Church Street Station

[JRS1]

Hamburger Mary's was the only venue open on Sunday night around 10 pm in that corner of CSS. THis place has become more of a node than I originally thought possible. it's turning out to be a great assett to CSS. Ceviche is, of course, one of the most awesome places I've seen anywhere-- at night, that is.

[FLheat]

Hamburger Mary's was the only venue open on Sunday night around 10 pm in that corner of CSS. THis place has become more of a node than I originally thought possible. it's turning out to be a great assett to CSS. Ceviche is, of course, one of the most awesome places I've seen anywhere-- at night, that is.

It has turned out to be my favorite restaurant and yes, I am amazed at how busy most nights are. The have started a weekend brunch menu and have the best biscuits and gravy in town.

[sunshine]

Heard on radio that CSS is being forclosed. I guess we can now expect CSS to fail and Hilton are not gonna happended.

[jack]

Does not make a difference to the success of CSS. We saw what happened when the Plaza and the Solaire had auctions. ocupency increased. Rustic is still opening in a week or so. The Hilton success is not related to the foreclosure, they were buying the property outright anyway. (They may get a cheaper price now) I think 55 west and if they get a hotel impacts the Hilton more then anything else. But they both could work if they get conventioners.

[bulldogger]

I was down at Cheyenne Saloon yesterday for the 25 cent wings and 50 cent drafts and the one bartender told me that Cheyenne is also having nickel beer night on Wednesdays.

So to refresh, NICKEL BEER, WEDNESDAYS, 5PM TO 7PM, CHEYENNE SALOON.

[pip]

Does not make a difference to the success of CSS. We saw what happened when the Plaza and the Solaire had auctions. ocupency increased. Rustic is still opening in a week or so. The Hilton success is not related to the foreclosure, they were buying the property outright anyway. (They may get a cheaper price now) I think 55 west and if they get a hotel impacts the Hilton more then anything else. But they both could work if they get conventioners.

Is Rustic really that close to opening?!

I never got the idea that much progress was going on there, but I admit it is difficult to peak in there with the windows and all blocked off.

Hope it opens soon!

[bulldogger]

They still have a few Improv window panes in the front. You'd think they would have taken care of that already. I haven't seen anyone around there working on the place. I'm very skeptical.

[jack]

A week may have been an little liberal, but soon.

[FLheat]

It looks like the Hilton is still progressing with their plans:

Tremont Net Funding, the lender that gave Kuhn $43 million to buy the complex last year, filed a foreclosure suit against him last week.

The good news: The leader of a hotel group that had been considering the site told me [beth Kassab] he still intends to move forward with plans to build a full-service Hilton Hotel off Garland Avenue next to the Church Street Ballroom.

"We're currently working on finalizing everything with the city," said Bob Voelker, whose Gateway Hospitality Group owns Hiltons in multiple states. "Getting our financing all in line, it takes some time to do that because of the detail associated with the project."

Full article from Orlando Sentinel:

Hilton next to Church Street Station

[prahaboheme]

This will be a nice little wall along I-4 with Hilton and the arena at Church/South Street.

[JRS1]

that article was good. I don't think tenants at CSS are suffering like the current and former owners of CCS were.

Hamburger Mary's is doing fine. Brick & Fire, Cheyenne, Ceviche also. Dessert Lady seems to be doing well. Bliss seems busy as well.

Hilton will give CSS a kick in the pants. But as of now, ever since Church reopened and 55W is prettier, the foot traffic to CSS is very healthy from the other side of the skywalk.

[Magicfan95]

that article was good. I don't think tenants at CSS are suffering like the current and former owners of CCS were.

Hamburger Mary's is doing fine. Brick & Fire, Cheyenne, Ceviche also. Dessert Lady seems to be doing well. Bliss seems busy as well.

Hilton will give CSS a kick in the pants. But as of now, ever since Church reopened and 55W is prettier, the foot traffic to CSS is very healthy from the other side of the skywalk.

Eh. Maybe from an outsider's view, but if you ask them, they are struggling. The rent is very high and the construction has killed a lot of business. Some of the owners have formally made a complaint with the city and are threatening to break leases at this point.

The delays in 55W constructions have really hurt Church Street's viability...for now. Hopefully the businesses stick around for long enough. I know one in that strip say at this point they aren't

[JRS1]

^^

Ceviche has healthy traffic. so does Brick and Fire and Hamburger Mary's. Not sure about Cheyenne and Dessert Lady. But I think the owners of DL and B&F are the same. I know they aren't fond of the situation. not sure about Bliss and their situation. I do know that some of them aren't too thrilled at the prospects of the Mako's people always being able to block off Church at Garland in the evenings. I think that pisses them off more than 55W delays.

just like with owners at PTP. Some see it as the glass being half full, and others don't.

