By Georgiana Mihaila, Associate Editor<\/p>\n
During this year\u2019s State of Downtown speech, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced that Rida Development Corporation, the company behind ChampionsGate and Hilton Orlando, will take on a new challenge by building a $200 million transit-oriented development.<\/p>\n
The mixed-use Central Station project will spread over a 5.6-acre parcel adjacent to the Lynx Central Station and across Orange Avenue from the Orange County Courthouse. The location facilitates a direct connection to SunRail, the 61-mile commuter train system scheduled to launch in 2014, making the Central Station the first example of transit-oriented development tied to the SunRail. According to an official release, a spine running through the center of the complex would link Orange Avenue with downtown\u2019s main SunRail platform at the Lynx center.<\/p>\n
The first phase of the development will consist of a hotel and several mid-rise apartment buildings of seven to ten stories, placed along the north side of the property, accompanied by ground-floor shops and restaurants. The costs of this first phase are estimated at $100 million. The second phase would add office space to the south side of the property, but the developer plans on waiting for a notable improvement of the commercial market before moving forward with the $100 million second phase.<\/p>\n
Many large projects have been considered for the property bounded by Orange Avenue, Amelia Street, Livingston Street and the Lynx headquarters. The 5.6-acre tract, considered to be the largest undeveloped parcel downtown, was purchased by Rida Development for $15.1 million in 2008 from Palm Beach Land Trust\u2014which also had plans for a $250 million mixed-use project tied into the commuter-rail system. Previous to Palm Beach Land Trust, the property was owned by Ron Pizzuti, who proposed Orlando City Center\u2014a tower topped by a large open cube, but the project was shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration as it would have endangered the Orlando Executive Airport air traffic due to its height.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Georgiana Mihaila, Associate Editor
\nDuring this year\u2019s State of Downtown speech, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer announced that Rida Development Corporation, the company behind ChampionsGate and Hilton Orlando, will take on a new challenge by building a $200 million transit-oriented development.
\nThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21742,1493],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004051890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest","category-orlando"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n