Filleppeli and Greg Gerjel, general counsel for Vivaldi's co-owner Superior Foods, couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline to learn the asking price.

But area restaurant brokers familiar with the Downtown submarket tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity the structure could go for $50 per sf or $1.5 million based on the real estate itself. The undetermined value of the restaurant equipment could bring the total asking price to at least $2 million, the brokers speculate.

The property is adjacent to CSX Corp.-owned railroad tracks that slice Downtown in half, a scenario that has not always spelled success for merchants on the other side of the tracks.

Vivaldi's is also across from Church Street Station, the former 28-year-old, eight-building, 260,000-sf entertainment complex struggling to be redeveloped after retailers and restaurateurs left for other sites in the past three years.

"It's certainly not one of the best locations in Downtown Orlando for a high-profile type of business," a commercial listing broker intimate with the Downtown retail sector tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity. "But an entrepreneur could turn that property around once Church Street Station traffic begins to flow again."

Meanwhile, less than a mile away in Downtown's more thriving sector on Orange Avenue, San Diego restaurateur Eric Leitstein and partner Joe Longo plan to open Cabo Taco May 1 in a 5,000-sf space at the 20-story, former First Union Bank Building at 20 S. Orange Ave.

New restaurants Concha Me Crazy and Lake Eola Yacht Club operating in 5,000-sf premises off Downtown are reported to have thriving lunch business.

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