Lionsgate World Resort

[MrRoamer]

Man, the UNI homerism of this site is shining through. Y'all carry some water by the buckets for them. I love Uni but this is just ridiculous much like the opinion piece in the Sentinel states.

Not sure I made any mention of Universal in the points I brought up. I don't want to see an area of our town that has finally almost been brought back to life potentially fall back into the same pit it came from. I even said I would be fine with it going in FunSpot which is even closer.

We've had 3 major areas (Downtown, Downtown Disney, I-Drive) go from prosperity to a shadow of themselves and all of them have been getting addressed. I would like to see that continue instead of history repeating.

 

[ChrisFL]

I know some people that used to go to that high school. All the students walked over to Uni every few Fridays.

Dr. Phillips Class of 1996 here....go Panthers!

 

[ChrisFL]

Agreed that International Drive, Downtown Orlando have gone way downhill in the past few decades, but I think it can be linked to Disney's efforts to keep people on their property for their entire vacation, plus Universal's parks and CityWalk, etc.

The other choice is to venture away from those places to I-drive which some parts are pretty crappy and traffic nightmares, or downtown Orlando where Church St. Station is/was next to Paramore, a really bad ghetto area with lots of crime and violence.

 

[IzzyB]

Agreed that International Drive, Downtown Orlando have gone way downhill in the past few decades, but I think it can be linked to Disney's efforts to keep people on their property for their entire vacation, plus Universal's parks and CityWalk, etc.

The other choice is to venture away from those places to I-drive which some parts are pretty crappy and traffic nightmares, or downtown Orlando where Church St. Station is/was next to Paramore, a really bad ghetto area with lots of crime and violence.

And putting a really tall tower is not going to draw people away from Disney or Universal. Which is why this is not a good move. I Drive needs to have smaller things that appeal to people. Not large eye sores that when they fail look even worse. I don't think there is such a demand for that high of a building. There is not enough places needed for that high of a building.

 

[SeventyOne]

I agree with BriMan. The Eye is a failure, and it's currently closed with no reopening date announced. Truth is, most attractions that open on I-Drive fail, they have for the past 25 years.

YardHouse and Tin Roof are routinely packed on the weekends. Hell, Tin Roof at 9 pm on a Monday still has more people than any CityWalk venue. Shake Shack seems to be busy all the time. Tervis store could be doing better, but give it time.

In that sense, the Eye has very much been a success.

It can't be stated enough, the Eye/Skycoaster aren't going after the day-ticket crowd. They are weenies to draw people to nightlife. Convention-goers at the second-largest convention space in the US, the ever-growing local market of young professionals, Disney cast members who no longer have DTD as an option. It's a huge market, and I-Drive is doing what it can to take it away from CityWalk and Sand Lake Road.

 

[SeventyOne]

The area doesn't need another mall area though, it is already over saturated and most of them are not in good shape. In that area you have the outlet mall by FunSpot, the outlet mall west towards Disney, Millenial, Pointe Orlando, Artegon, and then all the shopping complexes (tourist traps) littered up and down I-Drive. Pointe Orlando has been a shadow of itself for years, and last I heard Artegon is not having a great time of it. The surplus of shopping complexes is what caused I-Drive to go downhill in the first place.

The two outlet malls are crazy busy--the south I-Drive one is routinely the #2 tourist destination in Florida.

Millenia tho geographically close doesn't really "feel" like a part of the tourist area. In any case, it has great occupancy, so stores there seem to be making money, even if restaurants may or may not be.

Pointe Orlando turned itself around about 5 yeas ago by switching from traditional mall stores to more of a restaurant/nightlife spot, sort of what I think a lot of us hoped Disney Springs would turn into. It has slow nights, but is also packed out on weekends or nights when a big convention is in town. BB Kings just opened a second storefront there, so somebody is making money.

Artegon is a mess, but that's because it's still 2/3 empty. Management failure, pure and simple. Give people what they want--like Pointe or 360 do--it would have crowds.

Again, the key to I-Drive's future at the moment is nightlife. The area surrounding I-Drive is changing rapidly--yuppie apartments are popping up like mushrooms. That I suspect is driving this as much as the "adult tourism" market (a target demo abandoned by WDW and left stagnant by Uni). This is very much "the new downtown." And developers want whatever leg up they can get to succeed there.

 

[MrRoamer]

The two outlet malls are crazy busy--the south I-Drive one is routinely the #2 tourist destination in Florida.

Millenia tho geographically close doesn't really "feel" like a part of the tourist area. In any case, it has great occupancy, so stores there seem to be making money, even if restaurants may or may not be.

Pointe Orlando turned itself around about 5 yeas ago by switching from traditional mall stores to more of a restaurant/nightlife spot, sort of what I think a lot of us hoped Disney Springs would turn into. It has slow nights, but is also packed out on weekends or nights when a big convention is in town. BB Kings just opened a second storefront there, so somebody is making money.

Artegon is a mess, but that's because it's still 2/3 empty. Management failure, pure and simple. Give people what they want--like Pointe or 360 do--it would have crowds.

Again, the key to I-Drive's future at the moment is nightlife. The area surrounding I-Drive is changing rapidly--yuppie apartments are popping up like mushrooms. That I suspect is driving this as much as the "adult tourism" market (a target demo abandoned by WDW and left stagnant by Uni). This is very much "the new downtown." And developers want whatever leg up they can get to succeed there.

