Bowl games, trendy food, engaging with arts: Downtown leaders reveal latest activities

View Photos

Jim Carchidi

The new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts was the home of Orlando Business Journal's 2014 Doing Business in Downtown panel event.

Anjali Fluker

Senior Staff Writer- Orlando Business Journal

Email  |  Twitter  |  Google+

Downtown Orlando's busiest leaders have even more coming down the pike, according to panelists at Orlando Business Journal's annual Doing Business in Downtown event.

The event, held at the new Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, featured arts center CEO and President Kathy Ramsberger, Florida Citrus Sports CEO Steve Hogan, Echo Interaction Group CEO Carlos Carbonell, Downtown Development Board Executive Director Thomas Chatmon Jr. and developer Craig Ustler, President of Ustler Development Inc.

The group praised the opening of the $367 million first phase of the arts center, which debuted on Nov. 6, as well as completion of the Orlando Citrus Bowl's $207.7 million worth of renovations, the kickoff of the local tech community's Canvs co-working space, plus plans solidifying for the future $1 billion Creative Village digital arts hub, anchored by a new University of Central Florida downtown campus with 10,000 students.

Here's more on what the panelists had to say about something new they have in the works:

• Hogan: We'll know more about this year's college football bowl game matchups on Sunday sometime between 2:45-3:30 p.m.
• Ustler: I'm doing a new restaurant called North Quarter Tavern in the NORA apartment complex, next to the building that has Citrus restaurant. I'm investing a lot of time and resources into the restaurant business right now.
• Ramsberger: We're going to be teaching this community how to be engaged with an arts center; how it can be part of their work and home lives. Also, to finish up this building [arts center], we have a lot of money to raise and not a lot of time.
• Chatmon: A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to get a $250,000 matching grant opportunity to get seed funding for startups and in March, that should yield some positive results. This is the first seeding fund we have in downtown and that allows startups to get to the point where they're bankable.
• Carbonell: The Orlando Tech Association hosts a monthly Orlando Tech Meetup, which offers demonstrations by tech entrepreneurs and you can meet with people in the tech community. It's a great venue to understand what's happening in the tech community. Our next event is after work hours on Dec. 18 at the Canvs space in the Church Street Exchange building.

Be sure to read more about what's happening in downtown in OBJ's Dec. 5 weekly edition, and check out next week's weekly edition for more.

Covers real estate and rail