mcn11

Any more info on the northern expansion of lymmo? It'd be nice to not have to make a half an hour walk to go to citrus or north quarter tavern once that opens.

Good news. Hopefully just the beginning of renovating the area between the Fairwinds building and this site. Lots of old empty buildings and parking lots.

The Downtown Confidential mentioned the demolition of the building by the Southern Bank tower at orange and Robinson. The newsletter also mentioned that Dr Phillips is considering building a three story building with ground floor retail and two floors of offices. Any other information on this potential project?

There's a post on the Orlando subreddit about Tinker field being used as parking for the Citrus Bowl. I'm curious to see what the thoughts on Tinker Field are here. While there's some value in preserving historic buildings, I'm not sure this field is worth saving. It's unlikely that any MLB team will ever relocate their Spring Training back to this stadium, especially with the fields at Disney. What value would preserving this have? I just can't see much of an economic benefit in preserving it.

Welcome to living in downtown! I love those pictures. What a great scene to enter when leaving the facility. However, why don't they keep the chairs around the tables in the plaza out all the time? Everytime I walk by, there are tables with no chairs. My only guess is they don't want to encourage the homeless to hang out there.

I'm aware of the CSX contract and realize that late night isn't going to happen. My main issue with this is just the time with the performing arts center. But my guess is that the train has to have time to drop off at debary and clear the tracks by midnight.

I agree. They need to extend that train a bit or move up the late night train by about a half hour. Nobody wants to get out of the game and wait an hour for a train. Plus this new train is probably too early for performing arts patrons as many of the big shows don't get out until about 11. Ithis is a step in the right direction but I'm worried that because of the timing it won't be as successful as it could be with just a few small tweaks. I don't want this to deter future time expansions. If they had a train that left downtown at 2:30am just imagine how packed it would be.

Yeah it will be nice once that thing is gone. Especially from the upper levels you can see straight down into the construction zone. I bet kasa was packed. We ate the boheme and there wasn't an empty seat in there. Although service was slow but I'm sure they're not used to being packed are adjusting to the theater rush.

It is amazing leaving and seeing all those people exit into the heart of the city. I walk my dog around the area all the time and it has been amazing to see the influx of people into that section of downtown since phantom opened. Orange south of church was dead after business hours. Since opening, the area has been filled with people that probably don't find themselves downtown very often. Walking home after the show, I noticed people going back to the restaurants and bars that were filled with people before the show. Not to mention hearing all the comments about how downtown isn't just for 21 year olds, how beautiful it is down here, and other comments that hopefully will make people come back not only for a show, but perhaps to just have dinner and go for a walk. For the people coming downtown for the first time or who rarely make their way down here, this theater can really change their entire perception of what downtown Orlando is.

They mentioned the public school in the UCF video. I think having kids from the neighborhood around the environment that will be built here can only be viewed as a positive. Also as more individuals move into the area, we will hopefully have a very diverse school. Maybe some of the students of the schools moved down here can volunteer and teach programs at the school.

That DTO video really makes downtown Orlando look awesome

I like that idea. It seems like such a waste of space on a highly visible and busy corner. The downtown lunch crowd would make that location very busy.

Anyone heard any updates on Citi Tower?

What a great addition to our nighttime skyline and street scape. Now we just need some othe buildings around town to step up their lighting game.

I could be mistaken. I'll walk over there with the dog after work and see what the sign says.

I too had a bad experience there. Our pizza took over an hour to cook and they shorted us half our chicken wings. I don't see how this place will succeed. It seems that a lot of the downtown restaurants get a lot of their business from the lunch crowd. Seeing as this places pizzas take so long to cook, nobody can have pizza for lunch there.

It's actually on the other side of Anderson at the southeast corner of orange and Anderson. I was curious so I walked over that way with the dog the other day. There's currently a sign on the surface parking lot that's there now advertising the building.

I think Ms. Lauten and her committee are on to something. Slowing traffic down on orange will not only benefit pedestrians but also allow those who would otherwise fly through downtown at 30mph to take notice of what's around them (see restaurants, architecture, etc) and hopefully stop or come back. Also she mentioned the possibility of making magnolia closed to cars. This too could make for a very interesting feature in downtown. Imagine that street with more trees and green space which would hopefully attract restaurants and outdoor cafe style patios.

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/blog/2014/10/is-world-trade-center-orlando-part-of-sunrail.html So this news about the World Trade Center Orlando isn't likely to actually happen right?

Beautiful picture of Lake Eola. Your pictures always make me remember how lucky we are to have such a great view from up here.

I have to agree that Ace is a good fit for the area. Although I'm generally against surface lots in the city center, it seems necessary for the type of business that Ace cafe is. My only hope is that all the people (and hopefully tourists) that drive in don't simply park in the lot, go have lunch, and then drive home. We need to try and find a way for them to make Ace Cafe part of their overall trip to Downtown Orlando.

While I'm a little upset because that grassy area is where we take our dog in the morning to use the restroom, I'm very excited to see a surface lot converted to something more useful. It will be interesting to see how well this hotel performs being right next to the railroad tracks. I would imagine being that close will deter quite a few people (or at least deter them from future stays after they've stayed). The freight train that comes by at night is pretty loud. I wonder if they are taking this into consideration and installing double paned windows or something similar.

It certainly is quite an improvement. I can't wait to watch Orlando City's first MLS game there in March.

I'm sure UCF would love to add some buildings and move some classes/programs there. I know they've expressed interest in expanding their downtown location. However, when we will see some actual construction there remains uncertain.

DPAC is going to look amazing all lit up at night; especially once the plaza is finished and well lit as well. What an improvement for that section of Downtown.