Downtown project may have unique wall art
New sketches filed with the city for a downtown apartment high-rise show some pretty unique artwork on a 13-story wall that would be visible to drivers headed north on Rosalind Avenue.
The newest sketches appear to show a huge, red treble clef — a musical symbol.
The new sketch also teases to some interesting names in the plaza facing Rosalind — Starbucks and Max’s Restaurant, which is a Filipino chain that specializes in Filipino-style fried chicken.
The apartment project, by Illinois-based Banner Apartments, is on the agenda for Tuesday’s Municipal Planning Board meeting at City Hall, along with two other notable projects — a Cambria Suites hotel on Rosalind, facing Lake Eola; and a proposal to tear down Colonial Lanes bowling alley for a self-storage facility. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m., and public comments are usually early on the agenda.
The first sketches and plans for the apartment project were filed in April, under the name Magnolia Rose, with a central courtyard. Then the developer redid the plan to show the courtyard facing Rosalind and Magnolia.
The building would sit on the vacant corner of Livingston Street and Rosalind. Developers there are seeking to close a spur of Rosalind that heads north to Livingston after traffic on Rosalind curves west to become North Magnolia Avenue.
The apartment application is for 389 units, with 14,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, a small plaza fronting North Rosalind Avenue, a small dog run and a multi-story parking garage.
The apartment plan is submitted by Kimley-Horn planning and engineering firm for the 1.79-acre site. Parliament House
The owners of Parliament House, a gay-themed resort on Orlando’s west side, are selling 5 acres to resolve debts that have plagued them since the recession.
The sale includes a parking lot and some vacant land, near The Gardens timeshare building next to the main resort. Only those outparcels are being sold. The owners, Don Granatstein and Susan Unger, will keep possession of the Parliament House and The Gardens.
Selling the acreage to a Miami lender, Lion Financial, is part of Granatstein’s long struggle to bring the resort back to financial health. He had timed the real estate market badly, pledging the Parliament House as collateral to build The Gardens in 2004.
Both lenders on The Gardens project closed during the recession, and the loans were caught up in a trail of bankruptcies and takeovers.
Lion Financial now holds a $3.9 million mortgage on the Parliament House. It filed a foreclosure on that loan in December. Parliament House will lease the property from Lion for parking.