{"id":214440,"date":"2026-04-01T12:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214440\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T12:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:21:22","slug":"business-owners-welcome-transformations-of-church-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/214440\/","title":{"rendered":"Business owners welcome transformations of Church Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A long-awaited transformation is coming to Church Street in Downtown Orlando this summer as a part of the city\u2019s\u00a0DTO Action Plan<\/a>\u00a0aimed at growing Orlando to make it a more vibrant place for visitors and families to enjoy.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

A long-awaited transformation is coming to Church Street in downtown Orlando this summer
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According to the city of Orlando,\u00a0Phase 1 of the project will include construction between Garland Avenue and the railroad tracks
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The project will reconstruct the corridor into an \u201cExceptional StreetscapesFestival Street\u201d that modifies the typical section into two, 11-foot lanes, a curbless street flushed with the walkway, semi-previous street surface, a narrow cartway for loading\/unloading and space reserved for landscaping
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Business owners on Church Street said they welcome the changes and hope they bring more foot-traffic to the area
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FEB. 24, 2026:\u00a0Detours ahead in downtown Orlando as city transforms major roads<\/a><\/p>\n

The city has a lot of plans in place to bring life back to the historic Church Street<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve heard so many stories, you know, from back in the day how this area was so nice, and people really got together, the community was brought together to this area,” said\u00a0Maureen Huerta, owner of\u00a0Birria 1983, a Mexican restaurant on Church Street. “So, I’m really hoping to do the same with our food, with the experience in our restaurant.”<\/p>\n

Business owners in the area said they benefit from days that Orlando hosts sporting events, but the rest of the days, it can be a struggle to attract more customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cChurch Street has been a good experience so far. We are blessed to have, you know, Kia Center and Camping World Stadium nearby. So, whenever there is an event, we get pretty busy. We have a lot of traffic. However, those days we don’t have events during the week, could get, you know, kind of slow,\u201d Huerta said, stating that her restaurant has been at this location for three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This summer, the city is starting construction on Church Street during Phase 1 of this project<\/a>.\u00a0Phase 1 will include construction between Garland Avenue and the railroad tracks. This project will reconstruct the corridor into an \u201cExceptional StreetscapesFestival Street\u201d that modifies the typical section into two, 11-foot lanes, a curbless street flushed with the walkway, semi-previous street surface, a narrow cartway for loading\/unloading and space reserved for landscaping.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurning it over to a festival street. So, that’s everything from curb transitions between the sidewalk and the roadways to slow traffic, creating more pedestrian space, adding more space for sidewalk cafes and activity, augmenting that with lighting,\u201d said David Barilla, executive director of City of Orlando’s Downtown Development Board.<\/p>\n

With all the upcoming projects, commercial real estate broker Dominique Greco said an iconic location at 41 W. Church Street is being prepared for lease to a new generation.\u00a0\u201cThis specific area of Downtown Orlando as we know it, historic Church Street is primed and ready for more entertainment, more experiential, more nightlife, more restaurants,\u201d Greco said.<\/p>\n

Previously home to Irish Shannon’s, the 9,600-square-foot building has a permit allowing alcohol service after midnight, making it a great spot for the next tenant to come and step in, Greco said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this recent administration, with Mayor (Buddy) Dyer and office, over the years, we’ve seen billions of dollars in investment towards Camping World Stadium, Dr. Phillips, the arena so that all is held together by the glue, which I always refer to as the small businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the city of Orlando, the first phase of Church Street is going to be done later this year, while the second phase will be done in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A long-awaited transformation is coming to Church Street in Downtown Orlando this summer as a part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[274,2173,766,115,1335,139,141,140,278,729,835],"class_list":["post-214440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-top-stories","tag-app-traffic-transit","tag-massiel-leyva","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-traffic","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214440","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=214440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}