DD and I were just there on Sunday. It is still there, but in the midst of major renovations. PacMan Cafe appears to be totally gone - a new building is going up. Some of the restaurants (like Dan Marino's are closed for remodeling). Many of the stores are closed as well. We went to Wonderworks, and then to Johnny Rocket's for lunch, and then to the movie theater to see "Zoom".
It is very torn up - barracade sand construction fences everywhere. The woman in the toy store said that it was all supposed to be done by now, but it is far from done.
I wish I would have taken some pics now!!!!
Here's an article for Orlando Business Journal about the new restaurants -
ORLANDO -- The $10 million makeover of
Pointe Orlando, a destination retail center on International Drive, is about to ignite the second stage of its success rocket.
A quartet of new high-profile, upscale anchor restaurants is coming to Pointe Orlando in the next year --
The Capital Grille,
Oceanaire,
Tommy Bahama's Cafe and
B.B. King's Blues Club -- confirm officials with New Plan Excel Realty Trust Inc., a New York-based real estate company that owns and operates Pointe Orlando.
All four eateries are new to Central Florida.
"I think this is very good news," says Alan Villaverde, general manager of the 900-room Peabody Orlando hotel on International Drive. "This kind of name- brand restaurant helps to make the convention district a destination."
But, he cautions, the new restaurants can't just count on convention business. "Their challenge is how to overcome the local residents' reluctance to visit the convention district."
'Two-punch business battering'
Overcoming that reluctance, of course, is exactly what New Plan Excel Realty Trust is trying to do, with the center's overall renovation. Pointe Orlando announced its redo a year ago, after taking a two-punch business battering from the opening of the Mall at Millenia and expansion of the Florida Mall that significantly impacted consumer traffic and tenant rental.
Chris Ralph, the center's general manager, says Pointe Orlando's redevelopment was the result of a two-year study of market trends and consumer demand that pinpointed a need for more name-brand retail and entertainment venues and high-quality restaurants.
The addition of these just-announced restaurants meets part of that expectation. And "there are definitely more restaurants and retail tenants to be announced" in the coming months, says Susan Godorov, director of marketing for New Plan Excel Realty Trust.
Clubby, fine-dining
The Capital Grille is probably the best known of the four new restaurants headed to Central Florida's I-Drive.
The 20-restaurant chain is part of Rare Hospitality International Inc., an Atlanta-based, publicly traded (NYSE: RARE) company that operates about 280 restaurants under the Longhorn Steakhouse, Bugaboo Steak House and Capital Grille names.
The chain specializes in the super-premium steak category, serving large cuts of prime beef, fresh lobsters and chops, priced a la carte and served in a clubby, fine-dining environment.
The 9,000-square-foot Orlando restaurant is slated to go in the former FAO Schwarz toy store space, which has been gutted, with its landmark oversized toy sculptures removed. This will be the fourth Capital Grille location in Florida, with the most recent opening in Tampa earlier this year and two others in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Next door will be the Oceanaire Seafood Room, designed like a '30s-era luxury cruise ship with seating that feels more like a stateroom than a restaurant. It will serve big portions of ultra-fresh seafood.
Its owner, Parasole Restaurant Holdings of Minneapolis, operates several other concepts and recently spun off the Buca di Beppo chain, which has two Orlando and one Daytona locations, as a separate corporation.
Tommy Bahama's Tropical Cafe & Emporium will take up 10,000 square feet in the short-lived Blue Wave sushi location. It will feature the Tommy Bahama line of tropical clothing, home accessories and a tropical cafe menu, featuring items such as crab bisque, coconut shrimp and jerked chicken.
The original location in the seven-restaurant chain opened in 1996 in Naples, with other locations in Sarasota, as well as California, Hawaii and Arizona.
The fourth new Pointe Orlando anchor restaurant location will be a 10,000-square-foot B.B. King's Blues Club, to go upstairs in space above Tommy Bahama's that currently is not built out. Like its sister club located in Universal CityWalk in California, B.B. King's will offer a full-service bar, restaurant and live local, regional and national entertainment. The menu shows off the chain's Memphis origins with pulled pork and catfish sandwiches, fried shrimp, Memphis wings and gumbo.
Godorov says the dates for opening each venue are still not settled, but are likely to begin by mid-2006 and run through the end of the year.
