Can Winter Park ever go vertical?

[orlandouprise]

With high end living in WP in demand, and land becoming more and more scarce...will WP ever go vertical a la Buckhead? If so where do you see opportunities for this?

off topic...Hunger St Tacos is the bomb and reminds me of something cool I would find in LA

[JFW657]

Maybe somewhere around Morse and Denning or 17-92.

Nowhere near Park Ave though.

Sacrilege.

[metal93]

Agreed with JFW657, keep the high rise development on 17-92 if it happens.

I'm down for more development in Winter Park but I'd rather not see anything over 4 floors in the vicinity of Park Ave. Nothing 1 floor either, 2-3 floors is perfect. I like the lowrise nature of Winter Park and would rather see it kept that way and any new skyscrapers in downtown Orlando where there is plenty of space. The remaining parking lots around town look like good spaces for infill. In particular I'd like to see maybe two 3-floor mixed-use apartment buildings replace the 7-11 and International Diamond Center on Park and Fairbanks, the two current buildings don't really frame the southern entry in downtown Winter Park or continue the streetscape that well, and taller buildings are more appropriate on larger roads like Fairbanks.

[prahaboheme]

Considering that Lakeside Crossing (or whatever they are calling it) was completely downgraded from a 3-4 story mixed use development on 17-92 recently and redesigned to a glorified strip mall, I don't think there is any appetite in WP for high rises.

[spenser1058]

Buckhead is part of the City of Atlanta whereas Winter Park is an independent municipality. Further, the mindsets of the two places couldn't be more different. Winter Park's residents are opposed to virtually any changes (interestingly, on both sides of the railroad tracks), so any vertical activity in Winter Park will have to be outside the city limits. There's history on this btw - see the near insurrection over the years about the First National Bank of Winter Park/Barnett Bank/Bank of America building on Park Ave.

[jack]

I do not see this happening in my lifetime. The Lakeside Crossing example is exhibit A as to why I feel that way. And I believe they recently down-zoned a portion of the city. 

[smileguy]

I don't see highrise, but there is plenty of opportunity for more midrise development. I think we'll see the project on Knowles/New England come to fruition, being proposed by the same developers who brought the Bank of America building that @spenser1058 talks about into the character of Park Avenue. I have heard that Rollins plans to add more housing on campus and add a parking structure south of Fairbanks. There have been feelers out to see if a new home for CFAM is possible across Interlachen from the Alfond, along with westward expansion of the Alfond itsself. There is also a block of develop-able land on both the north and south sides of W. New England that would connect Hannibal Square to Park Avenue.  We are seeing a lot of smaller infill condo developments in WP right now, and it may be some time before any large residential has the backing to be built.

[jack]

Have to ever attended a commission meeting? The citizens hate everything. As long as you stay under 3 stories, you will be okay. Above that, you will have a fight on your hands. 

[Jernigan]

I would think anything within Raudauvage would be possible?  Do WPers even consider it their own?

[JFW657]

I would like to see some more buildings around this scale along 17 - 92 / Denning and Morse.

 

[spenser1058]

The two tall buildings, the one pictured above and the previously mentioned BoA on Park Avenue, both belonged to WP-based corporate HQ's (Florida Gas and First National Bank of WP.) That's not a coincidence and shows why those two buildings are the exceptions that prove the rule.

[Urban Mail Carrier]

652 W. Morse has just been demolished!! Perfectly good building. Definitely was not an unattractive building. 9-10 luxury  homes to be built instead.

[JFW657]

What a waste. Nice courtyard there. I supposed that will get ripped up too.

 

[spenser1058]

On ‎3‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 3:29 PM, JFW657 said:

I would like to see some more buildings around this scale along 17 - 92 / Denning and Morse.

 

The fun part of this building is that it replaced Florida Gas' low-rise headquarters on the same spot. Instead of tearing down the old building, they split it into pieces and moved it to 1350 Orange Ave (south side just east of Orlando Ave.) and renamed it "Wintergate Square." Interestingly, they did not put it back together but left it as separate buildings.

Another fun fact: Florida Gas was acquired in 1979 by the Lykes Brothers, an old-line Florida family that was responsible for much of the growth in downtown Tampa (including vertical!)

[alex]

I've always seen a lot of potential in the publicly owned parcels just east of there, along North Orange Avenue. This could be a great spot for a mid-rise (4-6 stories) with some structured parking along the tracks, especially with the redevelopment of a few adjacent lots. 

What's interesting to me is that if you try to build something right on 17-92, people tend to think [busy road] + [multiple stories] = TRAFFIC!!! But move that multi-story building off the main road and onto Morse, Orange, Interlachen, etc., and suddenly people don't care.

[prahaboheme]

^Agreed - huge potential there.

[jack]

1 hour ago, alex said:

I've always seen a lot of potential in the publicly owned parcels just east of there, along North Orange Avenue. This could be a great spot for a mid-rise (4-6 stories) with some structured parking along the tracks, especially with the redevelopment of a few adjacent lots. 

What's interesting to me is that if you try to build something right on 17-92, people tend to think [busy road] + [multiple stories] = TRAFFIC!!! But move that multi-story building off the main road and onto Morse, Orange, Interlachen, etc., and suddenly people don't care.

Three stories seems to be the limit for WP folks. After that, it gets contentious. 

[RedStar25]

I really don't see any thing above 4 stories being built in the Winter Park Proper. However, WPK does have some of the best urban infill in the area. 

There is about to be a huge amount of development along 17-19 N. of Lee Road.  I heard Raudauvage is changing the way it is leasing the property and that seems to have sparked interest.