Downtown Orlando Project Discussion

[JFW657]

5 hours ago, cwetteland said:

This one gets a big thumbs down.  I'm a big fan of The Yard.  It ads some urbanization and the developers went out of their way to make sure it fit the character of the neighborhood.  Even the Lucky Lure with its rusted corrugated roof looks right in place next to The Yard.  But here, just a' hundred yards away, this beast is an eyesore.  Its scale is totally out of whack with its surroundings. If I were an Ivanhoe village resident I'd start marches in protest.

 

Why leave the protesting to them?

Get the email addresses of the developer and architect. Post them here and get as many people as possible to contact them regarding our displeasure with what they're planning there.

[Jernigan]

What's the acronym for that?  NISEBY?  Not in someone else's back yard

[JFW657]

5 hours ago, Jernigan said:

What's the acronym for that?  NISEBY?  Not in someone else's back yard

NIOBY.

Not in OUR back yard.

[JFW657]

Came across this from OBJ...

Launch That becomes landlord of century-old downtown Orlando building

A local internet marketing company will add landlord to its title, and it has big plans to revamp a downtown Orlando building it just bought.

Orlando-based Launch That LLC's related One South Orange Development LLC scooped up one of the oldest buildings in downtown — 104-year-old, 76,995-square-foot One South Orange Building at 1 S. Orange Ave. — for $15.5 million on Jan. 12 from Orlando-based One South Orange Ltd., an entity related to Markay Management Inc.

Launch That plans about $3-million-$5 million in upgrades to the five-story building on the northwest corner of South Orange Avenue and East Central Boulevard. General contractor Hanson Construction Inc. — which has overseen several downtown tech office build-outs — will oversee the building improvements.

Work may start in the spring and be completed in the next two years . Launch That expects to move into its newly refurbished space in nine months.

Downtown Orlando's office market has been tightening for years, as larger blocks of space are few and companies continue to grow. The central business district's fourth-quarter 2016 vacancy rate was 10.3 percent and average asking lease rates reached $25.32 per square foot, the second highest among Central Florida's office submarkets, Cushman & Wakefield reported.

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I wonder what the renovation will consist of and how much of it will be to the exterior.

I think whoever wrote the article got their sense of direction mixed up, though.

Northwest corner???

Edited February 1, 2017 by JFW657

[spenser1058]

It's great to see activity in the historic core again, especially with a building as significant as Yowell-Drew-Ivey. I'll always miss it as Orlando's grandest department store, though,and the pneumatic tubes shooting credit approvals back from the bowels of the building to the wrap stand. 

[codypet]

Whatever happened to the First National Bank/Walgreen's conversion at Church and Orange?  It doesn't look like much work has been done in months.   According to the press release last July, it was supposed to be complete by the end of last year.

[John Hargrove]

2 hours ago, codypet said:

Whatever happened to the First National Bank/Walgreen's conversion at Church and Orange?  It doesn't look like much work has been done in months.   According to the press release last July, it was supposed to be complete by the end of last year.

I live on this corner of 55 West. I can assure you work is being done, as I can hear a nightly cacophony of hundreds of pounds of concrete and random assorted building materials smashing into the bottom of metal dumpsters. They had to close Church Street several nights in a row to clear out debris. I'm guessing interior demo is taking a lot of time.

[alex]

12 hours ago, JFW657 said:

I wonder what the renovation will consist of and how much of it will be to the exterior.

I was talking to a guy back in November who said he was going to buy that building and renovate it. I honestly thought he was just talking out of his ass, so I didn't ask a lot of questions. One thing I remember, though, is that he mentioned taking off or renovating the 1940s (?) awning because it was a later addition and doesn't fit the style of the building. 

[spenser1058]

There was definitely some Eisenhowering done both to Ivey's and Dickson and Ives across the street (D&I's metal marquee that wrapped around the building was removed in the '80's redo reexposing the terra cotta tiles for the first time in decades.) The overhang at Ivey's definitely looks plastic-y (I remember it being more metallic in the '60's as a kid with Ivey's logos above the doors) and I'd love to see it replaced.

Edited February 1, 2017 by spenser1058

[John Hargrove]

3 hours ago, alex said:

I was talking to a guy back in November who said he was going to buy that building and renovate it. I honestly thought he was just talking out of his ass, so I didn't ask a lot of questions. One thing I remember, though, is that he mentioned taking off or renovating the 1940s (?) awning because it was a later addition and doesn't fit the style of the building. 

Part of me wonders if that is also motivated by the congregation of homeless that like to hang out under that awning and harass people who walk in and out of the building. That corner is rough sometimes.

 

[gibby]

I've always liked this building.  This seems to be great news.

[popsiclebrandon]

Bought by Brian Wilson, personal injury attorney. He must be a part owner of Launch That. 

