Orlando Gets New Arts Center, New Training Facility
By Georgiana Mihaila, Associate Editor Orlando may soon become home to two highly ambitious and expensive projects. Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is once again a subject of debate as the May 23 deadline to break ground on the [...]
By Georgiana Mihaila, Associate Editor
Orlando may soon become home to two highly ambitious and expensive projects. Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is once again a subject of debate as the May 23 deadline to break ground on the project approaches. The $383 million arts center, poised to become Central Florida’s urban destination for multicultural artistry of regional, national and international standing, would also have a very down-to-earth purpose of creating nearly 3,000 Orlando-area jobs—generating an economic impact of more than $315 million from stage 1.
Featuring a Multi-form Theater, a huge Disney Theater, a Jim & Alexis Pugh Community Theater and a Public Performance Plaza (that can host up to 3,000 guests alone), the Center will be located in downtown Orlando, bordered by South Street to the north, Anderson Street to the south, Orange Avenue to the west, and Rosalind Avenue to the east.
The maximum contract price of $383 million for the planned project was approved May 13, but the first construction phase still lacks nearly $16 million in funding.
In other real estate news, GreenHouse Holdings, a leading provider of energy efficiency and sustainable facilities solutions, has recently announced its $151 million contract for designing, developing and constructing Central Florida’s Carlstrom National Security Center.
The Pinnacle Performance group awarded the contract for the aforementioned amount to Life Protection Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of GreenHouse Holdings. The facility is highly important as it will ensure the training of essential U.S. security personnel; therefore the design and preconstruction is expected to begin immediately. Although it’s public knowledge that Carlstrom Center will open in Central Florida, an exact location has yet to be released. Designed to accommodate both classroom-based learning and simulated training scenarios, the facility will create 250 jobs after its scheduled completion date three years from now.
