alex

Re: Modera, another picture from a slightly different angle ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Two other updates: The 10 town homes at Fern Creek and Concord are well underway. It looks like they wrapped up plumbing and could go vertical soon. There's some movement at the Bento site at 1900 East Colonial (SW of the Hampton/Colonial intersection). They've torn up the parking lot and dumped a huge pile of sand on the site. According to a recent article, the 10,000 sq ft building will include 3,000 sq ft for the brand's new HQ, a 3,000 sq ft catering facility and test kitchen, and a 3,500 sq ft Bento Café. It's set to open by the end of the year.

Perfect infill project. The article also notes that construction could start in April and take 10 months, so this project could be finished a year from now.

Starting to add some color to Fern Creek 20. (Hopefully it doesn't stay Fern Creek 10 forever...) I also saw they're laying out a bunch of 2- or 3-inch pipes on the old Chevron site—and I mean literally just laying dozens of PVC pipes out on top of the concrete like they're measuring something. Any idea of what they're doing?

At some point we're all going to run into each other... Looks like it's topped off now. It feels pretty tall walking past it on the south-east corner.

Luxury townhomes: it's what Jesus would have wanted.

The Starbucks drive-through is especially disappointing when compared to the one at Maitland City Centre, where it's still a drive-through but completely integrated into a multi-story building:

But it's tourists who are paying those taxes directly, not the hotels (see the Orange County Comptroller's TDT FAQ). Tourists are paying a 6% hotel tax on top of the 7% sales tax (while the hotel charges for the room, a mysterious "resort fee," often an "on-site parking fee," and a million other tiny fees). Meanwhile, most tourists couldn't care less about the OCCC and we've seen enough reports now about the ridiculously large Visit Florida / Visit Orlando budgets. I'm not saying the OCCC and marketing aren't important, but to get 90% of a fairly sizable tax seems skewed. I think it's time we formally change the statutes to reflect that. Of course the lodging industry caters to locals. You've never done a "staycation" in Orlando, had a drink at a hotel bar, eaten at a hotel restaurant, gone to a conference, or rented an event space at a local hotel? That would be like saying our roads only benefit locals—tourists are driving on them just like locals, and tourists would use public transit just like locals. In terms of the DPAC, the statute says TDT can be used for "convention centers, sports stadiums and arenas, auditoriums and museums, promotion and/or advertisement of tourism." If we're supposed to feel lucky that we got money for the DPAC, then that points to some strong bias in how the TDT is used because a venue like the DPAC clearly fits into the intended recipients. Further, the TDT is paid for any hotel stay, whether it's on I-Drive or in downtown Orlando or in Winter Park, so why is only the tourist corridor benefitting? And, while I'm already ranting and raving: I run an AirBnB close to downtown. My guests pay the same 7% sales tax and 6% TDT. In fact, Florida made $20 million in taxes off AirBnB stays last year. Most of my guests are here for family visits, weddings, college visits, or internships. The profile of our visitors is changing and diversifying, and while I'm not against the TDT, I think its use needs to adapt to the times.

In our case we have a big local population and an enormous tourist population—and the tourist development tax. It may have been discussed before, but the first paragraph in a 2016 article always comes to mind: Even a year's worth of TDT money ($226 million in 2015 alone) would be a huge start to getting something off the ground that benefits tourists and locals.

I mean, yeah, I wouldn't be mad if they replaced it with an urban Holiday Inn Express or something similar. But at 1/3 the price of anything else downtown, I can see why it's tempting for the non-AirBnB crowd.

I had some family stay at the Travelodge (against my advice). They said it wasn't high-class by any means, but clean and safe enough—they used the pool and enjoyed being able to walk to Thornton Park.

My thoughts exactly. Which is a shame, because so many pieces of our tourism industry are essentially walkable, new-urban community centers. There's some great "placemaking" going on at Disney Springs and Lowes Portofino. Pointe Orlando and the Orlando Eye complex are improving I-Drive. There's the obvious walkability of the theme parks, specifically Magic Kingdom's Main Street, EPCOT's country pavilions, and both Harry Potter areas at Universal. Somehow, we're capable of attracting cool—if touristy—places in Orlando, but we're terrible at connecting them with transit and avoiding the sprawling strip-mall-hell that pops up between destinations.

Orlando: You Don't Know the Half of It Orlando: It's Better Than a Kick in the Balls

Miami also has the Innovation District, which is similar to Creative Village. Maybe less education-focused, but same idea: a bunch of downtown-adjacent parcels ready for high-density tech-related development. Except that these parcels are surrounded by MetroRail, MetroMover, Brightline, and the Miami World Center development.

Meanwhile, Londoners have been complaining for years now that each new building is an elaborate eyesore that's ruining their skyline:

Amazon Chooses 20 Finalists for Second Headquarters via New York Times Nice to see that one Florida City—Miami—made it on the list: AtlantaAustin, Tex.BostonChicagoColumbus, OhioDallasDenverIndianapolisLos AngelesMiamiMontgomery County, Md.NashvilleNewarkNew YorkNorthern VirginiaPhiladelphiaPittsburghRaleigh, N.C.TorontoWashington, D.C.

Wow, look at that massive, out-of-scale, community-destroying structure... College Park is officially ruined! </sarcasm>

Where will we store our extra holiday decorations??

Nice surface parking lots. Maybe by the next round of hurricanes we'll as impermeable as Houston.

I think the area right above the club will be an open-air terrace for members or their events. But you're right, it's not very high up—especially compared to the Citrus Club. This is my main gripe with skyscrapers: Everyone focuses on height and overall look, without paying attention to what the street-level interaction will be. I'll take a Nora or a 420 over a high-rise with a parking podium any day. (But, to be fair, Modera does have more retail than a lot of high-rises.)

Not Orlando-specific, but the illustrations shown in the video are from Galina Tachieva's Sprawl Repair Manual. You can actually read the whole thing in PDF here--great ideas and beautiful illustrations, if not always the most realistic in terms of implementation.

Assuming the elevations come up to the street, this could be a nice improvement for the site: 10,950-square-foot retailer or pharmacy with drive-thru on the ground floor self storage facility with office across 95,660 square feet on the second and third floors retailer's entry would be on the hard corner, to benefit from Colonial Drive's estimated 38,000 annual average daily vehicle trips "While the SPMP specifies a pharmacy as the intended use, Liberty is now negotiating with two different types of retail users for the single-tenant ground space, so a pharmacy is not guaranteed"

Should've put down some pavers and grass areas for an awesome tailgating plaza in the meantime...

Council approves 15-story dorm for UCF downtown campus at Creative Village via Orlando Sentinel 15 stories, 126 units (600 beds) 9-story parking garage Livingston St & Terry Ave 115,000 sq ft commercial/education 48,000 sq ft UCF 55,000 sq ft Valencia Open in 2019

Is it the location of a new mast arm for signals/lights?