown below; 1030 is the other section that would be on the right side of the image below, on the other side of the drive-through lane. So in addition to being a lame strip-mall, the project adds another curb cut on Colonial, which will be dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists while taking away at least two on-street parking spaces.

Really disappointing. At the risk of repeating myself, I don't think people realize what an absolute waste of land this is: At a combined area of 0.57 acres (1010 and 1022 E Colonial Dr), these AC-1 lots could accommodate: Either 22 residential units (45 units if a bonus is granted) Or 17,380 sq ft of office/commercial space (24,829 sq ft if a bonus is granted) Or a combination of units and sq ft within those limits If these lots were to be combined with 1030 E Colonial Dr next door, at an area of 0.95 acres, a project here could accommodate 38 to 76 units and/or 28,967 to 41,382 sq ft of office/commercial. There's no reason we shouldn't be getting projects like the ones I mentioned in my earlier post. Instead, we're under-developing our few high-density/intensity corridors outside downtown with: Colonial & Hyer: 0.57 acres of AC-1 = strip mall with drive-through Colonial & Fern Creek: 1.63 acres of MU-2 zoning = RaceTrac (and probably another strip mall) Colonial & Hampton: 0.74 acres of MU-2 zoning = Uniform City Colonial & Hampton: 0.86 acres of MU-2 zoning = almost a Popeye's drive-through, but luckily Bento HQ Colonial & Maguire: 17.9 acres of AC-3 zoning = new Floor & Decor and a few suburban outparcels vs Again, really disappointing that city leaders keep talking about the need for residential units, affordable housing, walkable mixed-use areas, and transit-ready corridors—but have no resolve to follow through. Our code is progressive enough to allow for better development and we're in a market that supports $600k townhomes and new commercial space in these same areas. Still, uninspired projects that barely meet minimum development requirements are approved left and right, meaning our city misses out on hundreds of residential units and thousands of square feet of commercial space. /rant

Nothing makes drivers slam on the breaks harder than a minimally raised crosswalk/speed-hump combo. Because, you know, bottoming out your car is way worse than hitting a fellow human.