Universe_Explorer

I cross at OUT/Virginia several times a week and have found the combination of blinking lights and staring deeply into the eyes/soul of the oncoming driver as I cross gets them to begrudgingly stop as close to hitting me as they can. :) The big issue at Amelia are the extra lanes - drivers instinctively just shift to the lane without the person slowing/stopping in from of the them and cause close calls. This even happens at Shady Lane and Edgewater with the turn lane, despite the blinking lights. More frequent use of the trial helps, as drivers anticipate people crossing there

They've put a 3-4 story building up west of the Hampton Inn on Columbia (looks the shape of another budget-ish hotel, but I'm not sure what it is), and the hotel conversion across from the hospital on Orange is nearing completion - at least they finally have a "Delaney Tavern sign on the restaurant/bar section. I expect there will be another taller (10-12 story) patient tower on the campus within the next 5 years. They have to deal with some parking issues first

My understanding is that the (political) purpose of the I Drive taxing district is that it discouraged further annexation of fruitful county property by the city - it can become part of the city (as in require Orlando Police/Fire vs County resources, etc, but the city can't collect the taxes from it - which defeats the purpose. Beyond that, I don't believe the new Universal property would meet annexation standards regardless unless it's attached on more than one side to other city property. I haven't looked that up

I don't believe this is ever happening under the Magic's banner. My guess is they demo the shelter, hold the property to make it look innocent enough, then sell off the large parcel and try to make it all look like that was never the plan... If they really wanted to build it in concert with I4 plans and cared about the local neighborhood connection they never would've destroyed the parking garage and first floor retail which could potentially have been thriving over the last few years of magic/OCSC games and concerts years ago. They want a huge empty parcel to sell. Maybe that's better - anyone who chooses to pony up for that property will hopefully build something more substantial and sustainable than the they would (let's be honest, if restaurants can't stay open on Church St as is, how is an "entertainment complex" on the other side of I4 going to survive?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ There was nothing to see there but an oversized berm hiding some old buildings. It's got ground floor retail and interacts with the street - not that I think Colonial will ever be part of a pedestrian-friendly urban environment. Until the Sentinel property evolves this is as good as it will get. In the meantime, I'll take a nice pedestrian bridge and blissfully ride right on past this stuff

I took a Lime bike home from downtown over this bridge after the USA Soccer game last week and it was pretty awesome. Half the price of an Uber, a lot more fun, and definitively more practical with this bridge/trail segment. Really hope they can extend it south a couple blocks to complete the off-street connection

I was skeptical at first, but now that I've seen the first floor trusses I honestly think removing the berm and leveling the ground makes this all fit much better with the streetscape, I never realized how weird that part of the corner was until it was razed (and I go passed it almost daily).

I feel like I'm the only person left who likes this project (lol read the first 10 pages of this thread when everyone was talking about how great the design was). I think the Yard and Lake House are going to be very sought after by folks who feel a little too "old" for downtown proper but want to live a more urban/walkable life. I assume they'll price the units that way (ie kinda expensive)

Based on my knowledge of the ER, but without seeing any plans, I assume the glassy portion facing the lake will be a new/continuation of the waiting room and/or a hallway skirting the outside of the ER itself connecting to the lobby area similar to what ORMC did with the Orange Ave facing side of their expansion. Tampa General made similar use of great water views when they built their expansion years ago and it set the FL industry standard - you may have noticed how the lobbies of newer hospitals now look a lot more like high end hotels, the battle for (insured) patients continues... Unrelated, its' really exciting to see the ballet building under active construction. Foundations are being poured and it should go vertical soon

If that becomes a Publix, and they discuss closing the one on Edgewater, there may actually be a full scale riot in College Park...

I really like this now that they added the cafe. This + The Yard will add a mass of people to a thriving little sector of the city. It's foolish to think of these buildings as "out of place" in this part of the city - take a look at Florida Hospital (ahem, I mean Advent Health) campus master plan - they own a huge portion of the land around Ivanhoe and have plans to increase the massing dramatically - as they already have begun doing.

I don't hate this as long as they keep the first floor retail/restaurant space - wasn't there a rendering without that as well? These apts will have nice skyline/lake views and be walkable to Ivanhoe Village/Virginia stuff. It's a good location

Probably belongs in Rauvadage, although I'm not sure how my CPer's would use it. Conversely, a smaller Target store in the Creative Village/UCF area could work well after all the housing is filled up. Most of my neighbors seem fine using the SODO or Fashion Square stores, with the Princeton St Walmart (and Amazon) filling the needs that target otherwise provides... One a side note, The Princeton and The Yard seem like the slowest moving apt developments I've ever seen. At least The Yard is all concrete so they've got an excuse, I feel like the Princeton could've been done a year ago but it's still a ways off. Church St Station will be topped off before people move into it

Interesting...I had no idea the school itself was so new - I kind of assumed it had been around and this was a new campus with a signature building. Still, someone must have had either a great connection or a lot of cash to bring in a starchitect for it. I can't argue about more STEM education needed, but depending on how many students are there full time it's still really barren in the area. I sure hope the UCF Downtown campus pulls more development and activity with it regardless of how much less iconic the building is More recently, other fountains were proposed for the lake to go along with the I4 ultimate - once again billed as a "Northern Gateway", and once again foiled by the locals (this time because they would impose on wake boarding, fishing, paddle boarding, etc.). A much more noble, and acceptable reason I believe

It was alluded to here before, but someone has to enlighten me - what exactly are the politics behind Florida Polytech, and how did they manage to have the money/influence to get a Calatrava building? I remember driving by it on I4 during construction and wondering what in the heck was being built way out there. Then as it neared completion I recognize it was pretty signature Calatrava and got even more confused, so I looked it up - but nothing about it made sense financially. I realize that FLW made Fl Southern because of the old agri-money in Polk back then, but who got this thing greenlit?