EDIT: The property has not officially been purchased by the Ustlers at this point in time. They are waiting to see if the variance will be approved before closing.
We told you back in July 2023 that the iconic Hood’s Up building had hit the market and was finally for sale, after sitting vacant and dangling its sad little bucket of pool noodles at us through the window for decades.
The former gas station, located at 2400 E. Robinson Street [GMap], was purchased by its former owners in 1986 when they remediated the property and had its gas tanks removed. It eventually closed in the early 1990s before eventually being sold by the team at Atrium Management Company this summer.
Now we can report that it has been purchased by local developers, the Ustlers; husband and wife duo Craig and Charlotte, to be transformed into a new restaurant use, according to paperwork filed with the City of Orlando.
That same paperwork reveals that the development team is requesting a variance of eight parking spaces to allow 10 spaces on site where 18 would normally be required for a new 3,519 SF restaurant use. Current plans also call for enclosing the areas on under the exterior canopies to expand the interior seating area. Parking would be located the southern and eastern property lines with angled and parallel parking.
Craig Ustler, whose Ustler Development Inc. is behind the ever-growing Creative Village, shared the following with Bungalower earlier today.
“Assuming the variance gets approved, we will start to really get to work on what we can do and how it will all come together. For a reasonably sized restaurant to be viable to be able to adaptively re-use the existing building, we need to get the variance approved before we can really dive into the details and specifics of what we can do there. It is obviously a great corner and the idea is stay consistent with the character and urban context of the Milk District while adding another quality food/beverage option that will help to continue to improve the neighborhood and raise the bar on the culinary scene.”
– CRAIG USTLER, USTLER DEVELOPMENT GROUP
The project is scheduled to be seen by the Board of Zoning Adjustment on August 27. This is in the very early stages of development and is likely to change as it progresses. The project will only proceed if the parking variance is approved.
