Change is coming to Downtown Orlando.
On Tuesday, the city of Orlando leaders celebrated the beginning of revitalizing Church Street with a groundbreaking ceremony. The plan is to transform it into a corridor capable of hosting outdoor festivals.
“The goal is that you can come from downtown, you can walk to Camping World and back,” said District 5 City Commissioner Shan Rose, whose district includes Downtown Orlando. The city will make “a real investment in it, and show … the property owners here and our residents we really believe in where we're going.”
Church Street was known as a major tourist destination back in the 1980s with its Dixieland jazz attraction Rosie O’ Grady’s Good Time Emporium, according to the Orange County Regional History Museum. The archives show that “Church Street Station ... attracted 3.5 million visitors annually at the peak of its popularity.”
But things have changed on Church Street and throughout Downtown Orlando. In the last few years, many businesses have closed. One of the most recent to do so was The Attic, which closed in May.
According to a post on The Attic’s Instagram page:
“Like many Downtown businesses, we have fought through rising operational costs, increasing city AMS fees, and ongoing challenges that continue to make operating in Downtown Orlando more difficult every year. Unfortunately, the lack of meaningful support or solutions from local leadership and city officials for the Downtown nightlife community has only accelerated these struggles.”
The construction on Church Street is part of the DTO Action plan, which was initiated in 2022. An updated report in 2024 shows plans for a revitalized Church Street.
“The Plaza has the potential to be downtown’s living room – where the energy from Church Street bubbles over; where people can gather, linger and celebrate together,” the report stated.
City leaders are hoping to encourage small businesses to invest in Church Street, bringing new storefronts and outdoor dining. The construction will be on Church Street between Magnolia Avenue and Garland Avenue.
Phase 1 is estimated to be completed by winter. It includes two 11-foot travel lanes, a curbless roadway that connects to pedestrian spaces, and expanded opportunities for landscaping. The final phase will convert the corridor from one-way eastbound traffic to two-way operations while integrating LYMMO bus services into the regular travel lanes.
Rose thinks the Church Street project will help bring on a new era in Downtown Orlando. During the last several years, Downtown Orlando has developed a reputation for crime, but that reputation is changing, Rose said.
“I believe that we have the ability to overpower a lot of the negative that's happening. Crime is down in District 5 and downtown. And so, how do we show the great work that we are doing? Let's make it happen,” Rose said.
The project is expected to be complete by the summer of 2028.
