Editor’s note: This is the first post in a series counting down to 2015.

In 2015 we’ll be keeping an eye out for updates from several mixed-use projects at various stages of planning, construction, or leasing.

1. The Yard mixed-use development proposed for Ivanhoe Village

Ivanhoe Place - The Yard rendering

The Yard is a proposed mixed-use project along Virginia Drive and Alden Road. When we wrote about The Yard in October, the preliminary plans included green space in front of retail along Virginia Drive and converting Alden Road into a pedestrian plaza. The project featured 500 units of multi-family housing. The buildings scaled down from 9 stories at Philadelphia Ave, to 7 stories at the railroad tracks, and 4 stories adjacent to the neighborhood. When the initial rendering where released, Chance Gordy with Real Estate Inverlad Development LLC told the Bungalower that they’d work with the community on the plan before submitting for approvals from the city. Read more >>

2. Lucerne Promenade planned for Downtown South

Screenshot 2014-12-15 11.07.26

Orlando Health is seeking to redevelop their Lucerne Hospital property along Orange Ave into the Lucerne Promenade. The project currently includes a 200-room hotel, five residential buildings, 80,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, 60,000 sq. ft. of office space, and two partially sub-grade parking garages. The renderings from the proposal suggest that a new urban grocery might be coming to Downtown South. The project will be in front of City Council for the first time in January. Read more >>

3. NORA in announces coffee shop and restaurant for North Quarter district

Nora-176_EXT-desktop

(Image courtesy of livenora.com)

NORA opened its 6 story apartment complex this November at 861 N Orange Ave in the North Quarter [GMap]. Since then, they have officially announced that a coffee shop and restaurant will open in the ground floor retail space. Coffee Culture Café & Eatery  was announced in November. The Canadian-based cafe will offer coffee and espresso along with fresh-baked goods, breakfast items, sandwiches, wraps and salads. The North Quarter Tavern was announced in December. Other than the logo, we only know that the restaurant will be under the direction of Chef Matt Wall from Citrus Restaurant. Read more >>

4. Central Station in Downtown Orlando includes green space

Central Station Park Rendering - Paseo

Central Station is located at 400 N Orange Ave between Amelia St and Livingston St. The development will connect the Lynx and SunRail station to Orange Ave [GMap]. Earlier this year we caught green space lovers attention when we reported that the project would include a pedestrian paseo and urban park. Since then we have seen significant progress on Crescent Central Station, a  278-unit apartment building with 15,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Read more >>

5. The Sevens in breaks ground in North Quarter district downtown

Corner View Looking Down Orange Ave - 02042014 (2)

The Sevens, a mixed-use building project at 777 N Orange Ave [GMap] broke ground this year. We first wrote about the Sevens over a year ago, but the project dates back to December 2008 when the developer initially proposed an 11 story building on this property. The now 9 story building is expected to be completed in 2016. It will include 333 apartments, 8,000 square feet of retail space and an integrated parking garage. The developer, Pizutti, expects a restaurant and service retail to occupy the ground floor along Orange Ave. Read more >>

 

Bonus:

The Princeton at College Park 

Smith 1

We didn’t forget about this project, planned for College Park along Princeton and Smith Streets. We covered this development extensively this year. After the developer scaled back their plans to be in compliance with the Edgewater Drive Vision Plan, City Council approved the project 4 to 1 in November. The group Rethink the Princeton has filed an appeal with the City and is hosting a community meeting on January 12 at 7pm in the College Park Community Center. Read more >>

Join the Conversation

17 Comments

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  1. Downtown currently has the existing, older neighborhoods where people can afford to live. If there are jobs nearby, that’s great. If you can use the infrastructure, fantastic. Not everybody who lives in the area works in the area.
    The reason the businesses on Ivanhoe Row and Corinne are eclectic and local is because the rents are low (relatively speaking), the spaces are small and there is a lot of local charm. New “mixed-use” developments are nothing like this. The rents are expensive, the management companies try to bring in national chains or franchises. How many local, small start-up businesses moved into the Mills Park development?

  2. Wow Jordan, I respect your disagreement and wouldn’t be nasty or attacking about it, like you were me. Sad.

  3. Jon your point about jobs not paying enough to pay the rent is applicable in some of the mass produced dense areas like the ones out in east or west Orange County where you still need to drive to everywhere. But downtown has enough of these neighborhoods close enough where those connections can be made from the business district to all of these new projects on bus, rail (and its not even light rail) or biking on the urban trail. Many of us already do this. In either case, stopping infill is no solution. And regarding the existing supply – sorry Jon but because an out of state home builder tears down some trees and builds a cookie cutter out in Bithlo doesn’t mean that I have an obligation to live there before having better options come online downtown. Makes no sense at all

  4. I was with Michelle about the creative places but she lost me at the anti-urban tirade borderline Agenda 21 conspiracy. Not sure how one derives government led emission control mechanisms from PRIVATE investment in projects like these listed…that usually has the city scale BACK the height and density if anything. Orlando is going through a natural evolution and land is only going to become more and more valuable. Too valuable for low density and certainly too valuable for free parking. That’s the market, not the hand of government.

