MIAMI—Walkability. It's an increasingly important factor for commercial real estate developers and they cities in which they choose to build.

Miami is rising in this area, but Orlando is lagging. Both cities continue to strive for better walkability scores in an age when urbanization trends are resurging. Cite Partners has some keys to increasing walkability, even in existing developments.

Beyond adding retail and restaurants for convenience, changing the atmosphere for walkers is a major key to increasing walkability, according to Cite Partners. Adding more trees to shade from the hot sun and providing boundaries to shelter from cars might slightly reduce visibility of buildings and signage, but would enhance the walker's experience significantly.

Cite suggests adding more street lights and changing the flow of traffic is also key to increase safety and promote walkability. In Orlando, this visual and atmosphere improvement has been seen on International Drive, south of Sand Lake Road. Orlando visitors and residents will experience the same changes north of Sand Lake Road in the not-too-distant future.

“International Drive is a very unique example of walkability importance because there are some stretches that have more than 10,000 hotel rooms within 1,000 feet. The pedestrian traffic in this area is phenomenal and walkability is of the utmost importance,” John Krzyminski, director of the Central Florida Retail investment team at Cite Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. He specializes in Retail Investment Sales in the tourist corridors, particularly International Drive.

Cite execs argue increasing walkability isn't something that happens overnight, and there's still a long way to go. But Orlando is making steps in the right direction and has the potential for other moves to continue on the right path.

“Orange County finished their International Drive Overlay Plans earlier this year, which is going to drastically enhance walkability in the iDrive tourist corridor. Everyone that helped out with the planning and zoning spent an enormous amount of time researching what will have a positive impact for the record number or tourists and convention goers, without neglecting Orlando and Orange County residents,” says Krzyminski. “We need to ensure that increasing walkability in such dense pedestrian traffic will be a positive shift for the area, and Alberto Vargas, Tim Maslow, and Alex Stringfellow at Orange County Planning have done an outstanding job.”

Walkability is just one part of the domino effect that fuels an improving economy. With Forbes ranking Orlando as the second fastest-growing metro in 2017, Cite says it is essential that the city's walkability keeps pace with the companies and residents drawn to the area. Putting the right retailers in the right space will facilitate Orlando's ascent up the list of most walkable cities.

MIAMI—Walkability. It's an increasingly important factor for commercial real estate developers and they cities in which they choose to build.

Instant Insights /

Keys to Increasing Walkability as Urbanization Trends Rise

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