Big changes are coming to downtown Orlando.
The Orlando Sentinel’s abandoned downtown headquarters is expected to be razed sometime next year to make way for a $2 billion redevelopment, a city spokeswoman said.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and other community leaders announced Tuesday that changes are finally happening to the blighted 20-acre parcel of land that sits on North Orange Avenue and East Colonial Drive.
“The announcement yesterday was a first step in a long-range vision for the redevelopment of the Orlando Sentinel site. Although we don’t have specifics on the development plan as of yet, we anticipate demolition and preparation of the site sometime next year,” city spokeswoman Ashley Papagni said Wednesday.
The newspaper closed its nearly 70-year-old downtown headquarters in 2020.
The land is owned by private developer Midtown Development, which once sued the Sentinel for $370,000 in unpaid rent before the newspaper shut down its offices.
Midtown is now partnering with an international design firm Heatherwick Studio for the redevelopment.
“By engaging an internationally-recognized design and architecture firm, Midtown will then start to build out the specific details of a development plan but it will include residential, retail and food and beverage space with a unique, elevated green space and park experience,” Papagni said.
Heatherwick Studio has an international résumé of memorable spaces in big cities. That includes New York’s Little Island, a public park above the Hudson River, Tokyo’s Azabudai Hills, and London’s Coal Drops Yard, which converted historic industrial structures into retail, dining and cultural spaces, according to a city of Orlando press release.
“By partnering with globally-recognized Heatherwick Studio there is an extraordinary opportunity to transform this site into an iconic destination bursting with greenspace and unique design features that will attract thousands of new residents and dozens of new businesses to our downtown,” Dyer said while celebrating the project during Tuesday’s State of the Downtown Address at the Kia Center.