Church Street Festival Project<\/a>, an effort to revitalize one of downtown Orlando\u2019s most historic stretches.<\/p>\n\u201cThey have to hurry up with their projects in order to make small businesses survive on Church Street,\u201d said Yehya Rizeq, the owner of Crepe Delicious Urban Cafe. <\/p>\n
[WATCH: Orlando breaks ground on Church Street Festival project]<\/p>\n
Rizeq\u2019s business has been on Church Street for seven years, opening right before the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore COVID-19, it was really perfect,\u201d Rizeq said. \u201cSince COVID-19, you know, the foot traffic is very, very slow. It\u2019s not recovered yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The economic impact of the pandemic has forced Rizeq to cut labor, putting him in a position where he is often the only person working in his store.<\/p>\n
Rizeq has felt the creeping pressure as many of his neighboring businesses have closed in recent years. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know how long we can survive,\u201d Rizeq said. \u201cI have been surviving for now seven years. How long am I going to survive? That\u2019s the question.\u201d<\/p>\n
A rendering of the Church Street Festival project in Downtown Orlando. (DTO Orlando)<\/p>\n
Orlando Commissioner Shan Rose, whose district includes Church Street, argued the Festival Street Project is another reason to be optimistic about the area\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cDowntown really thrives to be a place where everyone can live, work, and play,\u201d Rose said. <\/p>\n
Long before the pandemic, Church Street had been a street known for its thriving culture.<\/p>\n
In the 1980s, Cheyenne Saloon & Opera House was home to a national television show that featured highlights of country music.<\/p>\n
Now, the Cheyenne Saloon is one of several buildings that sit empty on Church Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had some customers and they came here from the UK and they said, \u2018What happened to Church Street?\u2019\u201d Rizeq said.<\/p>\n
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Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 Business owners in downtown Orlando hope a construction project on Church Street will inject new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,6037,11754,740,1335,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-332414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-economy","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332414","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=332414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}