John Rife, a Florida Creative, dropped by the Big Orange Building after reading my post on the Sentinel Blog. He seemed to be positive and I am glad he got to talk to Julio. And from the comments on the Sentinel blog there seems to be the same positivity in the community at large.
John addressed the space. I agree with the pros and cons. It will have to be a perfect fit, not a swiss army type space. Julio did mention to me that he was thinking more of someone that needed a home base. I am thinking a consultant or business that would meet clients at their location more so than having the need for the conference room and such.
I have to admit, though, that I am more provoked about the presence of this type of opportunity in ViMi than the perfection of the space itself. It is selfish, considering I live a block away and would love to have that kind of community in the neighborhood. And the community attitude Julio has is tremendous and genuine.
I believe that this section of town is more about the potential rather than the current possibility. I hope that someone takes a look and finds a fit. Then more people would look in the area and possibly lock up one of the open properties on Mills. There has been a lot of activity in the past year, properties have not stayed open very long. More restaurants and hair styling shops have moved in. While that may not be an obvious link to the co-working community, these places are trying to cater to that creative community. Symbiosis is the goal.
The overall idea is to create a community to line the Mills corridor similar to the community that exists in places like the Miami Design District [general info]. While most “design” districts focus on shops and physical design like fashion or home decor, ViMi seems to be playing out to be a graphic and web design community. And with the growing membership in the Florida Creatives crowd and those associated with Julio and his ViMi vision, it looks like Orlando could have a vibrant and brilliant web/design/advertising/new media district that is both an enormous economic benefit but a creative asset to the city.
What plays into this as well is the Mills Park project on the corner of Mills and Virginia. There are going to be the exact type of locations you are probably really looking at. According to Pelloni, the developers, one type store front would have 1000 square foot shop space with the same footage above in a living type area. Originally intended for a store owner to live above their shop but imagine a co-op of creative types and how that space could be divided up to meet the very things you mentioned. I don’t know if this idea has been broached to them or any idea of what they would feel about it. It is a bit of time off but could be a potential winner.
The ViMi is an idea I hope to spend more time on very soon. I have a good deal of info from my talk with Julio and hope to have a bit more soon.
I also hope someone digs the space and takes Julio up on his offer. More info on coworking in Orlando
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