Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[sunshine]

A Starbucks without drive thru please....time to stop cater to the cars... Americans seriously need to get off that car and start walking.

Ideas for that lot:

1. 7-11, starbucks

2. city purchased the land and put in a pocket park for farmer market. There are no parks for that end of the town for the doggies to poop anyway

3. cool container park

4. put it an outdoor beach bar

 

In my dream world...

It will be a 5 stories Crate and Barrel/ Room and Board or CB2

[dcluley98]

I like the pocket park idea, I thought about that too.  One with large bike share station to tie into the OUT bridge that is going in just west of here over Colonial.  Don't know about the farmers market when there is one already at lake Eola.  

Here's another idea:  Shared Co-working Office Space/Incubator space with conference rooms similar to Canvs and Catalyst in downtown.  This would be ideal next to the large hotel and the large number of residential buildings and several other hotels in the area.  Closer to the planned creative village and UCF campus, and easier to get to just a block off of I-4 on 50.  Would be a neat option for entrepreneurs or self-employed or coders that come out of creative village area, or business travelers that could stay at the hotel.  That would be an ideal option as well for that area of town.

[JFW657]

It might just reopen as another restaurant in the same building.

 

[dcluley98]

Fine by me.  Mama B's sucks, and a decent restaurant there would be welcome IMO.  They could open a wing joint there for delivery and serve most of downtown.  

[JFW657]

Would be nice if they'd remodel the building a bit, though.

Make it a bit less bland looking.

[dcluley98]

So at this point I hope it will be in this descending order a: Vacant Crack House, Pawn Shop,Local DMV, Amscot, Landfill, Pain Clinic, STD Clinic, Used Car Lot, 7-11, Tattoo Parlor, Scientology Chapel, The Brownstones, Vacant Urban Wasteland, Shabby Duplexes, Polling Location, Dog Park, Parking Lot, Bait and Tackle Shop, Laundromat, Jai-Alai Fronton, Hipster Joint, Drive-Thru Package Store, Waffle House, Crappy New Restaurant.

Sounds promising for Orlando!

Edited August 27, 2016 by dcluley98

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, dcluley98 said:

So at this point I hope it will be in this descending order a: Vacant Crack House, Pawn Shop,Local DMV, Amscot, Landfill, Pain Clinic, STD Clinic, Used Car Lot, 7-11, Tattoo Parlor, Scientology Chapel, The Brownstones, Vacant Urban Wasteland, Shabby Duplexes, Polling Location, Dog Park, Parking Lot, Bait and Tackle Shop, Laundromat, Jai-Alai Fronton, Hipster Joint, Drive-Thru Package Store, Waffle House, Crappy New Restaurant.

Sounds promising for Orlando!

Don't forget the brise soleil.

Gotta be some way to incorporate it into whatever ends up there.

 

 

[sunshine]

If that lot is in Miami: 50 stories condo.  New York: office building. Chicago: A park..... Orlando: Lets talk about this lot for the next 10 years and let it sits empty...then you might get a "gourment" check cashing shop.
 

[Pete C]

I don't understand this "park" talk. What kind of park are you going to get in that tiny space and who would want to hang out there? Do people like hanging out next to wide, busy intersections in the shadow of a plain looking hotel and watching homeless walk by? Sounds like the worst park ever.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Pete C

[JFW657]

14 minutes ago, Pete C said:

I don't understand this "park" talk. What kind of park are you going to get in that tiny space and who would want to hang out there? Do people like hanging out next to wide, busy intersections in the shadow of a plain looking hotel and watching homeless walk by? Sounds like the worst park ever.

Exactly.

Everybody loves parks, but it seems like some people feel that every postage stamp sized piece of empty land that becomes available should be turned into either a park where young hipster types would (supposedly) hang out playing frisbee, or else another taxpayer funded dog toilet.

I think we're pretty good on parks.

 

 

On 8/26/2016 at 9:09 PM, dcluley98 said:

Fine by me.  Mama B's sucks, and a decent restaurant there would be welcome IMO.  They could open a wing joint there for delivery and serve most of downtown.  

I wouldn't be surprised to see another Subway go in there.

[prahaboheme]

For downtown Orlando's size, it has plenty of park options already.  Street walls are much more important, especially at this location.

