Why the hype? Well…here are a few reasons why more and more people are headed downtown for Good:

• If you work downtown, it’s easy to get around
• Ditching the keys and driving less as gas prices increase
• Tons of restaurants in the city’s core
• Lake Eola park is a great place to spend your evenings and weekends
• New Orlando Events Center coming soon!
• New Orlando Performing Arts Center coming soon!
• Nightlife and lots of entertainment options
• Possible 12 screen movie theater at The Plaza
• Lymmo – Lynx’s Free transit in the city’s core
• Condos with great views of Orlando
• Those great pedicabs!
• New Publix which is set to open late August 2008

Can you think of any other reasons?

Downtown Orlando Fireworks at the Fountain 2008

Friday, July 4, 2008 4 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Lake Eola Park – Downtown Orlando

Cost: Free

Entertainment:

* Live entertainment begins at 4 p.m. and will include the K92FM “Colgate Country Showdown” at the Amphitheater and classic rock on the 96.5 WHTQ stage!

* The Orlando Concert Band performs in the Amphitheater at 8 p.m.

* Also, on site will be six of Central Florida’s top radio stations: Star 94.5, AM 580 WDBO, 98.9 WMMO, Power 95.3, 96.5 WHTQ and K92FM, the Orlando Magic and two huge bounce houses in the kids’ area and a state of the art, full-motion driving simulator allowing participants to experience the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

The Lexington Hotel located on SR 50(Colonial Drive) just West of I-4 will be grounds for the latest Orlando branch chain of Crowne Plaza hotels. InterContinental Hotels Group, which is the parent company to Crowne Plaza, mentioned that it hopes to attract and lure travelers of Central Business District companies. The facility will be used to host small to mid size meetings in the downtown Orlando area. Plans are to add approximately 1,500 square feet

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On Thursday June 19th, take advantage and ride the Lynx bus system anywhere in Central Florida for free.

Try it and save some gas!

Visit this site to print out a pass: Dump the Pump Day!

So chatter is really starting to pick up about the Downtown Publix. Some question if the talk of one being located on the ground floor of the Paramount are even true. Others question the grocery store’s commitment to open in the struggling downtown residential market.

Last week, a spokesperson from Publix commented that they are sticking to their commitment. The Publix should be open for business as early as this Fall and the Paramount(16 story condos above the Publix) should be filling their units around the same time.

With the gas prices as high as they are, this will be a nice thing for those folks who live downtown and don’t like their current hike for groceries.

As you may know from reading up on the downtown movie theater subject, there has been significant speculation of what would happen since The Plaza officially opened in early ’07. We heard that one movie company picked it up and then dropped it. Then we heard that the large and reputable AMC Company picked it up

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The City of Orlando began monitoring the streets of downtown and Parramore with a “smart camera” system called IRIS this morning. This system was paid for by federal homeland security funds and aims to help police identify and hold criminals accountable for actions committed/ taped.

These cameras are already used in larger cities across the United States (like Boston) and in Europe to help deter unlawful activity in common crime areas (ATM’s, street corners, construction sites…etc.). There are plans to install close to 60 cameras in the upcoming weeks. The amount currently servicing downtown Orlando is 13.

These cameras will be in the core downtown area to start and only directed/pointed to public areas. Some people argue that this could be invasion of privacy but I believe if you’re in a public place…it’s just that, “Public” and means any actions can be watched or viewed by a 2^nd party. Being proactive is the key to relinquishing crime before it happens. I am glad to see that the city is taking the initiative on this and understands that Orlando’s downtown sector is growing. Getting the word out about this will also help so I wanted to share this new with all of you folks out there that either live, want to live, or dream of living in a downtown condo in the near future. The street cameras will give you an elevated “peace of mind” that you are safe and measures are being taken to assure your safety.

So the verdict is in for all of those folks that wanted to know what happened at March 1st’s auction for Solaire condos. Before we begin, here are some of the facts:

• Appx 150 people registered and were in attendance for this event
• Auction lasted about an hour and a half
• 1br units started at 170K and 2br units started at 250K
• 42 units were available for sale(what was advertised)
• 30 units total sold
• No spectacular, once in a lifetime deals emerged(surprise surprise)

I was not able to attend this auction but have done quite a bit of reading up on the subject. Basically, I think this event shows that we’re feeling a false bottom in the downtown Orlando Condo market. The interest of living a metro-urban lifestyle is there but

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So heres a bit of info for those of you interested in this Inventory Close-Out Auction…

Date: Saturday, March 1, 2008

Time: Bidder Check-in is at 12 Noon and the auction will start at 1pm

Duration: appx 1.5 hrs

Place: Embassy Suites Orlando-Downtown – 191 East Pine St., Orlando, FL

Number of Units: 42 units are available to be sold

The Auction Information Center is open daily 12pm to 7pm.

More Solaire at the Plaza Auction talk here…

So the trailer for this future condo has been sitting there on the corner of Liberty Ave. and Jackson St. for at least a year now and I drive past it at close to 3 times a week…is it me or does it now seem to be completely vacated? I haven’t seen a single sole walking in or out of it nor have I seen a single car in the parking lot in ages. Somethings up.

Ohhh and It gets better. I now hear that there is some sort of “notice” on the sign in front of the trailer… Is it a notice to vacate…or a notice to potential buyers that their window of opportunity has been shut…? Chime in if you know.

Check back in a day or two as I am going to be looking at this sign when i’m driving downtown in the next day or two to see what the deal is…