Continued vertical growth downtown
Several high-rises are in planning stages, with two designs battling to be city’s tallest building
Downtown Orlando could be growing up.
On about 2.5 acres in the North Quarter, what could be Orlando’s tallest high rise passed a crucial threshold this week, gaining approval from the city council of its site plan and preliminary designs, paving the way for more detailed construction plans to begin.
Called Vertical Medical City, plans show a 444-foot structure — three feet taller than downtown’s current tallest, the SunTrust Center — on Orange Avenue two blocks north of Colonial Drive overlooking Interstate 4. The $1-plus billion project would form the northern gateway into downtown, and would have medical offices, assisted-living and research offices, encompassing two buildings.
“We’re a complete transformation in how healthcare happens for our elders,” Tabitha Ponte, CEO of Ponte Health, the site’s Orlando-based developer. “It’s something that is unlike what is currently happening.”
She said they already have financing in place, in hopes of opening at some point in 2023.
The proposed high rise joins a spate of hulking projects that are in various stages of planning, including one that could be its equal in height, and another that could have the most residential units of any building downtown. And not only could the city’s buildings be growing vertical, but also shifting north from the Orlando’s core business district.
Among them is Zoi House Orlando, a 41-story building with a yet-to-be determined opening date planned for the corner of North Orange Avenue and East Livingston Street, next to the Orange County Courthouse. The
MEC Development Associates project will also be 444 feet, said Wayne Dunkelberger, the creative director for Baker Barrios, the architect on the project, because that’s the maximum height the Federal Aviation Administration would allow.
The skyscraper plans include ground floor retail, six floors of offices and 300 residential units spanning 24 floors. Last year the city’s Appearance Review Board and planners were “wowed” by the building’s tiered design, and sweeping corner, GrowthSpotter reported.
Zoi House has its master plans approved and still needs final approval from the city council in hopes of starting construction early next year. City officials said they’re waiting to hear back from developers on additional tweaks as they work with neighboring properties.
“We’re waiting on pins and needles to see what it does come out with when they come for final reviews,” said Jason Burton, Orlando’s assistant city planning manager.
Catty-corner to Zoi House, a Manhattan developer is planning X-Orlando, which would be the largest residential building in downtown. The site comprised of three towers — topping out at 368 feet — totaling 900 apartments, ground floor retail, 85,000-square feet of retail and 35,000 square-feet of co-working space. It also has a 1,500-space parking garage.
Baker Barrios is the architect of record for this project, and Dunkelberger said it could have a grocery store on the ground floor.
He said the X Orlando project has achieved approval and is working on building permits now in hopes of beginning construction at the end of the year with an undetermined opening date.
City planners said they’ve seen steady highrise proposals over several years, and questioned how many will be built while the development cycle is strong.
“Every time I think it’s going to slow down, another one comes in,” said Chief Planner Doug Metzger.
Despite the boom is apartment units, including other projects near Lake Eola and SkyHouse downtown, demand continues. The Orlando Economic Partnership projects about 1,500 people moving to Central Florida each week through 2030.
The region also has a severe shortage of affordable housing, and is considered the nation’s worst metro in housing for those on extremely-low incomes, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Developers are also pushing north, Dunkelberger said, in part because of a shortage of vacant land in the city’s corridor, but also potentially due to an expected influx of activity at the Creative Village. The joint UCF and Valencia campus will bring about 8,000 students downtown when it opens next month where the Amway Arena used to stand, as well as others at adjacent housing developments and who will work there.
The first housing complex there, Amelia Court, is due to open Friday.
“We’ve run out of land [in the core]. …Creative Village is also a driver for the north end,” Dunkelberger said. “It’s pretty low rise on that end…I believe when all of these buildings get going it’s going to drive more foot traffic … and bring more jobs and offices to downtown Orlando.”
Vertical Medical City, designed by the Jacobs firm, has two buildings, a shorter one with the offices and labs with an atrium atop the roof where the farm is located, as well as a 35-story tower with the 955 unit mix of assisted living, advanced care and memory care. The design will look curved to drivers passing by on I-4, Ponte said.
The company is also moving forward with a similar project in Chicago, and is eyeing other sites around the country.
The project will also include a robust urban farm, growing fruits and vegetables to be served inside and for research purposes. She said the produce could be key in research into the effect nutrition has on diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s.
“There is research out there that insinuates, but can’t quite prove, that things like dementia and Alzheimer’s could be driven by nutrition,” Ponte said. “This is not only a residential facility or a medical facility, but this is a researchfocused facility.”