Meanwhile, competitors welcome the new additions to I-Drive. Seth Miller, operating partner of the nearby Moonfish restaurant, says they'll enhance the area and bring guests from other parts of town. "I never fear competition," he says. "Those of us who do a great job will still stand out."
ARTICLE about the Improvements in General
ORLANDO -- A $40 million makeover is changing the face of
Pointe Orlando, the mega-center sitting on prime retail turf on tourist-laden International Drive.
The face-lift, which began last year and will be mostly completed by this fall, has reconfigured the former
FAO Schwarz building into three new restaurants; added an I-Drive valet lane for patrons; increased its visibility from I-Drive; changed the overall tenant mix to include more high-end shops; enhanced the lighting and landscaping; and created new storefronts reminiscent of a city streetscape.
Officials with
New Plan Excel Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: NXL), owner of the 435,000-square-foot center, believe they have better positioned the project by changing the shopping, dining and entertainment mix to better suit the needs of locals, leisure visitors and conventioneers.
Local tourism officials believe the revamped center will address the projected new convention and hotel business, as well as attract leisure travelers and locals.
Since Pointe Orlando first opened in 1997, the Orange County Convention Center has added 1.1 million square feet. Today, seven more hotels are on the drawing board along I-Drive.
"It's a great addition to an area rapidly becoming understood as a convention corridor," says Bill Peeper, president of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. "I think more and more people will understand the opportunities with 1 million people a year attending the convention center alone, not to mention hotels."
Adding more restaurants
In 2005, New Plan began the extensive renovation plan after a two-year examination of market trends and consumer demand.
According to a New Plan survey, consumers said they wanted more midpriced and high-end national restaurants with outdoor seating, I-Drive visibility and valet parking.
With the help of Beame Architectural Partnership and
Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., New Plan officials are adding several new high-end restaurants and shops -- many new to the Orlando area.
From the south end of the property northward, New Plan carved the front off of the former FAO Schwarz building and created three 10,000-square-foot restaurants.
The Capital Grille opened March 27; The Oceanaire seafood grill opens in the fall; and the third is not yet announced.
The Capital Grille is ahead of schedule in sales volume and guest counts, says Managing Partner Randy Cook.
Directly across from The Capital Grille in an existing building, Tommy Bahama's Tropical Cafe is taking 10,000 square feet on the first floor for a full restaurant and store featuring men's and women's clothing, accessories and home furnishings.
Further, New Plan replaced a grand staircase with
B.B. King's Blues Club, a 10,000-square-foot, second-level restaurant and entertainment venue, and 1,500 square feet of retail that features Orlando city architecture.
Reworking the spaces
In a second section, New Plan demolished the old Pac-Man Cafe and replaced it with a two-story, 18,000-square-foot, freestanding
Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant --
Brinker International Inc.'s first in Orlando -- and 6,000 square feet of retail.
In a third section, it razed the
Disney store, relocated the
Watch Station and created a 4,500-square-foot cafe space and a 3,500-square-foot cafe space, for which the tenants have not been announced.
On the second level, nightclubs Matrix and Metropolis closed Dec. 31 and will be replaced with yet-to-be named entertainment venue tenants, Marketing Director Susan Godorov says.
"We have strong interest in the spaces," she says.
New Plan also will relocate the ticket booth directly under the
Muvico 21-screen movie theater, and is simplifying and widening the main staircase and creating two new grand staircases to provide better second-level access.
The development company also is redoing the concrete walkways with brick, and creating courtyards, water features, more outdoor seating, landscaping and lighting to create a new natural Florida look throughout the property.
"We did our very best to utilize all existing infrastructure," says Christopher Ralph, Pointe Orlando's general manager.
Creating some 'energy'
Locals see the spruced-up Pointe Orlando as attracting convention-goers, visitors and locals to the project and other I-Drive venues.
From a conventioneer viewpoint, "What the Pointe is doing is exactly what our customers are asking for," says Kathie Canning, deputy general manager of the Orange County Convention Center.
Adds The Capital Grill's Cook: "I think it's going to be a whole fresh look for I-Drive, which will help not only our convention business but our locals as well."
Other see it as bringing more business to the evolving tourist destination.
"We're excited about the new tenants they have there," says Chuck Whittall, a partner in
Unicorp National Developments Inc., which is developing Aqua, a $1.5 billion Mediterranean- and water-themed complex that will replace Mercado Mediterranean Village.
"It creates energy for I-Drive."
