Jerry95

Another Orange Avenue intersection gets a mural

A few shots from my walkabout today. The parking garage is open and the outdoor space by the food hall is ready for furniture. Good progress on the apartments as well.

So it looks like there are three proposed Green projects in Parramore: Green Tower (1121 Church Street), Kelly Tower (1000 W Pine Street), and Parramore Tribute Towers (1016, 101 Church Street, 1003, 1001 W Jackson Street). Renderings of the Parramore Tribute Towers and massing for the three proposed projects is below. Sources: https://www.orlando.gov/Building-Development/Planning-Zoning-Approvals/View-Open-Development-Applications/CUP2024-10009-Kelly-Tower-Hotel https://www.orlando.gov/Building-Development/Planning-Zoning-Approvals/View-Open-Development-Applications/CUP2024-10010-Parramore-Tribute-Towers https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/12/01/parramore-developer-proposes-new-site-for-mixed-use-tower/

For those of you who aren’t familiar with FAT Village, the development shown above replaces blocks of old warehouses that once were home to creatives. Similar to Wynwood, the creatives moved into cheaper, former industrial areas and made them popular. Then the developers moved in, bought the property and are developing high rise apartments after pushing out the creatives. This particular project was supposed to retain some of those warehouse spaces until the City of Fort Lauderdale required them to bring the whole site up by several inches to meet current floodplain requirements. Pivoting back to Orlando, the current site is an abandoned building surrounded by apartments, a courthouse, and a few low rise offices. There isn’t an existing sense of community that would lure developers like the FAT Village example. It’s a shame because we all see the potential.

Both of these video use stills from bioreconstruct on Twitter/X. They post a lot of new aerial photos each week. If you want as close to a real time update as you can get it worth giving them a follow. Some of their recent photos also cover the Sand Lake/Kirkman Interchange and the DDI at Sand Lake and I-4 in addition to park construction.

Tried out SunRail’s mobile ticketing app. Much faster than buying a ticket from the old machines. My only frustration is that SunRail and Lynx now have separate mobile ticketing. Hoping PawPass gets rolled into the SunRail system for easier tickets and transfers.

The road work on S Orange between ORMC and Kaley is an absolute cluster****. I’m genuinely shocked that FDOT has let it get this bad. Southbound lane drops with no barrels in front of the arrow board, and plenty of conflicting pavement markings. Then suddenly it opens up to three lanes that merge into two with the middle just disappearing. And today the contractor has a giant hole in the road and is flagging traffic during rush hour. The good news is that when you get into an accident you won’t be far from the ER (/rant)

Hopefully this doesn’t become an empty car lot and is developed into a community plaza/game day area

New Hideaway coming along nicely

Renaming the stadium to something that sounds like your rival is a choice.

Looks like concrete splatter from drilling/coring for the handrail.

Just south of the garage. You can see the food hall in the sixth photo.

New ticket machines and validators going in. Customer service agent said they should launch in the next couple of months and that they include phone based tickets.

Went for a walk around the Packing District yesterday. The streetscapes on Princeton and OBT turned out great, you can hardly recognize the area. The new apartments on the SW corner are progressing fast and the parking garage looks ready to open.

Unfinished concrete is pretty standard with Society properties, see below from Society Las Olas. Expect artwork and a pool deck that’s ready for instagram. As for phase 2, I’d give it a few years. Society Las Olas opened in 2020 and Phase 2 began construction this year.

The parking garage has a more recognizable sponsor than the arena. Geico and Kia. What a pairing.

The Amway Center is no more. A new name is set to be announced Wednesday. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/12/15/pictures-amway-center-sign-removed-from-arena/ I wonder if this is to unlock money for the SED (Wishful thinking, I know)

Tried the Train to Plane connection this morning. Boarding the train at Orlando Health/Amtrak to stepping off the bus at Terminal A was only 35 minutes. After traveling to New York recently and using the Newark Airtrain-NJ Transit Connection and the LaGuardia SBS Connection, it’s always disappointing that we haven’t established a strong airport connector yet. The Plane to Train connection at Sand Lake Road is a needed link, but it just doesn’t do enough to satisfy evening and weekend flyers. With 50 million visitors to the airport, Orlando should easily be able to launch a branded airport connector service to Downtown/UCF/Nona/Attractions. Something to build up demand until the SunRail connection exists. On paper yes. The reality is that its location is more to do with proximity to ORMC than the station.

One can only hope. I also misspoke, the section from the emergency room north appears to be buttoning up. The rest is very much a big hole.

Looks like most, if not all, of the jersey barriers along S Orange Ave have been removed. Hopefully this means we’ll see asphalt next week and the road back to normal by Thanksgiving!

Hopefully Southwest use Airside 4 for the international flights since it’s a sterile connection to the current Southwest gates. International arrivals are screwed either way since the have to go through TSA after clearing customs.

There’s something poetic about Orlando demolishing public art for the benefit of private arts. also valets won’t want curb stops. they need to be able shave valuable seconds and cut through the lot if it’s empty.

Demolition next to the DPAC. Anyone know what’s programmed here?

Does anyone know what all the work on S Orange Avenue is? Just drove north through three separate lane drops between Michigan and Gore. Is this just utility upgrades or will there be any tangible improvements to the road as well?

Thanks for sharing the historical anecdote. Sometimes we forget that every other car on the road around us has a story to tell. OBT and Princeton will be a signalized intersection. The roundabout will be to the west, in front of the new YMCA.