Maitland City Talk

It has been a busy and exciting time for the city of Maitland’s Community Redevelopment Agency. The CRA district staff continues to work hard on the goal of building a new downtown for Maitland.

In March, the city published a notice, required by state statute, communicating the city’s intent to redevelop the old City Hall site and the parking lot on the north side of Horatio – two parcels located in the CRA district.

Three development teams responded to the city’s notice and presented proposals to the CRA Board in May. This provided an opportunity for the CRA Board and the public to communicate their views of the proposals to the development teams.

In June, the three development teams presented revised proposals, based on feedback from the May meeting, to the CRA Board. The CRA Board preliminarily approved the revised proposals and determined that the three development teams could move forward with the redevelopment process, possibly resulting in a development agreement from each developer. Any resulting development agreement is subject to review and recommendation by the city’s resident advisory boards and requires CRA Board approval.

The three proposals under consideration include:

1) Blackfin Partners proposes redeveloping the area north of Horatio Avenue, across the street from the Old City Hall site, into a 23,500-square-foot national specialty grocery store, a 4,000-square-foot financial institution and 7,500 square feet of general retail space. The proposed national specialty grocery store is Fletcher, N.C., based Earth Fare. Earth Fare has locations throughout the Southeast.

2) The partnership of David Lamm of Lamm & Co., Brian Grandstaff of Millenia Partners, Dennis Suarez of Allen Morris company, and John Cunningham of ACi, proposes to transform the privately owned New Traditions Bank and old Winn-Dixie properties into 40,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, 245 residential units, and approximately 500 parking spaces.

3) Finfrock, Urban Redevelopment Concepts, Eleven 18 Architecture, Traffic Planning and Design Inc., and affiliate partner Blackfin Partners propose to redevelop the old City Hall site into 28,000 square feet of office space, 5,100 square feet of restaurant space, 7,900 square feet of retail space, and a parking structure that accommodates up to 450 parking spaces.

The proposals are under review by the city’s advisory boards. For more information about the proposals, please visit itsmymaitland.com.

To listen to archived webcasts related to redevelopment, navigate to the home page and look for a link titled “Currently Available Meeting Recordings” below the header “Council & Board Meeting Agendas.” The “Meeting Recordings” page will display a list of links of recent meetings. The audio of the archived webcasts can be accessed by clicking on any of the links listed on the “Meeting Recordings” page.

Be sure to check itsmymaitland.com often for notices of upcoming meetings related to downtown redevelopment.

For questions the proposals, the process, or to get involved, please contact CRA Director Verl Emrick at 407-539-1255.