orlandocity87

That seems tiny. I wonder if they would use that size and location as a benefit for something like a speakeasy. I've been impressed with Thrive so far.

It was a joke about former US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos arguing for cutting school funding, while not having an issue with accepting government funding and incentives for her family's private real estate developments.

They're providing 10 units at 80% AMI affordability. That means the units are reserved for people making 80% or less of the area median income. Orlando AMI = $58,968 80% AMI = $47,174 30% of income used for rent = $1,310/month The developers aren't giving away free housing; they've giving a discount of $500-700/month per unit. So even with the construction and a discount on rent, I can't see them investing more than $2-3 million into affordable housing—of the $42.5 million they're getting.

I like the local business incubator suites (mentioned in OBJ), but having only 10 of 273 apartments be "affordable" is weak. So essentially $42.5 million in taxpayer money for a little bit of conference space and 10 slightly reduced apartments. It's cute how the evils of socialism never seem to apply to corporations.

The whole building across from Imperial should be a much bigger development with lots of guest parking.

Awesome update! Excited to see some updated aerials of Orlando with these projects. I think Google and Bing satellite views are still in 2021/2022 for the most part.

So the Magic contributed $50 million to the Kia Center + $1 million/year on rent so far = $64 million. For a $480 million facility. Not to mention they paid $0 towards the $110M Amway Arena, which is equivalent to $277M today. I realize they're not the sole users of either arena, but that's already a lot of public support for a bottom-of-the-league team...

One major issue is the constant fight between the City of Orlando and Orange County. In most other places, the county is a couple unincorporated communities who want to pay less taxes or live more rurally. Counties should be homesteads, farmlands, and nature preserves, almost acting like an urban boundary. But in Orlando's case, they put the convention center and university in the County. Then they allowed unbridled development for anyone who could afford the land. What makes this extra unfortunate is that the Orange County code is really weak. For decades, anybody wanting to build a subdivision or strip mall could just submit a "Planned Development" application and basically create their own planning standards. Now we have county residents expecting city-like amenities while paying less taxes. It's a shame, really, because Central Florida has so many beautiful old communities that could have developed into walkable cities surrounded by nature and citrus groves. Instead, these communities just blend together into a sea of car-dependent development. Counties take such a huge portion of the cities' development demand that we're left with a situation where a few blocks of six-story buildings downtown seems ambitious.

Still cool overall, especially considering it faced a lot of "boondoggle"-type comments early on, as is Brighline West as the moment.

Orlando and Orange County as a whole have nearly doubled in population since 1990. Unfortunately, we kept building suburbs like it was the 70s or 80s—and mostly still do.

Broward County: 1.9 million / Fort Lauderdale: 183k Orange County: 1.4 million / Orlando: 316k Orlando is also the epicenter of the region with a metro population of 2.6 million. We're not competing with West Palm Beach or Miami. I don't see how a couple blocks of six-story buildings with one or two 24-story towers are unrealistic. Plus, Hines did the Dr. Phillips Center, so we've seen that caliber of development in downtown Orlando before.

I love to compare Google Street View images, so I figure I'd save a couple and share them here. A couple of my favorite intersections that transformed in the last 5-15 years: Livingston & Rosalind Advent Health at Sanitarium Avenue Amelia Street in Creative Village Health Village at Advent Health Orange Avenue at Lake Ivanhoe Orange Avenue in Uptown/North Quarter Church Street in South Eola

Anybody heard any updates on this property? Came across this project in Fort Lauderdale. Wouldn't mind something similar. https://www.thenextmiami.com/fat-village-breaks-ground-will-have-850-residential-units/

For context: https://www.downtownorlando.com/Business/Developments/Art²

Update on the outdoor movie plaza at Robinson & Orange: