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:

Fence is down, but it's looking like haunted house or something from Chernobyl.

The couple blocks of Vista Cay, District Apartments, and Courtney/Addison across the street are some of the better urbanism in Orange County. Way more urban than the landscape of parking lots and retention ponds these hotels bring. Nonetheless, it looks like there will be a mix of both: lots of new Universal hotels planned (not sure how accurate the map below is, but definitely interesting) as well as the workforce housing proposed by Universal behind Vista Cay. (Also, Universal Blvd. should have a streetcar running in the median from Rosen College to CityWalk, but I digress...)

I've lamented it before, but it becomes really obvious how far behind Orlando's downtown is when you go to a city where the convention center / hotels / museums / major university / largest park / main train station / hospitals are all in the downtown core. It's a completely different experience. Nonetheless—and despite what WSJ says—we're still one of the fastest growing cities in the country. I don't see residential (or downtown retail) demand going away anytime soon. We have so much vacant and underutilized (and mismanaged) land downtown with some really high future land use: Creative Village (6 lots remaining of our highest zoning) Sentinel Property (subdivided into 6 city blocks of our highest zoning) East of I-4 (6+ blocks of vacant lots or parking lots of our highest zoning) Area between Kia Center and Inter Stadium (6+ city blocks of urban activity center zoning) Sports & Entertainment District (no comment) Citrus Bowl (6+ blocks of public land could be used for parking garages and housing) Fashion Square Mall (4+ blocks of metropolitan activity center zoning) Virtually all the industrial land in Parramore, SoDo, and Packing District has been or should be rezoned

Between our climate, our hard water, and downtown birds, I don't think painting a building dark gray was a smart move...

They need to do something about that super dark glass around the Bob Carr. What the point of encapsulating a beautiful old building if nobody can see it?

A couple drive-by shots from last Saturday.

Ah got it. I guess I've only gone through on a bike with cars or got lucky with the signal.

I think people forget the current rate is $0.67/mile, so Orlando to Miami and back is essentially a $262 car ride.

Woof. I have the same credit I need to use in the next few months. Without it, I definitely wouldn't do first class. Although, looking at business/first class flights MCO-MIA two weeks out is also $400-800 per person. Brightline is expensive but still competitive.

Bikes should be in the lane with the cars waiting for the next green light. I've never needed a separate signal to cross there on a bike.