MAITLAND, Fla. — After decades of debate and even protests, Maitland is finally getting a downtown, starting Friday.

• New Maitland City Centre offers apartments, restaurants and office space
• Maitland City Centre will create sense of community, says mayor
• Block party held to celebrate grand opening of Indepdence Ln. project

Millions of dollars have been poured into the project to create a new destination in the city of more than 17,000.

The newly reconstructed Independence Lane is one of the things that has been crafted and more than a million dollars has been spent on the city street.

There were concerns that a new downtown destination would create a traffic headache. However, after years of discussions, the city finally signed off on the deal to build the Maitland City Centre, which includes apartments, restaurants, office space and a parking garage.

Mayor Dale McDonald says the whole goal is to establish a sense of community that Maitland desperately needed.

"That sense of belonging, sense of being a part of something bigger than you, that extended neighborhood, that we've been trying to establish and conceptually visioning how that comes into being, that this is beginning to be the manifestation of that," he said.

People have already started to rent some of the 220 apartment units. And restaurants and other businesses are getting ready to open in the next month or two.

McDonald says up next for the city is redeveloping a park into a city square.

Block Party

Maitland unveiled the first phase of its new downtown development Friday night.

Mark Reggentin, Maitland Assistant City Manager, explained, “We don’t have a traditional downtown area, so we have a unique opportunity to sort of build a downtown area. So working with our residents working with our elected officials, we are able to pull together all those ideas to create a place where people can live, have shopping opportunities, work, and have recreational opportunities.”

A block party was held Friday night for the grand opening of the Independence Lane project. More than a million dollars in upgrades was invested in the street. 

“This is specially designed to to host festivals. We don’t have any curbs, there are no vertical curbs, no tripping hazards, so people can walk side to side when we shut down the road,” Reggentin said.

A private development featuring apartments and office space called Maitland City Centre is adjacent to it. New restaurants and businesses including Sanford Brewing Company, Starbucks, Subway, and MidiCi are scheduled to open in the area by the end of the year.

When asked about the possibility of increased traffic in a busy area surrounded by 17-92 and I-4, Reggentin said,”What we are trying to do here is create a situation where you don’t have to get into your car to get to places you want to be. We are trying to incorporate your working environment, your living environment, and your recreation environment all in one place.”

The block party was the first in a series. There will be events on the first Friday of each month along the newly rebuilt Independence Lane.

Reporter Cheryn Stone contributed to this story.