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Lake Eola - Downtown

Downtown Arena Concept

Florida Citrus Bowl

Hue in Thornton Park

Florida Hospital Concept

During the building frenzy in 2005, scarcely a week passed without another major condominium project being announced for once-sleepy downtown Orlando. Sometimes, those same developments would announce quick sellouts as buyers swooped in to drop down deposits.

Now, reality has taken hold and the pace has slowed. Yet, despite a softening market, more than 30 projects are either planned, under construction or recently finished. That means roughly 7,000 condominium units are in the pipeline, along with more than 1 million square feet of office space.

And on the fringes of downtown, huge expansions at Florida Hospital and Orlando Regional Medical Center are under way, while Florida A&M University’s law school and a new federal courthouse were completed in 2006.

Along Central Boulevard, at the bustling mixed-use complex known as Thornton Park Central, the day begins when gourmet-trendy Central City Market opens for breakfast.

Next door, Shari Sushi Lounge attracts a glittery lunch and evening crowd, while the spacious Urban Think! Bookstore offers in-the-know readers a gallery-bistro hangout.

And at the corner, trendy Hue remains one of the hottest dining spots in town, especially during its monthly “Disco Brunches,” when the restaurant’s self-serve Bloody Mary bar draws long lines and the retro sounds of Donna Summer fill the street.

And all that barely covers just one neighborhood in Orlando’s dynamic downtown corridor.

Of course, there are residential options downtown aside from new condominiums.

The charming old neighborhoods ringing the city have been gentrifying since the late 1980s. While Thornton Park is perhaps the highest-profile example, property values are also soaring in the city’s other designated historic districts, including Lake Eola Heights, Lake Lawsona, Lake Cherokee and Lake Copeland.

As builders build and buyers buy, city officials are looking for ways to boost downtown arts and entertainment options while enhancing pedestrian-friendly transportation systems and attracting a greater variety of businesses.

A huge step in that direction was taken in September 2006, when city and county leader announced a deal that would bring downtown a new arena for the NBA’s Orlando Magic, a state-of-the-art performing arts center and a facelift for the Citrus Bowl, the city’s 70-year-old football stadium. The three buildings with a combined price tag of more than $1 billion would be financed by a combination of tax dollars and private donations.

UCF

Orlando International

Lake Nona

Florida Hospital East

Research Park

At roughly 100 square miles, the region generally referred to as southeast Orlando encompasses the University of Central Florida, Orlando International Airport and an array of master planned communities, as well as stretches of pastureland, piney forests and wetlands abutting the Econlockhatchee River.

But the remaining rural areas are rapidly vanishing as the pace of growth accelerates. Today the southeast sector, which includes portions of the city of Orlando as well as unincorporated Orange County, is home to more than 200,000 people, with more arriving every day.

With this explosive growth, however, have come challenges. Chief among them: building enough roads, schools and healthcare facilities to keep pace. And although some developers are working with local governments to expand roads and construct new schools, there is also a new movement afoot to form a new municipality in the county’s unincorporated eastern region.

The southeast sector was the fastest growing part of Orange County between 1990 and 2000. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the area’s population grew by more than 81 percent, to 164,000, during the decade. At more than 200,000 people and roughly 65,000 households, southeast Orlando today boasts a larger population than the city proper.

Much of the growth has come in the form of large, master-planned communities that contain a mixture of single-family and multifamily homes clustered around retail and commercial development.

Nestled amid a transportation network that includes the Beachline Expressway, the Central Florida GreeneWay, and the East-West Expressway, southeast Orlando’s growth should be no surprise.

The location factor is enhanced by the area’s environmental and recreational offerings, beginning with the Econ River and the Hall Scott Regional Preserve and Park. Then there is the area’s varied employment base, encompassing everything from higher education and defense contractors to the simulation industry and healthcare.

Top southeast Orlando employers include UCF, Central Florida Research Park, Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp., Lockheed Martin, Florida Hospital East Orlando, Orlando International Airport and Waterford Lakes Town Center.

Tavistock Group, the developer of upscale Lake Nona, has been particularly aggressive in promoting commercial and job growth in southeast Orlando.

Those efforts were bolstered in March 2006 when the state university system’s board of governors approved UCF’s plans for a new medical school. Now the university can break ground on its Burnett College of Biomedical Sciences, which will rise on land donated by Tavistock.

In addition, the Burnham Institute, a California-based medical research lab, has announced plans to locate a satellite facility at Lake Nona. The project is expected to generate hundreds of high-paying jobs.

Tying much of the growth together will be Innovation Way, a 5.5 mile stretch of roadway that will run from Avalon Park Boulevard and the UCF area to the Beachline and the entrance to ICP. The long-term vision is the creation of a high-tech corridor along which homes and businesses would cluster.

The first leg of Innovation Way is expected to be completed in 1-2 years, although plans call for it to eventually be extended further southwest, past the Beachline, to the GreeneWay and Narcoossee Road, then straight into Orlando International Airport.