klstorey

I was talking to an owner of a business located on Mills Ave last night and he was talking about how the area around his business is quickly changing. This is all of course hearsay but throughout the conversation he dropped some interesting information about whats happening in this area. Again I say these are all rumors but they do come from a source I trust so.... #1) Forbidden City is about the close, due to overdue rent bills. A gay couple already plan to take over the lease and open a new sandwicheria that will specialize in unique, locally grown sandwiches and will be open late nights and possibly 24/7 on the weekends. They are planning to have some large gay flags and some updated neon on the building. #2) He mentioned Mills Park and that they are in talks with bringing a grocery store to the development. Publix is most likely at this point but Whole Foods, Aldi, and Trader Joes (I think this one may be just wishful thinking). #3) The Center is planning to have more events going on in the neighborhood with possibly having monthly fundraisers that would include local shops and cafes. #4) The Asian businesses have had some issues with the new marketing efforts that the GBLTQ businesses have done. Expect a new marketing effort for a gay-friendly district that goes from Funky Monkey north to Princeton, then south of Funky Monkey will be marketed as an Asian district. Some local businesses are wanting to have banners on poles to both separate and define the districts better. Expect more gay flags in the gay-friendly district. The ViMi name may be used for this district but there are brainstorming sessions for something more unique. Mills92 was also dropped as a possible name. Like a said this is all just what someone told me but it is at least interesting to think about. The chances of all or any of this coming true is hard to tell but at least people are talking about the area.

What downtown does have though is events, such as those at the Amway and hopefully one day at the preforming arts center, that already attract people downtown. If the retail targeted those people I think more people would make a half day of it with a little shopping, dinner and then off to their event. Right now downtown is 1 focus place for most people, they come downtown to do one thing and then leave. Also as more people move downtown and the Lymmo service expands I think parking will become less of an issue. Centro Ybor in Tampa also had issues with parking but by focusing on attracting people for numerous things and not just a single purpose they seem to at least be able to keep shops in their retail spaces. Maybe Church Street can learn a lesson from them.

I love that they are staying open till 11pm. That's a great start. I wish more places downtown would stay open later. It seems there is a lack in businesses open between 4pm-9pm. The downtown seems to die a little after the office buildings close and before the clubs open. I wish that Caffe Ritazza would stay open later. I would love to grad some coffee after I come out of a club. Hopefully if the hours work at 5Guys more places will follow, then hopefully they start to venture into even later hours. I would love to see more places open till 3 or 4am, grabbing that after party crowd. With 5 Guys opening downtown is getting a lot of name brands finally. Maybe next we will see a few name brand sit down restaurants coming back downtown. I wouldn't mind having an Applebee's, TGI Fridays, or Olive Garden in downtown. IMO it would actually help the to bring the tourist back down there. Having some name brands they recognize could give them a safe bet downtown if they aren't feeling as adventurous. 5 Guys though already helps this and provides a nice cheaper alternative to the many fancier restaurants downtown. Having more places open on the weekends should help also. Saturday mornings can get pretty dead downtown, hopefully having a few more options helps bring more people down. I still think 55W though needs a few retail options now. It seems to have gotten the food covered, now they need to work on some shopping. Maybe an Urban Outfitters (downtown really needs one!), a Diesel shop, and a Rugby Ralph Lauren (why doesn't Orlando have one of these yet!?!) with its cool cafe.

From my understanding, based on a friend who is part of the co-op there, Florida Hospital donated that building to the co-op or gave it to them at a reduced price so that they would be able to bring that into the village. It goes to show that a bold paint job can really go a long ways. Maybe the shops on the other side of the street could learn this lesson. That area would look super fab with the current 1970s style building but in bold new colors. I would though prefer a nice office building there, maybe they could preserve the facades of the current buildings and work it into the office building, that would be ideal. The whole health village area is still very unfriendly to pedestrians and they is a large need for more shops and cafes in the village itself. Also on the ground level many of the new building lack any interest making the area even more unfriendly to pedestrians.

Sterling and University House both missed the mark by not including any retail. Every student I've talked to assumes that Sterling has retail and is then surprised that it doesn't. Both of these would be improved by including just a few shops. Once the new development happens up the road on the northwest corner of University and Alafaya this area will really be on its way to being urban. At this point maybe the nature buffer between Alafaya and UCF should be reconsidered. The towers would have fit this area much better than the east side of campus.

