With road realignment nearly done and relocation of utility lines taking longer than expected, Real Estate Inverlad Development expects to start laying foundation for The Yard at Ivanhoe mixed-use project by November, senior vice president Chance Gordy told GrowthSpotter.
Inverlad is about 30 days from finishing the realignment of Philadelphia Avenue to curve slightly west and connect with Alden Road, south of Virginia Drive.
Plans call for 630 apartments and 57,000 square feet of retail across three buildings ranging up to nine stories, set on 7.6 acres bounded by Virginia Drive to the south, Philadelphia Avenue to the east and S. Lake Formosa Drive to the north.
Gordy anticipates being able to start foundation work in late October or early November, but Inverlad’s progress is reliant on utility providers like OUC, AT&T and the City of Orlando completing their own relocation of lines from the abandoned segment of Alden Road that runs down the middle of “The Yard” site, eastward to under Philadelphia Avenue.
“We’ve dug the entire road of Philadelphia up, from the lake on the north side down to Virginia Drive,” Gordy said. “They’ve laid all the new utilities down and now we’re going back to re-lay the base and reset all the old brick.”
Inverlad was able to recover and recycle nearly all the original brick from those vacated segments of Alden and Philadelphia, and has replaced asphalt with old brick on a portion of S. Lake Formosa Drive.
Inverlad’s latest step with the city is requesting a street name change of Philadelphia Avenue and a portion of S. Lake Formosa Drive to Alden Road, which goes before the Municipal Planning Board on Sept. 19.
Inverlad’s affiliates own all of the land to the west of and abutting Philadelphia Avenue and all the land to the southwest of and abutting the portion of S. Lake Formosa Drive. So as more than 51 percent of property owners with linear frontage of the affected portion of the street, it can make such a request.
If Inverlad can begin laying foundation for its buildings in late October, that would allow vertical construction to start in Second Quarter 2018, which forecasts an opening for residents in Q2 2019, Gordy said.
Inverlad will deliver the project in three phases, with the first to include the open-air mall of retail-commercial on the southern end and one third of the apartment buildings in Q2 2019, he added.
Two more phases of apartments moving northward would follow, with the project fully built by Q1 2020, Gordy estimates.
The retail segment’s design will be themed around that of a railroad yard, with red brick, bronze-painted steel and large glass windows that imitate a classic Northeastern urban factory.
Anticipating concerns over the sound of late-night cargo train horns for the western side of the development, Gordy’s team has worked with acoustical and vibration monitoring consultants to add soundproofing provisions during construction.
Inverlad has talked with the city about fast-tracking its railroad quiet zone investments, and is planning to install insulated glass, flooring and walls on the railroad side of the apartment buildings.
As for a second phase of The Yard, for which 2.34 acres along Virginia Drive were bought in June 2016, Inverlad doesn’t plan to begin development work there until the first project is open and with leasing performance to expectations, Gordy said.
Littlejohn is civil engineer on the project, Baker Barrios is the architect, general contractor is Jack Jennings and Sons, and Colliers International will market the retail-commercial space.
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