According to the Downtown Development Board, “exciting changes are coming” to Church Street as part of their ongoing mission to boost local business activities and mobility in the downtown core.
City Council recently approved efforts that will transform the streetscape along a section of Church Street between the SunRail station and Garland Avenue, through a series of phases, that will transform it into a “Festival Street” similar to Wall St. Plaza.
Following a series of improvements, including removing the curbs and adding enhanced landscaping as seen in the renderings in this post, this section of the street will become a more vibrant space for events, facilitated by the occasional street closure – but remain open to traffic in between larger events, similar to how Church Street currently functions in front of the Kia Center.
A timeline for the project is not set at this time, though it would complement the new urban park project, The Canopy, which is expected to start construction early next year. Construction on that corridor should be fairly painless as the last business on that block, Hamburger Mary’s Orlando, moved out earlier this summer.
