Mar 20 2012 *, Rumors, Universal Orlando 3 Comments

CityWalk’s New Waterfront Promenade

CityWalk’s New Waterfront Promenade

Changes are on the way to Universal’s CityWalk! Permits filed with the City of Orlando and the South Florida Water Management District over the last two months show off plans to completely renovate the waterfront promenade area of CityWalk with a new series of leveled decks along the hills leading down to the lagoon. The project description from the plans state:

The project involves the construction of structural steel supported wood decks that will span an area between the upper promenade and a lower promenade flanking the existing lagoon. The decks will connect at an elevation that is flush to the upper promenade and the decks will vary in elevation. Various deck levels will be connected by accessible egress stairs and ramps. There will be only one direct connection between the decks and the lower promenade and this will occur at Deck #1 by means of an egress stair.

The plans detail nine decks in total, three of which will be two layers, connected by ramps. We’ve created a virtual overlay of the plans to give you a basic idea of how this project will look once completed:

Decks Overlay

As you can see from the plans, Deck 1 will have a set of egress stairs connecting it with the boat ramp below and will also be connected to Deck 2 via a bridge. Decks 3, 5 and 9 will each have ramps connecting them to lower decks, and Deck 8 will have a long upward sloping ramp connecting it with Deck 7. The green shapes on the plans represent new planters.

This new addition to CityWalk was likely supposed to be announced with all of Universal’s other 2012 additions, and it is even listed in the source code on the official Universal Orlando website. You can view the description by right-clicking (ctrl+clicking for Mac users) on the New in 2012 page, selecting “View Page Source”, and scrolling down until you find the commented out section labeled New CW Waterfront. The official description is:

CityWalk’s beautiful waterfront area will soon feature a contemporary collection of all-new shopping and dining experiences with an exotic vibe.

The source of the page even contains a link to a conceptual rendering of the deck area, which we’ve linked below:

New CityWalk Waterfront

Overall I think this is will be an excellent new addition to CityWalk, creating a new outdoor nightlife along the waterfront. Hopefully Universal has some unique new shopping and dining venues in mind. What do you think would be a good fit for the area? Leave a comment below, or join the discussion on our message boards!

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    This entry was posted by PR Admin on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 11:29 pm and is filed under *, Rumors, Universal Orlando. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
    • Bix

      Awesome!!! Yessss!!! Thanks for sharing!

    • VVB

      I think this is a rolling update, along with the repaint on Hard Rock, LED lighting, new kiosks, etc going on in CityWalk. That might be why they’re not making a big deal about it: it’s something that is low priority compared to the rest of what they announced, and maybe it’s just not all set in stone like the other things they’ve released. Everything else outlined in the “Year To Be Here” is Spring/Summer-oriented.

      They downsized the Fresh Produce shop already to make room for a new sunglasses store (no more kiosk). They also have a pretty decent sized space next to Starbucks for another small-scale club or fast-food restaurant. Then of course, there’s the old GE Money location next to Endangered Species, which is ripe for something new.

    • Beast

      The constructions wall are up around what appears to be label decks 3 & 4.