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City | Maitland
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Maitland Business
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Art Center |
NorthBridge Centre |
Ravinia |
Enzian Theater |
Since the 1960s, Maitland
has been a quintessential bedroom community.
Some of the area’s first suburbs
were built there to attract young families
looking for large lawns and good schools.
In the late 1970s a sprawling
office park called Maitland Center was
built near the I-4 interchange, giving
the city a distinctive business identity
as well. The 190-acre development contains
a hotel, 45 office buildings, and 400
businesses. More than 12,000 people are
employed there.
Another big project that
promises to give Maitland’s somewhat
nebulous downtown district a more cohesive
look is Broad Street Partners’ Ravinia,
a seven-story retail and condominium development.
Also underway is Uptown
Maitland East, a retail and condominium
project, and North Bridge, a commercial
office project that will sit across from
Ravinia. Both are being developed by Naples-based
Red Robin Realty.
Meanwhile, Maitland Town
Square has been given new life as well.
The original developer backed out, but
The Brossier Company has stepped in to
negotiate with the city on taking over
the project, which would include a city
hall and a public safety complex in addition
to condominiums and retail space. Tentative
plans call for more than 200,000 square
feet of office space, 250,000 square feet
of retail space, 600 residential units,
a 150-room hotel, a movie theater and
parks.
And on the south side
of downtown, The Morgan Group plans to
build The Village at Lake Lily, a nine-acre,
mixed-use project encompassing condominiums,
apartments and 45,000 square feet of retail
space.
Clearly, Maitland can
only be described as a thoroughly modern
place. Yet it has actually been in existence
longer than most Central Florida communities.
I was established in
1838 as Fort Maitland, named in honor
of Capt. William S. Maitland, a hero of
the Second Seminole War. In 1880, the
railroad from Sanford arrived, sparking
a tourism boom that lasted until freezes
in the 1890s disenchanted visitors.
In 1937 sculptor AndrŽ Smith founded
the Mayan themed Art Center in Maitland,
which was originally intended to be a
compound where artists could live and
work. The center, now listed on the National
Register of Historic Place, feature an
open-air chapel that has become a popular
location for weddings.
Today Maitland is home
to the Enzian Theater, the region’s
only art-house cinema and the setting
for the annual Florida Film Festival.
And two large art festivals are held in
Maitland: one in October, sponsored by
the Maitland Rotary Club, and one in April,
sponsored by the Maitland/South Seminole
Chamber of Commerce.
The Florida Audubon Society
was founded in Maitland, and its headquarters,
including the bird hospital, remain on
Lake Sybellia.
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