[JFW657]

6 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

There was definitely some Eisenhowering done both to Ivey's and Dickson and Ives across the street (D&I's metal marquee that wrapped around the building was removed in the '80's redo reexposing the terra cotta tiles for the first time in decades.) The overhang at Ivey's definitely looks plastic-y (I remember it being more metallic in the '60's as a kid with Ivey's logos above the doors) and I'd love to see it replaced.

Same thing with the old State Bank of Orlando and Trust Co. building across Central on the NE corner of Orange.

They had hung some type of flat, featureless, beige concrete panels that covered the granite section from the cornice at the top of it, down to the bottom of the black horizontal mullions on the windows.

The the arched tops of the windows were completely hidden.

When they stripped it off in the 80's, I couldn't believe what an improvement it was or that they had ever wanted to cover it to begin with.

Don't know what people were thinking back then. I guess the trend was to make everything "modern" looking.

Edited February 1, 2017 by JFW657

[JFW657]

RE: above post...

Amazingly, I actually found this old pic, probably circa 1976 judging from the bicentennial flag hanging from the lamp post.

You can see the ugly panels.

[Jernigan]

6 hours ago, castorvx said:

Part of me wonders if that is also motivated by the congregation of homeless that like to hang out under that awning and harass people who walk in and out of the building. That corner is rough sometimes.

 

Having the LYMMO stop there didn't help and might have actually caused that.  They've relocated that stop to the SW corner of Central & Magnolia in front of what is currently, "Swiggs."   

Ah LYMMO, for the want of a quarter fare...

[orlandoguy]

Here's an article from the Sentinel on the Broadstone development on Lake Ivanhoe that's available to non-subscribers.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/realestate/os-bz-ivanhoe-apartments-20170202-story.html

[jrs2]

On February 1, 2017 at 2:38 AM, castorvx said:

I live on this corner of 55 West. I can assure you work is being done, as I can hear a nightly cacophony of hundreds of pounds of concrete and random assorted building materials smashing into the bottom of metal dumpsters. They had to close Church Street several nights in a row to clear out debris. I'm guessing interior demo is taking a lot of time.

It reminds me of the former "Hostel" on A1A, or the "Streamline" hotel; the art deco 5 or 6 story building in DB.  They have been gutting and renovating that building for over a year.  It takes a long time.  See Ace Cafe...

[sunshine]

Downtown Orlando lakefront office hits the market

Feb 7, 2017, 10:44am EST

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2017/02/07/downtown-orlando-lakefront-office-hits-the-market.html

 

 

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Is this time for the city to buy it?

[AndyPok1]

I don't really have a problem with that corner of the lake not being part of the park.  That's the most "traffic-y" portion, so it and Relax create a nice buffer.  Much better uses of city funds IMO.

[metal93]

It's certainly the busiest corner of Lake Eola.

Agreed with Andy - the city could better use its money on other endeavors. However, whoever buys it, it would be great if they can either sell all that parking lot around the building to the city and have the asphalt torn up and converted to park space, or tear up the parking lot themselves and build something on it. I'm more for the former though.

Since the property also includes the garage on the other side of Robinson, this presents a great opportunity to tear down that garage and rebuild a better garage that addresses the streetscape of Robinson better. What I would actually like to see is that entire portion of that block - the garage and everything between it and Rosalind, redeveloped. Where the parking garage currently sits - that would be a great spot for a residential tower, and it could fill in the visual gap between the Eola Park Center and the Landmark buildings. Just some ideas.

[Jernigan]

Not sure why the city would want to own an office building.   

I don't see how splitting off Eola Park bldg from Landmark from an ownership standpoint will help that corner.   Highwoods could have consolidated parking for all three buildings years ago 

Edited February 7, 2017 by Jernigan

[metal93]

It really can't be predicted, but new owners for Eola Park Center may or may not improve that property. I'm almost certain Highwoods would not change anything themselves. Not sure if parking is consolidated or not, if anyone works it either of those three buildings it would great if they could confirm if this is true or not.

[JFW657]

That NE corner of Rosalind and Robinson is an eyesore that's screaming for redevelopment.

[sunshine]

There was a proposal long time ago to tear the building down and replace it with a tall building. The resident from Vue thinks that they have the air right for the view of Lake Eola and heavily oppose that. But then, economy killed it.

 

You can never have enough urban park land. IF the price is right in the range of 25 to 30 millions, the city should buy it and tear it down. They can either develop it for education purpose or build a new restaurant. Relax grill is like a third world country shack and I have seen nicer place there.

 

[jack]

It is probably going to stay exactly as it is. Maybe some minor "value add" in the interior of the building. 

 

The proposal before was to build in the existing parking lot. The office building would have stayed put. 

Edited February 7, 2017 by jack