[FLheat]

^^

Ceviche has healthy traffic. so does Brick and Fire and Hamburger Mary's. Not sure about Cheyenne and Dessert Lady. But I think the owners of DL and B&F are the same. I know they aren't fond of the situation. not sure about Bliss and their situation. I do know that some of them aren't too thrilled at the prospects of the Mako's people always being able to block off Church at Garland in the evenings. I think that pisses them off more than 55W delays.

just like with owners at PTP. Some see it as the glass being half full, and others don't.

The Desert Lady needs to quit complaining about her situation and put on a positive facade. Last week she was on the news complaining about how Kuhn screwed her and I was at her place over the weekend and I could hear her in the background complaining as each new customer came in. She definately has a difficult business model to work with, but the negative energy is a turn-off. Maybe she needs to start selling Lemonade.

[Boomer136]

When I walking around this afternoon I saw a crew pressure washing around the plaza in front of 55W (inside the fence), could that mean that they might be close to at least bringing down the fence, or is there still too much overhead activity?

[spenser1058]

My guess is Bob Snow will do whatever it takes to keep Cheyenne above water - I certainly hope he hasn't lost the brio he had when he started Rosie's. After all, in 1974, Church Street was no piece of cake, either. But, of course, we all get old. *sigh*

Meanwhile, I continue to be impressed by the willingness of Hamburger Mary's owners to keep the doors open. Whether it's AYCE tacos on Monday, drag queen bingo on Tuesday or comedians periodically as something of a replacement for the Improv, these folks keep on keepin' on. Just like Bob did way back then, they're the types who will rebuild downtown Orlando.

[jack]

I thought the street closures hurt them as well. When the street opened back up, what did they do? Request a night time street closure.

[spenser1058]

Wasn't sure exactly where to put this so this seemed as good a place as any. Scott Joseph reports Doc's will reopen but no Hilton to happen (instead, co-owner Neil Connolly is working with the plans for the Hilton at CSS).

http://scottjosephorlando.com/

(page back to the Aug 10 entry; apparently this is old news but I hadn't seen it elsewhere - forgive me if it's not timely)

[jnorlando]

Wasn't sure exactly where to put this so this seemed as good a place as any. Scott Joseph reports Doc's will reopen but no Hilton to happen (instead, co-owner Neil Connolly is working with the plans for the Hilton at CSS).

http://scottjosephorlando.com/

(page back to the Aug 10 entry; apparently this is old news but I hadn't seen it elsewhere - forgive me if it's not timely)

spenser, i haven't seen anything about the status of these projects but here are some drawings of the hilton at css and hampton in at docs.

Hampton Inn at Docs

Hilton at Church Street Station

[bic]

^ Nice find! The Hilton elevation shows the building being 261'4" tall at the roof, but extrapolating a bit yields a height of about 294 feet to the top of the spire. For comparison, CNL I is 250 feet tall. Not bad...

Edited October 10, 2008 by bic

[JRS1]

^ Nice find! The Hilton elevation shows the building being 261'4" tall at the roof, but extrapolating a bit yields a height of about 294 feet to the top of the spire. For comparison, CNL I is 250 feet tall. Not bad...

and if memory serves, Regions (copper whopper) is 292' and BB&T is 289' roughly, and Plaza South is around that height as well, unless I jumbled BB&T with Plaza South.

that is a neat design. hope it comes through.

[JFW657]

I'd be a liar if I said I liked the spire.

I liked it better prior to the spire.

After awhile one tires of spires.

I'm truly not on fire about the spire.

I wonder if Dyer had anything to do with the spire.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the spire, sire.

Edited October 12, 2008 by JFW657

[spenser1058]

I'd be a liar if I said I liked the spire.

I liked it better prior to the spire.

After awhile one tires of spires.

I'm truly not on fire about the spire.

I wonder Dyer had anything to do with the spire.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the spire, sire.

oh my, can we put it to music?

we do seem to be moving from visors to spires- I wonder if someone is the Grand High Poobah of Decorative Ornaments Atop Buildings

[bic]

we do seem to be moving from visors to spires- I wonder if someone is the Grand High Poobah of Decorative Ornaments Atop Buildings

Yup, pretty soon we'll have a number of buildings topped by miniature spires and even smaller pyramids.

Spires:

Dynetech

Bank of America

New Arena

Church Street Hilton

Pyramids:

SunTrust

Lincoln Center

Church Street Hilton

Spires and Pyramids:

Church Street Hilton

Honorable mention goes to CNL I for the odd little columnar rotunda and to 55 West for whatever the heck that is atop their roofs.

[bic]

Does anybody have an update on the Ferrari/Maserati showroom that was supposed to move into Church Street Station?