If anyone is interested, downtown Orlando will be visited by Mayor Giuliani Monday morning.

Doors open at 9:45am and it's a free event.

225 South Garland Ave.
Orlando, FL

Orlando Improv has closed it's doors. I know it has something to do with the sale of the building after the Lou Pearlman debacle. Anyone know the details?

Absolute shame. I hope this place doesn't end up off I-drive like howl at the moon. Never fun seeing downtown lose some of it's more cherished venues.

UPDATE: According to Orlando Metromix, Improv has closed due to disagreements with Cameron Kuhn, the new owner of the building.

"[Bob] Joyce [tampa general manager] says they are seeking a lawsuit against Kuhn for breaches in contract, one of them being not renewing the club's liquor license. He wouldn't comment any further but to say an official press release will be sent out on Monday and the Orlando Improv is actively seeking a new location."

Etan Horowitz, technology reporter for the Sentinel, commented with a link to today's paper discussing a new restaurant that will be entering the space. Some sort of rustic steak house concept. At the end of the article though, it's suggested that Kuhn, who purchased the building from bankrupt mogul Lou Pearlman, may be facing his own financial difficulties: a legal battle with one of his lenders, tightening credit, and, well, evidently a new lawsuit with the Improv.

Great.

At this pace Church Street will end up with a "rustic" philly cheese steak hut and a big lots.

Best of luck to the Improv, and please, if at all possible, find a new place downtown!

UPDATE #2: Cory has a write up worth checking out with more detail on the Kuhn-Improv situation.

I've been trying to ride my bike more and more lately, exploring all the various side streets of downtown, delaney park, colonial town, etc. If there is one thing thats consistent, it's all the "for sale" signs.

I own a 1br condo up in DC that we're exploring our options on. The place rents out well since it's located in a really trendy neighborhood and in a great building. As you'd expect though, DC sales are fairly soft right now. When I bought, I researched the market considerably before making the move. I knew that we were obviously in a boom, but wanted to go past that and understand historic trends in the area. The information I've learned from buying, and now leasing (and maybe soon selling) is largely what I know about Real Estate.

Here in Orlando, the factors seem to be much different. In DC, space is at a premium and houses start at 500k and up. Orlando appears to be the opposite. We're a sprawling region with affordable housing (people may argue that, but compared to a lot of other places, its affordable). Condos up in the District (and really, any 'big' city) sell well because people can't afford houses (at least, in the neighborhoods they like). Of course there are anomalies (pimped out $1m condos, people into the 'lifestyle' thing), but ask most folks and they'll tell you they'd rather be in a brickstone. Here, great houses seem to be similarly priced and sometimes cheaper than condos in the same neighborhood. That blows my mind.

For example, there is a condo listed on MLS at the Vue (new building on Lake Eola) for about $440/sq ft. I believe it's two bedrooms, 389k or somewhere around there. Down the street from me (same area, Lake Eola Heights), there is a four bedroom house on a decent lot for sale by owner, for less than the condo at the Vue.

Hopefully, it's obvious why this strikes me as surprising. First, DC condo prices are between $400-$600sq/ft in most "desirable" neighborhoods (Georgetown, at the height, topped $1000sq/ft). Why the heck would Orlando condos rival DC's in price? Second, is that there are 4 or 5 new condo buildings going up downtown and plenty of units available in the 3 or 4 buildings that were recently built. There is ample supply, a high percentage of investors and tons more space to build new units when they are needed. Yet, somehow, they are more expensive then a house on decent land located downtown.

I can't possibly claim to be an economist or a real estate developer, but something just doesn't add up.. I've been tracking prices at the Waverly and watching them fall since I moved back in December. The only comparison I can find might be Miami during the 80s -- condo prices were cut in half by the end of the boom. That seems a bit drastic, but would it be possible to see 30-40% price reductions?

Any thoughts?

Everyone's favorite monthly Monday happy hour is tonight over at Crooked Bayou in downtown Orlando. You can expect a handful of us creative types drinking some beer and eating some tater tots.

6pm-ish until whenever people peace out.

Great time at the Improv last night checking out Bert Kreischer, thanks to Cory and the NFI Studios team for the hookup.

We started the night off at a happy hour over at Lizzy's downtown. It's been fun watching NFI grow from a spare bedroom in Sterling's house to pimping a downtown Orlando office. I enjoyed hearing about some of the iMiS integrations and solutions they're doing now. Neat times ahead for them I'm sure.

The likemind.us meetup is tomorrow at the Lake Eola Panera. The idea is, once a month a few of us get together to chat about life in Orlando and whatever other topic comes to mind. Typically, it's technology focused, but it is certainly not limited to just that.

Come meet other people from the local community. We all care about Orlando, we all like coffee, and well.. That's usually enough ;)

Here are the directions for those not familiar. Event typically runs from 8am to 10ish. Upcoming.org information if you'd like to check out more.

Crooked Bayou, downtown. Good times. It usually ranges anywhere from 15 to 40 folks, all working in some sort of creative profession. Lot's of web folks, but also peeps from marketing, video production and theater.

Here are the details on Upcoming.org, hope to see you there.

Now that I'm settled back down in Orlando, starting to dust off some of Gavin and I's initiatives. One of them is to help spur some sort of coworking environment here in Orlando.

Basically, the idea is that a handful of creatives types get together and split a lease under an umbrella corporation. This allows us telecommuters and freelancers to have a place to concentrate and get work down, while at the same time helping grow the Orlando tech community. Ideally it should be someplace near downtown, as it's centrally located.

If you're interested, add yourself to the wiki page. We'll bring everyone together and see what we can pull off. A few of us will be meeting up at the Florida Creatives gathering, which would be a great time to see what's what.

CoworkingOrlando

This time, over at Crooked Bayou. Monday, Jan. 15th, 2007.

Here is the Upcoming.org link/rsvp.

Ryan Price just let me know of a Happy Hour at Dexters in downtown Orlando for the "Florida Creatives" group. It's on Monday, Dec 18th, 5:30-9pm. I doubt I'll stay until 9, but I'll certainly roll by for awhile. Especially now that I live like, 500 yards away ;)

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