\u201cWe\u2019re the only two cranes in Downtown Orlando,\u201d Ustler said during the \u201cGamechangers\u201d panel at ULI\u2019s Florida Summit<\/a> held at the JW Marriott Bonnet Creek.<\/p>\n The 7-story Parcel H building, located south of Luminary Green Park, will have 122 market-rate apartments, 14,500 square feet of commercial\/retail space on the ground floor, and two 3,750-square-foot offices on the second floor. Ustler said it was a challenge to secure financing for the project and get it off the ground in today\u2019s market. \u201cIt was hard to do,\u201d he told GrowthSpotter. The lot was originally envisioned for a skyscraper, but Ustler said he had to \u201cright-size\u201d the project to respond to market conditions. He hopes it will be an instigator for the larger projects planned in the next phase of the Creative Village.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no demand for skyscrapers right now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s good we\u2019re doing something.\u201d<\/p>\n The Beacon, a $40 million project, is being co-developed by Atlantic Housing Partners<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Banc of America CDC<\/a> and will add 106-units <\/a>at the corner of Parramore Avenue and Amelia Street.<\/p>\n The next big project to kick off in Creative Village will be the $30 million adaptive reuse of the historic Bob Carr Theater. The City selected Baker Barrios Architects<\/a> to lead the design of the project that will convert the century-old building into a creative hub for technology and innovation.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re scheduled to wrap up the design this year and will start construction drawings in the fall,\u201d Ustler said. \u201cThey should be able to start construction in mid-2027 and hopefully deliver in 2029.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearby, the Westcourt sports and entertainment district<\/a> could also get underway sometime this year. It will serve as the future home of the Orlando Magic, a luxury Kimpton hotel, housing, entertainment and retail space.<\/p>\n David Carlock, founder and managing partner of Machete Group<\/a>, told GrowthSpotter they\u2019re in a position to break ground this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tariffs set us back a year,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe were planning to close on our construction loan in April, then our lender said to hold off. They realized this wasn\u2019t a one-time deal; it created a lot of uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n President Trump announced his sweeping \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariffs on April 2, 2025. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the tariffs, ruling that the president lacked the emergency powers to enact them without approval from Congress. Trump later issued an executive order setting a 10% universal tariff on all imports, but it will expire later this year unless approved by Congress.<\/p>\n Carlock said Machete Group\u2019s subcontractors couldn\u2019t guarantee their pricing for Westcourt because they didn\u2019t know how the tariffs would affect lumber and steel. \u201cIt\u2019s not a force majure situation, like a hurricane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really had to go back and restructure the way we thought about the debt side of our capital stack,\u201d he said. The Westcourt opening is now likely pushed back to at least 2028.<\/p>\n Both Carlock and Ustler said they hope the two projects complement each other to rejuvenate downtown Orlando\u2019s west side and Church Street corridor.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this level of investment, combined with some of the other things that happened specifically in Creative Village, is meaningful for the community,\u201d Carlock said. \u201cI think we can really help transform the way that Orlando thinks about what\u2019s happening on one side of I-4 versus the other.\u201d<\/p>\n The two also agreed that bricks and mortar only go so far in building a successful mixed-use district. The secret sauce is having professional management<\/a> and programming of the public spaces, like Westcourt\u2019s paseo and Creative Village\u2019s Luminary Green Park. Ustler said that element is still lacking in Creative Village, and he hopes to emulate what Tavistock Development created with Lake Nona\u2019s Boxi Park.<\/p>\n \u201cCreative Village is a collection of buildings, but does not yet have a sense of place that we want to have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at\u00a0lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com<\/a> or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on\u00a0Facebook<\/a> and\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Construction is underway on two new buildings in downtown Orlando\u2019s Creative Village, while the developer of the nearby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,82936,34752,28,5773,114,1335,139,141,82937,140,480,48065],"class_list":{"0":"post-175244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-creative-village","10":"tag-downtown-orlando-developments","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-lake-nona","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-orange-county","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-magic-sports-entertainment-district","18":"tag-orlando-news","19":"tag-real-estate","20":"tag-sunbridge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TGS-L-creative-village-construction-feb2026.jpg\")
This aerial image taken on Feb. 19, 2026 shows the construction site of the Parcel H building south of Luminary Green Park and The Beacon just west of The Julian apartments. (Courtesy of Ustler Group of Companies)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TGS-L-beacon-creative-village-feature.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
The redesigned Beacon at Creative Village will be five stories and will have 106 apartments. (Rendering by Slocum Platts)<\/p>\n![\"Some](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TGS-L-ULI-gamechangers-01-rotated.jpg\")
Some of Orlando’s top developers updated their game-changing projects at the ULI Florida Summit. (L to R) Creative Village master developer Craig Ustler, Machete Group founder David Carlock, Tavistock Development President Craig Collin, moderator Michelle Adeeb. (staff photo)<\/p>\n![\"IHG](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TGS-L-kimpton-machete-main.jpg\")
Machete Group founder David Carlock said President Trump’s tariffs created turbulance in the capital markets, forcing them to delay construction on Westcourt for a year. (Rendering by Baker Barrios)<\/p>\n