New apartment complex to add to downtown Orlando skyline

ORLANDO, Fla. — A new apartment complex building is being added to the Orlando skyline.

The new complex is set to be built on east Church Street between Osceola and Lake avenues to downtown Orlando.

In downtown Orlando, the demand for housing is high, even with sky rise buildings with hundreds of units, only a handful of units available.

Mark Bulmer with Eola Park Realty has seen a shift in recent years. He said people want to be close to the action in downtown.

"A lot of people moved here when they lost their houses in the foreclosure crisis a while back," Bulmer said.

Initially, condos were going up everywhere, but with tough economic times, many of those condos have become rental properties.

Now, plans are in the works for a brand new apartment building built specifically for renters on Church Street in Orlando's Thornton Park district.

It's looking to be about 300 apartments with retail space on the ground floor.

"Bulmer says that's been the trend, the last few residential buildings put up around downtown like Post Parkside have been built specifically with renters in mind."

"I think people saw the need for it. It's such a demand, people said let's build them as rentals."

He says demand has driven rental prices up in recent years.

While he says buildings may help with stabilizing prices, one or two new buildings may not have a huge impact.

"Over time, we'll see. We need a few more buildings to go up to really drive the prices back down."

The project still has a few more hurdles to get over before it's built, but Bulmer believes it will fill up quickly because of its excellent location.

WFTV