News

Adios, Amway Arena!

December 19, 2011

Have you noticed the chain-link fence that surrounds the old Amway Arena?  With the gorgeous new arena open and operating, it is finally time to retire the original home of the Orlando Magic.  While you may be waiting for a scenic implosion similar to the one destroying Orlando’s City Hall in 1991 and found in Lethal Weapon 3, the movie offers aren’t present twenty years later.

Thanks to digital technology, movie makers can recreate these scenes without the need for real life situations.  Subsequently, construction crews will tear down Amway brick by brick from the inside out.  The salvageable aluminum and copper will be donated to the Nap Ford charter school nearby, while the drywall and steel will be recycled.  The furniture and other removable pieces have already been sold or donated.  Mayor Buddy Dyer expressed his goal of environmentally friendly demolition:  “We’re becoming known as the most sustainable city in the Southeast.”  Over 50% of the building will be reused in some capacity.  Even the concrete will sustain roads across the state.

The entire process should take approximately six months.  It began last week.  The city will eventually build a work/live/play development entitled Creative Village on the property.

Do you live or work nearby?  Have you seen any developments?