ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Rising costs, fewer people. Some restaurants in downtown Orlando are buckling under the changing economy.<\/p>\n
While many have closed, others are holding on.<\/p>\n
Workers at Great Harvest Bakery on Lake Avenue were busy banging out breakfast this week, thanks to a couple of large catering orders.<\/p>\n
Owner Evan Delaney said that \u201cEverything Hala,\u201d \u201cJalapeno Sourdough\u201d and a specialty whole grain seed bread are the most popular items on the menu.<\/p>\n
Local favorites made fresh in-house every day.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Preston-Hughes lives downtown and often comes in to grab a bite.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey make their own flour. They make their own breads. So, what you\u2019re getting is fresh,\u201d said Preston-Hughes. \u201cAnd that\u2019s important to me. And I continue to give them my business.\u201d<\/p>\n
But despite a steady stream of regulars, Delaney admitted business is down.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe there is just some overall macro sense that downtown Orlando is dying and, you know, disappearing a little bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Delaney said foot traffic dipped 10 – 15% in the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo maybe I think people don\u2019t really want to go downtown, thus not being able to discover great places like ours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ruslana Sigalova, a regular customer, agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo much going on and too crowded. I guess it\u2019s fine for downtown. It\u2019s supposed to be fun and just where people go, but I don\u2019t feel safe there,\u201d Sigalova said.<\/p>\n
However, Orlando District 5 Commissioner Shan Rose disagreed. Rose said that crime is down in her district.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the safest that downtown Orlando has been in a really long time, and the data speaks for itself. Crime is at its lowest in the District 5 downtown. It\u2019s the lowest that we\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Rose said.<\/p>\n
The Orlando Police Department\u2019s data confirms her claim with declining rates in shootings, burglaries and violent crimes over the last three years. Despite encouraging trends, Rose admits more needs to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will continue to invest and reinvest and redevelop downtown so that everyone knows it truly is the place for everyone to live, work and play,\u201d Rose said.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Delaney said he expanded his catering program, marketing to downtown businesses to boost sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cLaw firms, accounting firms, doctors\u2019 offices, hospitals, etc., trying to expand our catering to stave off any retail traffic that\u2019s not coming in the door,\u201d Delaney said.<\/p>\n
A strategy, Delaney believes, is working.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, people respond to it and hopefully it helps keep us sustaining for another four or five and really 20 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Delaney said limited parking, construction and street closures are also affecting downtown businesses. As for redeveloping downtown, Rose did not give specifics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Rising costs, fewer people. Some restaurants in downtown Orlando are buckling under the changing economy.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322831,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[122473,2031,558,7143,2204,115,1053,1335,768,139,141,140,2032,835],"class_list":["post-322830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-adrianne-flores","tag-app-local-business","tag-business","tag-economic-development","tag-instagram-n13","tag-news","tag-orange","tag-orange-county","tag-orange-county-fl","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322830","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=322830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}