  5. Downtown is far from a commuter work place. We have one of the highest ratio of residents vs. commuters in our downtown core in the entire south. I drive to work 4 days a week, but otherwise walk or bike everywhere. These projects will only further enable an urban lifestyle.

  6. There won’t be more walking or bicycling until the current infrastructure plan allows for more bike lanes and pedestrian safety. Sure, there might be more walking within the neighborhood, but that will be because there will not be ample parking and traffic will be bad. Not everyone works downtown or even within walking distance and these mixed-use projects don’t bring in any of the better paying jobs. They’ll bring in the chain businesses and they won’t pay enough for the people that work there to live in the same development.

  7. Boooooo! I like repurposing what we have. A lot of creativity has gone into areas such as the Mills avenue and Milk district. The charm and authenticity are something that can’t be commercially developed and it is done by those with a true investment in the community. I am unclear if there is a demand for any of this urban upscale housing. I agree that it will be the ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am’ construction we usually get with fly by night developer ravaging through the state. The build it and they will come mentality isn’t going to work here. This isnt Winter Park. Downtown will always be a commuter work place. It has little daily living (grocery/pharmacy) accessibility without a car and the restaurants are over priced and not well supported by the unhabitants, because they are not very good. I am very concerned that there seems to be a push for these projects so that we adopt some sort of ride sharing system out of necessity. That is reckless logic since we don’t have a well planned grid system for it, nor do these projects seem to compensate for it. Moreover, it will raise the cost of living without raising wages. Flooding people into an area without a well developed industry for skilled labor, will keep out already low wage based stagnant. Our main industry is hospitality; a typically minimum wage job. More people, flat jobs or semi skilled jobs = no pressure to raise earning. Sorry, those pushing for this for the greater good of emission reduction really need to think of increased power and waste by these mega buildings, lack of a viable existing plan for commuter expansion and placing one in the hands of the folks at Sunrail and ask where are all of these folks coming from and where will they work? Please stop trying to urbanized the South into something it’s not. We were not founded on an industrialized base like NYC or Chicago. We do not have a defined seat of authority center demanding skilled labor like D.C., nor are we a commune, collective like the Pacific North West. We are more like Los Angeles. We are spread out and our downtown isn’t the true focal point of our community. Neighboring areas are.

  8. Perhaps this will bring more business/jobs to DT instead of to the “sprawl” areas. That would really benefit us from a transportation/carbon footprint standpoint.

  9. I’m more concerned that these are just cheap wooden structures for the most part. They should be steel and cement all the way up. The density is needed if we ever want viable mass transit. Sunrail ain’t cutting it.

  10. They will enable transit and more walking, bicycling. Trips by auto will be shorter. Otherwise, it’s just sprawl.

  11. With these projects, it is imperative that the City begin building new off-road multi-use pathways for bicyclers and pedestrians to connect our neighborhoods. Along with additional bus routes, this is our best hope to ease the inevitable, increased automobile traffic congestion.

  12. In a way, you are making my point. Both are unsustainable methods of building. They are not widening the roads or adding anything to the infrastructure. I don’t advocate urban sprawl at all, but the issues that happen there (increased congestion, lack of schools, strains on sewer systems and transportation grid) are going to be amplified in a small, older urban core.
    We should concentrate on the glut of unsold homes and vacant office space already out there than new developments that may be trendy for a while but will only serve to destroy the things that people originally moved there for.

  13. One of the primary reasons for the appeal regarding The Princeton at College Park is that it is not mixed-use. The PD ties the apartment complex in with existing retail, the CVS-Tijuana Flats commercial strip on Edgewater, which is owned by a different individual. There will be NO redevelopment of this commercial space, only its façade.

    This project is not in compliance with the Edgewater Drive Vision Plan because there is no mixed-use, so even though the number of units were dropped from 226 to 206, significant density bonuses have still been granted to the project as if it were a mixed-use project.

  14. Actually, not having these projects and spreading development further out will doom Orlando and the region with much worse traffic congestion and an unsustainable method of solving it (building and widening roads).

  15. We’ll be watching them in 2015 and paying for them for decades with increased traffic on already busy roads.