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Here’s your Orlando Update for this week. I’m Richard, the Orlando Guy. Patrick Goddard, President of Brightline says completion of the Orlando-Miami train corridor is within reach. Goddard who has been working for six of the past 10 years on the intercity service between Miami and Orlando stated the 135,805-square-foot Vehicle Maintenance Facility at Orlando International Airport was substantially completed on March 1st. “We still were designing this facility when I showed up six years ago, so to sit here and be maintaining trains and have working equipment, it’s amazing,” Goddard told Orlando Business Journal. The new facility, which was unveiled this month, will allow Brightline to maintain its fleet 24 hours a day and employ 175 highly skilled employees based at Greater Orlando Aviation Authority property south of the Orlando International Airport. Trains will be able to be fueled, washed, disassembled for maintenance and more at the facility. Currently, the Orlando route is more than 90% complete, with a target of second-quarter 2023 to start service. Goddard said during a March 27 media event that the company did not want to rush the testing process by announcing a date, but mentioned the second-quarter timeline — which runs through the end of June — is still Brightline’s target. Brightline trains recently broke 130 miles per hour on the route from Cocoa to Orlando International Airport. I’ll keep you updated on an official opening date as it becomes available.
The Orlando Magic’s long-awaited, mixed-use sports complex finally might become a reality in mere months. Dubbed the Sports and Entertainment District, the project has been in the works since 2011 but has not moved forward to vertical construction yet. During a panel discussion at Orlando Business Journal’s 2023 Business of Sports event, team spokesman Joel Glass stated the project will break ground “later this calendar year; exact timeline to be determined.” The sports and entertainment complex would be built on roughly 8.4 acres in downtown Orlando. It is slated to include a hotel tower and more than 420,000 square feet of office space, alongside restaurants, shops and other amenities. It has been compared to destinations like L.A. Live. Personally, I’d like to see Orlando finally get a real Loews Hotel like the one at Live! by Loews in Arlington, Texas as part of the complex. Last year, Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins told Orlando Business Journal the project would be completed by the middle of 2025. Prior projections have put the project cost in excess of $500 million. The Magic’s proposed development is another sign of downtown’s ongoing transformation in investment that should lead to more jobs and economic impact.
Finally, The Orange County Convention Center turns 40 years old this year. Opening its doors in 1983 as the Orange County Convention and Civic Center, comprising just 147,510 square feet, the Orange County Convention Center now boasts more than 2.1 million square feet of exhibition space and is routinely ranked at the top of the best places to hold conventions according to meeting planning associations world-wide. For the last decade, the North-South Building has been LEED Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council and the philanthropic work of the sustainability team assists clients with sending more than 25,000 pounds of food annually to local community organizations. Happy anniversary to the Orange County Convention Center. That’s your Orlando update for this week, click the like button, subscribe to my channel and set the notification bell so you don’t miss a single update. I’m Richard – The Orlando Guy. See you next time.