The $1 billion, transit-oriented private redevelopment of 68 acres on downtown's west side will focus on restaurants, coffee shops and bars for the "young, smart, creative people" Ustler expects the area to draw. In fact, Creative Village offers plenty of retail opportunities, with plans for housing for 1,200-plus students, 120,000 square feet of office space and a 290-room hotel.
Ustler said he was most excited about bringing a food hall to serve the planned $62.5 million, 250-unit market-rate apartment complex. "That's really where I think we start to get some legs on the creative side, the entrepreneurial side," Ustler said. "We create local authenticity. [It] gives you some street cred so to speak in that world." The apartment's food hall is part of the $431-million first phase of development at Creative Village, which will mainly cater to the 7,700 students expected to populate the University of Central Florida's future downtown campus.
About 12,000 square feet of ground-level retail and restaurant space sits at the bottom of the student housing complex that Ustler Development and KUD International LLC plan to build. Ustler said they are targeting fast-casual restaurants for the complex, such as coffee shops, Mexican food and hamburger joints, as well as a convenience store and a branch bank. "That's sort of the low-hanging fruit so to speak," Ustler said. "That'll go first and be driven by the critical mass of students on Day 1."
However, Ustler was quick to remind people that retail is not the focus of Creative Village, but rather one part of the bigger picture. "I don't want anybody to think that any of us are talking about downtown becoming a major retail destination as much as we are it's an integral part of the lifestyle as an urban amenity," Ustler said. "It doesn't ultimately take up a ton of square footage. It just really provides a lifestyle balance to what will largely be — because the young, smart creative people that are starting companies and what not, they drink coffee and beer, walk their dog and do that kind of stuff, so that's what you're going to react to, more than just saying, 'Hey we're going to build a Banana Republic because somebody wants to buy a shirt.' That is not what's going to happen in urban environments more or less.
It's going to be totally lifestyle-based and really be an urban amenity to a larger division." Creative Village is expected to generate more than $200 million in economic impact for the region. The UCF Downtown campus is planned to open in 2019, but construction could begin on some projects by 2017.
Kathryn Deen - Staff Writer, Orlando Business Journal
No comments:
Post a Comment