Project 766 - Employee Parking Garage

[Teebin]

Btw, it has already been approved by SFWMD which may be the quickest turnaround I've seen for a Universal project. Which makes it more likely that its the parking lot. All the work was done last year, just needed a modification.

By "parking lot" do you mean "parking garage"?

 

[tribbleorlfl]

That's great news TM's are finally getting a parking garage. Too bad it's 10 years too late to do me any good, though! I had too many 12 hour shifts at that place only to have to practically walk to the DP stadium to get to my car.

 

[braddillman]

You know what would be nifty? Make the outside of that parking garage look like the Empire State building, and have King Kong climb it.

 

[ParkRumors]

Should have posted this sooner... didn't think speculation would get this crazy when within the first two pages of this thread it was spelled out pretty clearly 766 was nothing more than the parking garage project... but nevertheless, it's pretty cool to see this much excitement and rumor started based on nothing more than three digits, haha.

Here's a little tip that'll hopefully help reduce the guessing in the future: look for Parcel IDs in permit applications.

Universal is split into several parcels: A USF parcel, an IOA parcel, a Soundstage parcel, a CityWalk parcel, an employee parking parcel, and several other parcels for various back of house areas and the hotels. Finding out where a project is taking place is as simple as throwing that parcel ID into the Orange County Property Appraiser's map search function:

Here's a direct link:
http://maps.ocpafl.org/webmap/default.aspx?pin=282313883300090

So clearly, this project is only going to affect 7.5 acres of land within that parcel.

If this project were to be taking place on the plot of land between MIB and KidZone, or anywhere within USF for that matter, this would have been the parcel listed on the application:

Had that been the case, all this speculation would certainly have been warranted.

I know it's already been stated in this thread, but things like basin maps do not equal project location maps. Whenever Universal (or any company, for that matter) has a decent sized construction project, the SFWMD needs to know how much impervious surface area will be affected, and how that change will affect the drainage basin as a whole. The only relevant project information you'll be able to gather from a basin map is that it'll be happening somewhere within that basin. Here's an overall basin map of UOR to give you an idea of how many, and how large there are:

 

[TylerDurden]

^thank you

 

[JungleSkip]

Thanks for that, ParkRumors. I had seen the Parcel number but didn't know where to find out its location. Thanks for that link.

 

[Cupcakes]

Well, that settles that.

 

[AK-Jake]

So what are the chances (or how hard/likely would it be) that Universal fills in that pond on the north side of the "MIB-Simpsons Mystery Plot?" Removing that pond would add a nice little extra chunk of land to whatever expansion they end up putting in there. My guess is not very likely...but I'm curious how that whole side of things works when it comes to removing an existing pond from your property.

 

[gator]

Not likely... you've got to construct a pond somewhere else to store the water which could create more trouble than it's worth. I don't see any other places in that basin to store the water.

 

[Nitro_230]

Not likely... you've got to construct a pond somewhere else to store the water which could create more trouble than it's worth. I don't see any other places in that basin to store the water.

Also that pond would have to be in the same general area (since it deals with storm water runoff)

 

[UniversalCityFL]

Mr. ParkRumors, you shoulda dropped the mic and walked offstage at the end of your post! :thumbs:

 

[Teebin]

Thanks ParkRumors. The good news is that while a parking garage will increase the number of parking spaces, it will not increase the rain surface area. Do we know if they are going up one floor or two? Also, do we know if the parking garage will be covering the entire parking area? I would doubt that it would.

 

[JungleSkip]

Also, do we know if the parking garage will be covering the entire parking area? I would doubt that it would.

It will not. The building is only going to be over 5 acres, whereas the entire lot is much bigger than that.

 

[martymcflyy85]

I hope this parking lot will not be in 3-D. I prefer animatronics.

 

[Felipe]

Thank you for the intel, links and pics, ParkRumors! :rep:

 

[natespf]

Thanks ParkRumors. The good news is that while a parking garage will increase the number of parking spaces, it will not increase the rain surface area. Do we know if they are going up one floor or two? Also, do we know if the parking garage will be covering the entire parking area? I would doubt that it would.

I am not sure if you have seen this, but it's a comparison of the size. In yellow is approximately the amount of impervious surface proposed.

I did a ruff illustration of the size, note that it would not represent the actual position or orientation.

 

[Teebin]

Missed that Nate. Thanks. My expectations had been the northern corner of that western lot, but they know their plans and the whys involved. I do not.

(for those not up on orientation, north is top, south is bottom, east is right and I will let you guess where west is.)

 

[Thor]

So, what becomes of the rest of the parking lot? Reclaimed for park/land expansion? Or remaining a parking lot? That huge lot will be condensed to a multilevel parking garage, but that is still a lot of land left available.

 

[Felipe]

So, what becomes of the rest of the parking lot? Reclaimed for park/land expansion? Or remaining a parking lot? That huge lot will be condensed to a multilevel parking garage, but that is still a lot of land left available.

I think whatever it will become, it's probably gonna remain backstage stuff. Maybe offices, storage, or just overflow parking from what won't fit in the garage :shrug:

 

[TylerDurden]

So, what becomes of the rest of the parking lot? Reclaimed for park/land expansion? Or remaining a parking lot? That huge lot will be condensed to a multilevel parking garage, but that is still a lot of land left available.

I think many people are underestimating the parking situation at Universal.

The parking garage, in my best guess, will be JUST for low-level team members. Award-winners, management, HR people, etc all have reserved spaces in the front of the current parking lot...I'm guessing their parking situation will remain out of the garage and as close as possible to Gate 2, Gate 1, and the Human Resources building.

Now, this leaves us with a still good chunk of land. They could expand the wardrobe building (probably just add another structure and put different uniforms in there, since the current wardrobe room is pretty full and will need to accommodate new HP outfits, as well as all the uniforms that are in the CityWalk overflow wardrobe (Shrek, Despicable Me, etc.). The other thing (and this would be my best guess) is that most of the area 'left over' will become offices. In the past year (maybe two) the parking lot was massively re-done/re-paved to create more spaces, at the expense of several office buildings (which were really just trailers). I think that Universal would want to not only replace whatever was in these buildings, but also put them in more permanent structures, which take up more room than simple trailers. Furthermore, the influx of new employees will mean the whole infrastructure of the backstage area will have to change; more HR space (for interviews) more wardrobe (like I suggested), and the overall expansion of the resort will mean more management people needed, meaning more space for them backstage. I think they can really use a lottttt of whatever leftover land they have to expand simple backstage things like that.

And of course, I can't stress enough the horror stories I hear about TM parking. They overflow in the Jaws lot...the parking situation needs to be expanded on a lot more than some of you think.