That list was an order of successful to abysmal, Millenia may be a little further but it has all the fancy boutique kind of shops bringing in that class of people, and I purposely left out 360 because it isn't finished yet. My point was there are quite a lot in that area.

Totally agree that the convention goers are a huge demo-graph that they need to capitalize on, but I don't believe this is something that will draw them in.

 

[darkridelover]

I'm sorry. The traffic infrastructure is no where close to what it needs to be on I-Drive to support these massive expansion projects. Traffic is already a nightmare there. The sidewalks are cracking and small and a lot of the hotels in the area are run down. And there are no convenient exit ramps to access it from I-4 without waiting in 15 mins of traffic lights.

 

[WAJAS]

1. Traffic on I-Drive can be easily fixed in the majority of it (aka. not the choked portion south of Universal and north of Sandlake) using mass transit. Making it more of a park and ride situation. This mass transit could include more buses, more pedicabs, maglev (oh how I wish this would happen), and encouraging people to park once and walk. Sandlake Road's issues should be fixed by the improvement project coming next year.

2. Artegon is not doing terrible. They get enough business to stay in the black. If they didn't the short term lease owners would have left by now.

3. I-Drive 360 is doing well and the Eye and other properties are at least in the black. The restaurants are actually doing amazing. Pointe Orlando is basically in the same situation.

4. If I-Drive really wants to succeed then they need to advertise themselves as a cohesive destination like the resorts. Like having a ticket similar to city passes that are common elsewhere that gives you access to all of the big attractions (ie. Wonder Works, Orlando Eye, SeaLife, SkyScraper, etc.)

Basically, I-Drive could compete with the resorts in the future (at least on the level SeaWorld does) if they can work together.

 

[IAmFloridaBorn]

Wow just wow. Most of you dont even live here lol. Smh

 

[ThreePack Shagur]

I can see it now!
"I-Drive: The Resort Where You Can Get Stabbed or Carjacked After 7 PM"

 

[Cheezbat]

Wow just wow. Most of you dont even live here lol. Smh

Exactly. I have to deal with this traffic on an almost daily basis. If they want to add more to I-Drive, they need to build better infrastructure to support it.

I heard the I-4 rebuild won't be done until 2021...traffic is going to continue to be a nightmare.

 

[ChrisFL]

An elevated personal rapid transport system between Universal, I-Drive, the convention center and (like it or not) Sea World would be a great addition to the area, if someone really wants to showcase the technology, then if successful it could expand to other areas.

 

[IzzyB]

An elevated personal rapid transport system between Universal, I-Drive, the convention center and (like it or not) Sea World would be a great addition to the area, if someone really wants to showcase the technology, then if successful it could expand to other areas.

We would probably already have a system started and under construction that did SOME of this if it wasn't for our dumb governor. They had a proposed one that would do airport to attractions to Tampa and eventually expand out more. But he refused the funding. It would have helped tourism and given jobs to construction workers, but since the other party came up with the idea, he thought it was a bad idea.

 

[ThreePack Shagur]

He refused funding because it would go from the Airport to the Convention Center to Disney to Tampa, but Disney did not want to provide a portion of the funding. Why should the taxpayers have to cover something that will primarily function as a private chariot to Disney from both Tampa airport and Orlando Airport?

 

[Brian G.]

He refused funding because it would go from the Airport to the Convention Center to Disney to Tampa, but Disney did not want to provide a portion of the funding. Why should the taxpayers have to cover something that will primarily function as a private chariot to Disney from both Tampa airport and Orlando Airport?

Not to mention when the other idea was to have a stop at Universal, Disney got all up in arms.

Theme Parkz R A serious bizness.

 

[IzzyB]

Not to mention when the other idea was to have a stop at Universal, Disney got all up in arms.

Theme Parkz R A serious bizness.

Yes, and back then Disney pockets were deep and not so much Uni's pockets. It would be interesting if this happened today if Uni could have pushed more to have it done. I'm still shocked we were dumb enough to re-elected the idiot, since 3 months after he was first elected he was one of the most hated governors. That would be Florida politics though.

 

[MrRoamer]

We would probably already have a system started and under construction that did SOME of this if it wasn't for our dumb governor. They had a proposed one that would do airport to attractions to Tampa and eventually expand out more. But he refused the funding. It would have helped tourism and given jobs to construction workers, but since the other party came up with the idea, he thought it was a bad idea.

Don't question Governor Skeletor and his wisdom in when one should turn down money for something that would greatly help the state. The big plan was also for it to eventually connect the east coast Daytona area and all the way down to Miami. From everything I heard the original plan for the Sun Rail, it was more for commuters from the main cities than anything for Disney.

 

[ChrisFL]

We would probably already have a system started and under construction that did SOME of this if it wasn't for our dumb governor. They had a proposed one that would do airport to attractions to Tampa and eventually expand out more. But he refused the funding. It would have helped tourism and given jobs to construction workers, but since the other party came up with the idea, he thought it was a bad idea.

That isn't really the same system as I'm thinking of, as that would only have a few stops...this would be more like:

 

[ThreePack Shagur]

Like the one in Downtown Miami?