The apartment building has had some major design changes. This new look seems to be more of a throwback to the earlier designs around the hospital. The new design will look much cooler from I-4. Looks like the also added another story to the building. Will there be any shops around the new apartment building? Besides 7-11 and a couple of other places there aren't much to eat or shop unless you want to actually go into the hospital itself. Any word on the ugly buildings between Orlando St, Princeton St, Orange Ave, and the train tracks. This area seems to be the last piece of old buildings left in the area.

The Baker Group are the ones behind the now failed Ron Jon Surf Park that was to go on the backside of Festival Bay. I find it odd that they would buy property directly beside a piece of property they tried to develop. I think this is either a move to shake Festival Bay back into opening up that backside of the mall property or, and in my opinion the more likely option, is that Baker is wanting to connect these two properties together. I have wondered since day one why Festival Bay didn't build a parking garage and connect more to I-Drive. With the road extension connecting this north I-Drive area to the area across from Universal I expect even more traffic than this area currently sees. A large parking garage that could be shared between the mall and this thrill park would look great against the turnpike and would open up more land for expansion on the thrill park. I wouldn't be surprised if they even include some of the surf pools they spent so much money researching before. 70 acres though is a decent size piece of property but only with an agreement with the mall could this park truly live up to its fullest potential. Could this be a move by Baker towards purchasing the problem plagued Festival Bay property?

Ideally I would like to see the Exchange re-imagined as larger retail instead of the tiny stores that filled it before. Then take the empty lot and build a nice HOB there. All of this opening to Gertrude's Walk that could easily become a nice new pedestrian plaza. I think that HOB needs to be kept west of I-4 at this point, keep it near the clubs that currently exist. I would rather have a lot of stuff in one crowded area than have it spread out all over the downtown area. With Gertrude's Walk being fixed up the parking lot is really the eyesore of this whole area. The walk provides easy access to Church St and this lot is only a block from Orange Ave. The Exchange needs to have its architecture preserved so having a large concert venue here wouldn't be ideal, though this location would be great for a bookstore or large department store or two. I'm imagining a HOB that gives credit to its Harvard Square roots. A replica of the original hand-prints in the concert could be simulated outside of the Orlando location. In fact the HOB could take both part of the Exchange and the parking lot with either a elevated walkway or have separate buildings for the cafe (and gift shop) and the concert venues. Most other HOBs that I've been to, which is only like 3, have been in much more urban settings than Orlando's. One of my concerns though would be any type of non-compete clause that Live Nation may have. To the best of my knowledge they doing the ticketing for the Amway Center and Firestone Live. Do either of these locations have contracts that block Live Nation from having its own competing downtown venue. I would like to see Darden back in the downtown market. They said it would take more pedestrian traffic to bring them back, something that the new arena already is bringing back. A improved retail focused Gertrude's Walk could also help with this effort. I still miss the Church St Olive Garden. Landry's would also be a great addition to the downtown restaurant scene. Despite all of our wishes the only way for this area to succed is to be a destination for locals and tourist alike. Something that the new owners also admit. A HOB would be one great addition for their goal of getting tourist downtown.

Whatever happened to the gondola system that was proposed for Colonial Drive? It would be very easy to place this above Gertrude's Walk and maybe above the downtown BRT lanes. Stations could easily be built within the multiple parking garages along the walkway. It could be a transit option that also had a nice tourist sight-seeing aspect to it. The new cars on Roosevelt Island and Sentosa Island are both perfect examples of the great cars that could be in Orlando. I see Gertrude's Walk transforming into a pedestrian street with shopping along it that caters to the soon to come (back) downtown tourist, this shopping corridor though will require a transportation option for those in this area. I personally think a gondola system would be the best option along the I-Drive corridor as well. It looks like other cities are already jumping on board with this transit option. Whatever happened to the plans here?

Last night I was driving down north I-Drive and I noticed how boring this section of town is getting. Maybe a similar sign rule could be placed in this area. Times Square has one to keep all the famous signs in place. Could I-Drive keep its tacky tourist ways in place through such a set of regulations? The interactive storefront element of this new regulation could really be put to good use along the sidewalks of I-Drive, as could the kinetic sign aspects of it. North I-Drive needs to compete to keep up with its southern county half.