Boom times in Downtown Orlando

[thelakelander]

Many cities have struggled with the revitalization of their urban cores. Orlando isn't one of them. A sleepy central business district twenty years ago continues its radical transformation into an up and coming vibrant pedestrian friendly destination. Much of this success is due to the concept of clustering, complementing development together within a compact pedestrian scale setting. For sunbelt cities struggling to understand that concept, here's a collection of mid-week evening photographs illustrating what it looks like visually.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/boom-times-in-downtown-orlando/

[Captain Zissou]

Hahaha I was about to say it sounds like Ennis wrote that, but then I saw the link.  Orlando keeps leaving us in the dust.

[thelakelander]

Lol, I'm guilty! It still has a way to go but you can see the progress and the excitement of more to come. Downtown Orlando has changed a lot since the days when it was literally Church Street Station and not much of anything else. It has a vibe and you can feel it being there. It's taken a good 20 years to get to this point.  However, at no point in those twenty years was a strategy built around bomb, destroy and just watch.... they'll come. ;-)

[Charles Hunter]

Weird, I only see one picture and no article.

[Todd_Parker]

You know things are going well when even the I-4 Eyesore is nearing completion.

Wonder if Khan has ever contemplated moving the Jags there.

[thelakelander]

Weird, I only see one picture and no article.

Oops! Sorry. Correct article link is in now: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/boom-times-in-downtown-orlando/

[Charles Hunter]

Thanks!  Good look at a downtown on the rise.

[thelakelander]

You know things are going well when even the I-4 Eyesore is nearing completion.

Strangely enough, elevated I-4 isn't quite the eyesore through downtown Orlando or been a recent stumbling block to infill economic development opportunity. That's because enough smart planning and implementation of sound urban principles has occurred on the surrounding blocks where there's sufficient density to overcome the general excuses made by entities that have not invested in density building.

[Kerry]

Let me say great article, but I would remiss in responsibilities if I didn't do this....

Many cities have struggled with the revitalization of their urban cores.

It is just Jax that is struggling.  I actually can't think of any town or city of any size that hasn't been able to pull it off yet.

[thelakelander]

Toledo, Buffalo, and Rochester are three that have come to my mind in travels over the last decade. However, I'm not sure of where they are today.

[Kerry]

Toledo, Buffalo, and Rochester are three that have come to my mind in travels over the last decade. However, I'm not sure of where they are today.

I can't speak to Rochester and Toledo but StrongTowns just had an article on the deurbanization of downtown Buffalo.

[Kerry]

I did just find this website for downtown Buffalo

https://www.buffalorising.com/2019/01/downtown-area-development-recap-2018-edition/

Downtown development this year was not one for the record books. The bar was set high last year when several large projects including the Oshei Children's Hospital and UB Medical School opened their doors. Ten projects were completed in 2018, fourteen were announced, and eighteen are currently under construction. With the curtain closed on 2018, below is a recap of the development activity that occurred in the downtown area last year.

[bl8jaxnative]

Let me say great article, but I would remiss in responsibilities if I didn't do this....

Many cities have struggled with the revitalization of their urban cores.

It is just Jax that is struggling.  I actually can't think of any town or city of any size that hasn't been able to pull it off yet.

What are the metrics for reaching revitalization?      What is the level of vitality today compared to 1950 that's needed to be revitalized?  I don't mean to get all lawyeristic, just trying to get an idea of how others see it.

And I ask because I can think of all sorts of downtowns that I wouldn't consider revitalized all that much compared to how they used to be.  IMHO often times people look at something that was practially dead and once any sort of life comes back in some part of it, they decalre it revitalized.    That's a low bar.

People too often mix up resurgent with revitalized.  There's not the same. 

* Birmingham -    Giant, empty, with a couple of spots not dead.
* Kansas City, KS - You're life would be at risk after dark except that you'll be the only person there.   
* Hartford - a bankrupt dumpster fire
* Providence - Like many cities it's age and size, an empty shell of its old self.
* Rochester, NY -  I'm suprised they don't turn the lights off after 4:30pm.
* Detroit - Detroit is resurgent.  But with a downtown population smaller than the town near my grandma's farm AND at that in a metro area of 5 million people, it has a long, long, long road ahead of it; Not revitalized ( yet ).
* Milwaukee - There's some reason for hope.  That is, there is resurgence.    Like Detroit, don't conflate that with being revitalized.
* Indianapolis - What did you expect from Indiana.

There are others I'm not comfortable calling revitalized like St. Louis, Salt Lake City and Norfolk.  With Norfolk I'd be curious to know what some people familiar with it's history think.  I get the sense that while downtown had a decline compared to other downtowns in the US it fared pretty well.  I'm not sure there was really much there for revitalization.  Maybe not?

[Todd_Parker]

What do you think are the main reasons that investors are choosing to develop in downtown Orlando and Tampa and not as much in Jacksonville? Lack of corporate headquarters? Greater tourism in those cities? Does the city of Jacksonville make it more difficult to develop here than elsewhere in the state?

[thelakelander]

Does the city of Jacksonville make it more difficult to develop here than elsewhere in the state?

I think Jax's historical downtown stumbling blocks are linked to local public policy and development strategy. Revitalization has never been a money or affordability problem. It's been a tendency to prioritize things that don't necessarily create short or long term revitalization synergy within the marketplace. A focus on big, expensive and risky gimmicks as opposed to getting the basics right and incrementally building off of them. Orlando has been pretty solid with its path. Sort of like Charleston under Mayor Riley's administration, they've had a vision, have pretty much stuck to it and now you can see the fruits of their labor. 10 to 15 years ago, Tampa had many of the same struggles. Over the last decade or so, it's turned itself around. Local competition with St. Petersburg probably had a lot to do with that. So the hope for Jax isn't or shouldn't necessarily be Shad Khan or any other single developer or development. It should be if Tampa finally figured out how to get out of its own way, Jax should be able to achieve the same.