{"id":280186,"date":"2026-05-22T00:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/280186\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T00:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:45:12","slug":"members-of-100-year-old-church-on-lake-eola-object-to-plans-for-skyscraper-next-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/280186\/","title":{"rendered":"Members of 100-year-old church on Lake Eola object to plans for skyscraper next door"},"content":{"rendered":"

The development team planning a luxury hotel and condos across from Orlando\u2019s iconic Lake Eola bandshell said they designed the 37-story tower to be respectful of the historic St. George Orthodox Church next door. Still, it didn\u2019t stop the pastor or members of the congregation from speaking out against it Thursday during a courtesy review by the city\u2019s Appearance Review Board.<\/p>\n

Father John Hamatia, who has led the church for 53 years, said the massive tower would overwhelm the gold-domed church, which has local, state and national landmark status. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamatia said he doesn\u2019t object to the site being developed, as long as it complements the historic neighborhood. \u201cI have committed my whole life to this building; I do have a very personal stake in what goes in next to it,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019d like to see something that really accentuates the skyview of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FatherFather John Hamatia, who has led St. George Orthodox Church in downtown Orlando for 53 years, said the historic building would be overwhelmed by a proposed 37-story hotel and condo tower next door. (Staff photo)<\/p>\n

The .63-acre lot at 170 E Washington St. was\u00a0previously approved<\/a> for a seven-story, 155-key Cambria Suites. Land use attorney Jason Searl<\/a>, with Maynard Nexsen, is working with the owners to rezone the property to accommodate the mixed-use tower with a three-story signature restaurant, a 221-room luxury hotel and 252 branded residences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unique and first-to-market feature of this will be the branded residences,\u201d Searl said<\/p>\n

ARB members praised the architecture and design of the modern building. But Executive Director Richard Forbes requested several changes, including more screening of the parking garage ramp and changes to the southeast corner of the parking podium.<\/p>\n

The original proposal from Kobi Karp Architecture & Design<\/a> showed the three-story restaurant space recessed to preserve \u201cvisual openness along the street and intentionally exposing the church\u2019s historic fa\u00e7ade and stained-glass windows,\u201d according to the submittal.\u00a0 But church members and city staff felt the parking garage was too close to the historic structure. Searl said that after several conversations, the developer agreed to carve out the southeast corner to the first three levels of the garage, and at Thursday\u2019s meeting, he said they would add a fourth deck to the corner carve-out. The design change will eliminate eight parking spaces.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The original design called for the three-story restaurant to be recessed at the southeast corner of the tower. (Rendering by Kobe Karp Architecture)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The resubmitted plan extended the carve-out on the southeast corner of the building above the restaurant to the first three levels of the parking garage. The developer agreed to add the fourth parking deck, which would clear 68 feet, about 8 feet higher than the roof of the church. (Courtesy of Kobe Karp Architecture)<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This rendering shows the parking podium before the carve out of the southeast corner. (Rendering by Kobe Karp Architecture)<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This view from Eola Park shows the voluminous ceiling height of the restaurant and the expanded metal mesh proposed as screening for the parking garage. (Rendering by Kobe Karp Architecture)<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This is the view of the restaurant space from Rosalind Avenue. (Rendering by Kobe Karp Architecture)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The developer hasn’t identified the hotel brand yet, but said the project would be comparable to Miami’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences. (Rendering by Kobe Karp Architecture)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The vehicle drop-off area and ramp to the parking garage are on E Washington Street. The architect proposes using vegetation and palm trees to screen the parking ramp. (Rendering by Kobe Karp Architecture)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The ramp leading to the parking garage is on the rear of the building, accessed by E Washington Street directly across from Palmetto Avenue. (Rendering by Kobe Karp Architecture)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 8<\/p>\n

The original design called for the three-story restaurant to be recessed at the southeast corner of the tower. (Rendering by Kobe Karp Architecture)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure we have as visually minimal impacts on the church as possible,\u201d Searl said. ARB Director Richard Forbes suggested the carve-out should extend to all six levels of the parking garage to \u201cgive the church a bit more breathing room, so to speak.\u201d But Searle said that would require a total redesign of the hotel\u2019s amenity deck, which is on the roof of the garage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that\u2019s an overcorrect, respectfully,\u201d he said, noting that the modification would raise the height of the corner carve-out from the initial 30 feet to 68 feet, which is 8 feet taller than the roof of the church.<\/p>\n

The ARB members agreed. Briana Johnson and Deron Edge both said the carve-outs were sufficient. \u201cThe proposed solution is adequate and respectful to the church,\u201d Edge said. \u201cI really think this is pretty nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel Castleberry, representing the church, said the new tower is simply too tall and too modern for the neighborhood.\u00a0\u201cThe applicant originally presented concepts for a much smaller, more modest building, and this dramatic increase in height, massing, and intensity represents a major change that\u2019s incompatible with the historic landmark, the entire Lake Eola neighborhood, and the park context,\u201d she said. \u201cNo offense, but it creates a jarring visual conflict instead of a compatible, contextual design.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searl worked with the owners to win approvals for the smaller Cambria Suites zoning back in 2019, but the project fell apart during COVID. After that, he said the capital markets no longer favor stand-alone hotels in Central Business Districts.<\/p>\n

Luxury hotels with branded residences are all the rage across South Florida and in markets like Tampa, which has Ritz-Carlton<\/a>, Edition by Marriott<\/a> and Pendry hotels \u2014 all with condos on the upper floors. In St. Petersburg, construction is underway on the 50-story Waldorf Astoria Residences, where the penthouse unit sold last summer for $27 million.<\/p>\n

Searl said even though the developer is seeking a similar 5-star brand, he doesn\u2019t see the need to incorporate a great deal of meeting or event space in the hotel.\u00a0\u201cThe Bohemian has it, as does Aloft,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Aloft is underground. It doesn\u2019t get a ton of business because of the amount of convention space we have down by the resorts. And the Waldorf Astoria-type guests that would have a destination wedding are going to go to those types of places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The zoning is scheduled to go to the Municipal Planning Board in June.<\/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":"The development team planning a luxury hotel and condos across from Orlando\u2019s iconic Lake Eola bandshell said they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,34752,58467,28,12687,114,12114,1335,139,141,140,480],"class_list":["post-280186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-downtown-orlando-developments","tag-downtown-towers","tag-florida","tag-hotel-hospitality-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-multifamily-residential","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280186","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=280186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}