More high-rise towers could be headed to downtown Orlando

This summer Orlando city planners have held preliminary meetings with developers looking to build as many as five new high rise towers at various locations in the city’s Central Business District.

The proposals run the gamut of uses with various mixes of hotel rooms, apartments, condos, offices and retail. Heights range from 17 to 33 stories.

Welcome to the new normal.

With the economy booming and major projects like Church Street Station and the Dr. Phillips Center expansion in the home stretch, the downtown property market is white hot. Other approved tower projects, such as X Orlando and Vertical Medical City, continue to create buzz for the city’s core.

Lincoln Property Company met recently with Orlando city planners to discuss Phase 2 of Church Street Station. Baker Barrios Architects released a rendering of the tower this week. (Baker Barrios)

Lincoln Property Company’s next phase of its massive Church Street Station development is poised to move forward. As it wraps up the first phase, SunTrust Plaza, the developer has already sought demolition permits for the neighboring Orchid Garden & Ballroom at 225 S. Garland Ave., just north of the first tower. Architecture firm Baker Barrios recently released its first rendering of the new tower on social media.

Baker Barrios is also part of the design team for three other downtown tower projects: X Orlando, slated for construction this year, and the proposed 41-story Zoi House (both on the 300-block of North Orange Avenue), as well as the 26-story mixed-use tower at 315 N. Magnolia Street.

Summa Development Group, which completed the 233-unit Citi Tower at 200 Lake Ave. in 2017, is eyeing an assemblage of land just across the street for a new mixed-use tower. The new project is dubbed “The Summit Radisson” and would be anchored by a potentially the first Radisson Collection upscale hotel in the U.S., according to preliminary documents provided by the developer and architect, BKV Group.

The mixed-use tower could house the first super-lux Radisson Collection branded hotel in the U.S. It's a block south of Lake Eola. (BKV Group)

The site is 1 acre, and the 33-story tower was envisioned as a 385-foot skyscraper with six levels of structured parking. The conceptual plan calls for 121 hotel rooms spread over nine floors with one floor dedicated to the hotel amenities, a spa and meeting space. The upper floors would consist of 70 condo units with six floorplans ranging in size from 648 square feet to 2,608 square feet. Another three floors (29-31) would offer a combined 15 penthouse units, while the condo amenity would be located on the 32nd floor. The conceptual rendering shows a rooftop pool on the 33rd floor.

Boca Raton developer David Hirschfeld and his representatives also held a pre-application meeting with the city in July to share preliminary plans for a 17-story mixed-use tower in Parramore, at the corner of Central Boulevard and Division Avenue -- across from the proposed Orlando Magic Sports & Entertainment District. The building site is an assemblage of fiver different parcels and adds up to about one acre.

Each red star marks the location of a potential new high-rise tower in Orlando's Central Business District. (Orange County Property Appraiser/staff edit)

Plans could be filed as early as this month for the tower, which would combine 11,300 square feet of ground-floor dining and retail uses with structured parking, offices, apartments and a private rooftop club with its own pool, bar and cabanas. The development plan calls for 171 apartments -- most of which would be 500 square feet or less -- and an extensive amenity center that includes a fitness center, lounge and yoga terrace. Miami-based Absolute Idea is the project architect.

RDIP’s Susan Morris is marketing another downtown site at 401. S. Rosalind Ave. that’s been getting significant development interest. The 1-acre site directly behind the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts is currently on the market for $8.2 million. It currently has a two-story office building that previously housed offices for the Orange County Comptroller. Morris said prospective buyers have pitched mixed-use towers with hotels, apartments, condos - or various combinations of uses.

“We’re getting a lot of interest from hotel developers because it’s so close to the Dr. Phillips Center," she said.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261, or tweet me at @LKinslerOGrowth. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.