dcluley98

Equipment on site today, using the fill dirt brought in to level the site from the demolition completed the last few weeks.

The CityArts Gallery and Cafe space in the historic Rogers Kiene building downtown is now open, with a fence up for the alley next to it to continue building the outdoor space. https://downtownartsdistrict.com/cityarts/

I thought the statue itself was decent. The installation itself (and the mural combination) left a bit to be desired, IMO.

The statue and astroturf at Orange and Pine is gone. I guess it was just temporary for EDC. Also, scaffolding is back up at 220 SOA. Hopefully it doesn't collapse this time.

New renderings were posted of potential CWS reno. They took out the roof. Pretty dumb.

Bradenton DT will probably never reach the level of Orlando. Agreed that the rest are better than Orlando (Tampa only recently however in the last few years). Sarasota/Bradenton MSA does not have any transit other than busses and a "trolley" that is actually just a crappy open air bus. They do not have plans for other transportation other than a "water taxi" that has been planned for years and may finally start service next season.

Bradenton does not have a nicer downtown that Orlando, LOL.

Rent in Orlando is actually cheap compared to other similar areas in Florida. Hard to believe given how high it is and how it keeps increasing above inflation every year recently, but it is true. I have done research lately into Tampa/St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Bradenton, and others and it is actually more expensive in those areas, and Miami is even worse.

Kinda dumb as hell to use palms at all.

Intermodal Transportation Facility (the big terminal at the Airport)

It would be hilarious if they went behind the City Center building and took a panorama of the lake to paint on the front of it.

They are finally repainting the wall in the Little Old Lady Boondoggle Park (formerly known as 7-Eleven). Still a colossal waste of money for a not-so-hidden agenda of the club next door. .

Creative Village was a really good idea that all of a sudden changed drastically with Covid. Now it is kind of a ghost town and scaled down projects. It is a shame that so much changed so quickly with what was a good plan initially to revitalize a part of the city that needed it.

The pink building on the south side of the site is being demo'd.

Yeah, sales records are gone on the property appraiser, but the appraised value is $3,225,376 GIS map has a sale date of SALE_DATE Jan 1, 1900 12:00 AM Which is obviously a knull value.

Marc L Bortz https://search.sunbiz.org/Inquiry/CorporationSearch/SearchResultDetail?inquirytype=EntityName&directionType=CurrentList&searchNameOrder=30SORANGE L110000834990&aggregateId=flal-l11000083499-a769051d-eec7-4c45-a4a6-d81eeebe55ff&searchTerm=30 S Orange LLC&listNameOrder=30SORANGE L110000834990 http://www.bortzgroup.com/

https://permitlookup.cityoforlando.net/WebPermits/PlanReview Plan Review Permit Number: ARB2023-10065 Project: 170 E. Washington St.- New Contruction Address: 170 E WASHINGTON ST Orlando FL Description: New construction of 364 residential units and commercial units. Application Status: Open NameStatusDue DateCompletedNotesReviewer Approve9/7/2023

Just walked by the site and they have brought in several truckloads of fill dirt and put up new "No Trespassing" signage along the perimeter fence.

Probably not. From the article you linked to, they had the whole lot including those existing buildings on the south side that would be demo'd. On that parcel, the likely scenario for residential/hotel would be oriented in such a way that the maximum amount of units have a view/balcony overlooking the lake. It sounds weird, but people pay more for a view of the lake. The developer will go out of their way to maximize the estern facing area so that they can charge more for the units.

305' isn't all that tall really, but I like it for the step up from Lake Eola. A slim but shorter tower there makes sense for future development westward to still have lake views. (kind of tongue in cheek, but from an urban planning standpoint, furreal)

https://www.portofmiamitunnel.com/project-overview/image-gallery/tbm-breakout-july-31-2012/

They already have a car tunnel under the New River in Fort Lauderdale. Not sure how it was constructed though. I know there was a mega project for Port of Miami that involved a tunnel bored across the channel to the island where the cruise terminals are. I believe that was bored through the limestone, but once again, also for cars. I would imaging train tunnels would be more difficult given grades usually required for trains. They have to have longer and more gradual transitions than cars normally do, hence why you see those huge viaduct structures being built for CHSR.

The Bradenton line is used for freight mostly. It always used to have long Tropicana trains running on it in my childhood. We could smell the burning orange peels from it growing up. Also used to transport freight from Port of Tampa and Port Mantee south to the rest of SW Florida with container cards shipped of off the boats. Del Monte was a really big Port Manatee partner, shipping fresh fruit down through SW Florida. It is a single CSX freight line with good easement and few crossings all along US 41 in Southern Hillsborough and Manatee County, with I believe easement to double track if they wanted to. Once you get to Palmetto, though the easement/ROW narrows and has many more road crossings and then a janky old single track drawbridge over the Manatee River. I would say that the best bet probably would be a route to North County, Palmetto, (my hometown), and end at 17th street or Business 41 in Palmetto. There is regular bus traffic along both 17th Street and Business 41, and a main Bus Terminal about a quarter mile away on Business 41 about a block north of 17th Street in what used to be an old car wash when I was growing up. They converted it to a main MCAT Palmetto station with covered parking. I don't know how viable it is to continue South across the Manatee River to Bradenton and Sarasota, as the route gets much more challenging past this point.

Yup. I was really looking at Winter Haven or Auburndale as potential early retirement city home base. A bit cheaper than Orlando, and I can foresee them becoming very similar to Winter Garden, but maybe even a bit better with the connection to Orlando and Lakeland via SunRail. Winter Garden doesn't have that. I really like the little downtown area of Auburndale, even though there isn't a ton of action. You could just hop on the train to get to a more happenin' locale. (Ole Jeff used to poke fun at me a bit for mentioning the Winter Haven area as a potential retirment city for me. I was looking toward the future when I was picking cities).