Ground is broken
New Church Street Plaza project holds its groundbreaking
on the 28-story Church Street Plaza project.
The 28-story Church Street Plaza project held its official groundbreaking Tuesday and announced two additional tenants — RSM business consulting firm, and Tennessee-based coworking firm E|SPACES.
Construction has started on the new building, which is next to Interstate 4 and just south of the Church Street Ballroom.
“This will be the front porch of downtown Orlando, of the city really,” said Steve Bellflower, president of Orlando-based HuntonBrady architects.
The front porch on the tower is a large balcony about 18 stories up, which will feature sweeping views of City Hall, the Amway Center, Interstate 4, the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and other landmarks.
The balcony will be the lobby for the area’s first location of Marriott’s AC Hotels brand and will have public facilities, such as a bar.
The building will have its own platform on SunRail’s southbound track, and it will be a uniquely modern, angular style for Orlando. It’s also the first major high-rise project right next to I-4 in downtown Orlando. Because of that, it will create a new impression of downtown for travelers going east on I-4.
On hand for the groundbreaking Tuesday was Bob Snow, who founded the Church Street Station entertainment complex in the 1970s. Lincoln now owns the south side of Church Street, from the tower construction site to the Cheyenne Saloon.
“My original vision for Church Street was that it include a hotel, and now it’s getting that,” he said. “I hope that this will mean they keep Cheyenne Saloon and the Orchid Garden.”
Developers at Lincoln Property Company also announced two more equity partners who helped fund the project, Mason Capital Partners and Pope & Land Enterprises, both based in Atlanta. They contributed $31 million, said Scott Stahley, regional partner at Lincoln.
He recounted a long road to the construction process, spanning more than three years. He said he hopes to save the Orchid Garden, but is trying to figure out how to repurpose the Cheyenne Saloon.
The arrival of yet another coworking firm in Orlando cements the downtown area as a hub for co-working. So far, E|SPACES has two locations in Tennessee. The announcement that it is coming to Orlando follows a similar announcement by Pipeline, a Miami-based co-working chain.
E|SPACES and Pipeline will join several other co-working spaces already up and running in Metro Orlando, including Catalyst, Colab and the not-for-profit Canvs.
Major work on below-ground pilings for Church Street Plaza has already begun. In planning stages for the last three years, it was called Tremont Tower or Tremont Plaza.
Lincoln’s subsidiary, Church Street Phase 1, got $74.8 million in financing on the project, according to a mortgage recorded last month, from Vancouverbased Trez Forman Capital.
The downtown market has been lacking in new Class A office space with open floor plans.
The new construction comes after rents in the Orlando market have risen gradually since the recession, with the current vacancy rate nearing only 10 percent, according to research from real estate firm Jones Lang Lasalle.