On building and development news, the planned Verde Towers project located Uptown on a 2.5 acre site at the corner of N. Orange and Marks St., long thought to be on hold, has been reborn as a 300 mid-rise apartment 5 story building with 1st floor retail proposed for artist related galleries and shops, with an aim to continue downtown's residential expansion into Uptown. Details are slowly emerging and I will keep you posted.
There is some very good news for the new downtown Arena and Entertainment complex. You can now begin to see when travelling I-4 WB and exiting from the temporary Anderson St. exit, the future site of the Orlando Events Center. The land is now clearly visible and has been completely cleared of the final remaining buildings and structures. The Church St. site is just on the other side of I-4 from Church Street Station and will be completed and ready in time for the Magic’s 2010 NBA season. There are also plans in the works to transform the area under I-4 into an outdoor retail market and walkway to bridge the Church Street Station and new Arena entertainment complexes.
And now for some downtown dining, drinking, and entertainment news…The former Lee’s Underground, “Cheers” style basement bar, has re-opened as Stardust Lounge, not to be confused with Stardust Video on Corrine and Winter Park drive, a cool spot in its own that I should tell you about another time. The new Stardust Lounge promises a vintage 1950’s Vegas style and as is owned by the Beacon Hill Group, which also owns Graze and The Beacon downtown restaurants located in the Sanctuary condo. I will keep you posted on if it lives up to its promise and plan to make a visit this week. On a related note, the former Beacon Group’s “Room 39” bar in the historic Angebilt Building on Orange Ave (next to The Lodge), has been renovated and re-opened as “Finnhenry’s” (www.finnhenrys.com) with plans of being a neighborhood style bar and lunch spot. A first visit found it pretty busy as a potential happy hour hotspot, with food apparently only served till 3pm. Since I arrived after that I can’t tell you much about the food, but the waitress was kind enough to bring over some pretty tasty homemade chips. J Also in restaurant news, the recently closed Downtown Sam Snead’s will be replaced by “310 Lakeside” from the same owners as 310 Park South on Park Ave. in Winter Park. More news on that to come…
Some more downtown happenings… a group of emerging artists have begun to coordinate a weekly “Block Party” in downtown on the 200 block of Magnolia Ave, near Culture Mart and Daily News luncheonette. The event invites local artists to display and sell their work and starts at about 8pm on Fridays.
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