Edited August 29, 2016 by prahaboheme

[sunshine]

You can never have enough parks as the city continue to grow. I think I should not use the word "park", I should said public space. It can be in the form of a skatepark, basketball court, or even just a small park like the one in front of Skyhouse. Even a paved square with few trees would suffice...

 

[jrs2]

I don't know about Mama B's' space.  I wouldn't be surprised if it is incorporated into the Residence Inn project by Ustler.

It reminds me of the lot at Pine & Orange; similar size.  It's too small to make financial sense to develop with a low rise which is why I think it hasn't been developed yet.

The Mama B's space is probably cheaper, but its in a no-man's land for pedestrians b/c of SR 50.  Maybe it will simply be converted into a Subway-type franchise as stated.

[JFW657]

Seems kind of unrealistic for a location like that, though.

Pretty expensive piece of real estate just to put planters and trees on.

Some commercial use will be made of it, the only question is what.

 

[John Hargrove]

Good comparison to that Pine St lot. Very similar spots.

Such a prime location, I really look forward to that space being used. Last we heard it was a proposed 4 story eatery with indoor slide, ha.

[JFW657]

It's almost big enough to put a small convenience store with a couple of gas pumps and a canopy cover.

Let's hope that's not what ends up there.

 

[metal93]

16 minutes ago, castorvx said:

Good comparison to that Pine St lot. Very similar spots.

Such a prime location, I really look forward to that space being used. Last we heard it was a proposed 4 story eatery with indoor slide, ha.

Yes, prime corner locations and very similar in size, the Orange and Colonial lot is about 1/4-1/3 times larger though.

"The lot's too small"

Seeing this posted by quite a few people here. I think a smaller building could work, and realistically, say 5-6,000 sf of potential ground retail on this lot could fit a good range of potential uses, however this measurement is with the lot filled in to its max potential with no room for cars, at all.

 

2 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

It's almost big enough to put a small convenience store with a couple of gas pumps and a canopy cover.

Let's hope that's not what ends up there.

 

Same, the last thing I want to see there is a gas station or a drive thru if an eating establishment/bank goes there. The intersection's hostile enough for pedestrians already. Also agree with the others that a park would be terrible there now that I really think about it. A low-rise 2-4 story building that fills the site nicely and completes the street wall would be my best bet.

[jack]

.2 acres in a challenging location. Ustler may be  the only logical buyer. 

[John Hargrove]

What's the story with the building on the southeast corner? Looks equally in need of development.

Would be nice to combine these two small lots into some type of "downtown gateway" feature. Parks on either side and some Orlando signage or something. Call it Gateway Park or something.

[prahaboheme]

I have no problem with a gateway feature but I would think it would be a much more dramatic if these lots were built with proper street walls. 

An overhang can be incorporated into the buildings and create a nice visual front door to Orange.

[JFW657]

That would be quite a bit of money for the city to spend buying both parcels, demo-ing both buildings, designing the new feature then building it.

They'd probably catch an earful from some angry citizen groups too.

As for incorporating both parcels into one project, I'd like to see a high rise office building go up on one side of Orange and a parking deck with ground floor restaurant & retail on the other, with an enclosed walkway about three floors up crossing over Orange.

 

 

[smileguy]

6 hours ago, jack said:

.2 acres in a challenging location. Ustler may be  the only logical buyer. 

It's about 40% of the size of the lot that Ustler just built on up the block at 800 N Orange. That does have some surface parking, but a building of similar size might be possible here if it could share parking with the hotel. 

Ustler is a smart man. I wouldn't be surprised if he considered this coming available when building the hotel. It may be sooner than expected, but I bet he has a plan.

[JFW657]

Seems like he'd buy it now even if the time isn't right for expanding the hotel with another tower, and make some other temporary use of it. Then when the time is right, build on to the existing building. The cost of the parcel will only go up.

 

[prahaboheme]

Ustler tried to buy the property when building his hotel project and Mama Bs didn't budge then. They were obviously holding out for a better offer--we will see if that was a wise move in time. Sounds like Ustler has his hands full with Creative Village.

[JFW657]

I hope Mama B's takes a bath on the deal.

I hope they end up getting half of what they were originally offered at best.