Thursday, March 09, 2006

Orlando Goes Urban at SoDo



Orlando Goes Urban at SoDo
March 07, 2006
By Hortense Leon, Southeast Correspondent

Tonya Creekmore
In the midst of a development boom in downtown Orlando, North American Properties and Kimco Developers Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kimco Realty Corp., are planning a roughly $100 million mixed-use project just south of downtown Orlando, dubbed SoDo.

Construction for SoDo--which will include 330,000 square feet of retail, including multiple anchor tenants, 300 luxury condominiums and an undetermined amount of office space--is expected to begin by the end of the year, Tonya Creekmore, vice president of leasing for North American Properties, told CPN this morning. Condominiums will be located above street level retail in the project.

The developers do not yet have tenants for the retail section of the project, "but we are
working with several national retailers," said Creekmore, who added that build-out is expected to take approximately 12 to 18 months.

SoDo, which stands for south of downtown Orlando, will be built on 20 acres of land now home to an existing strip mall, an abandoned drive-in theater and warehouses, Creekmore said. The developers expect to close on the site, which has multiple owners, by the end of the year.

The location is close to I-4, next door to Delaney Park, which is one of the oldest and most traditional of the single-family-home neighborhoods in the city.

The developers of SoDo have not yet submitted formal plans to the city, said Orlando's planning director, Dean Grandin. But an amendment to the city's comprehensive plan--which allows for mixed use commercial development on the entire site, rather than a portion of it, as had been the case--and a change in zoning has paved the way for SoDo. "The development will be more vertical than horizontal," Grandin told CPN this morning. "On these tighter, constrained sites, close to the downtown core, we will see more high density development with stacked uses and structured parking (in the future)."

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I currently live in Delaney Park, and have been interested in and watching the development of SoDo for awhile now.

I think it's going to be a great rejuvenation for the area; I may even consider looking into living in the apartment complex.

6:10 PM  
Blogger ShannonD said...

Kimco Realty Corporation (NYSE: KIM) will celebrate the opening of SoDo on October 10th – 12th in Orlando, Florida. The public is invited to join Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, other elected officials and city staff for grand opening festivities at SoDo, beginning on October 10th at 10 a.m.

2:45 PM  

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