EXCLUSIVE - Los Angeles-based CloudKitchens (Website), led by former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, is working on a location in Orlando. The City of Orlando approved a Conditional Use Permit for the development of CloudKitchens' 41-unit commercial kitchen facility within the existing building located at 18 N. Dollins Avenue (MAP).
The one story industrial building, located one block west and 2.5 blocks north of Camping World Stadium in the Westfield neighborhood, contains 25,304 SF of space.
CloudKitchens provides kitchen space for delivery-only restaurants (also known as virtual restaurants and ghost kitchens). These have begun to pop up across the country thanks to the proliferation of delivery apps like Uber Eats and GrubHub.
CloudKitchens space is also used by established restaurants and chefs looking to expand their businesses or use commissary kitchen space, restaurant operators looking to leverage their brand into a delivery-only concept, entrepreneurs looking for a fast and inexpensive way to test their concepts and build their brand, and food truck operators looking to use commissary kitchen space and expand into delivery.
The company is working on additional locations in Miami and Jacksonville according to its website.
The locations of CloudKitchens are in underutilized and distressed real estate parcels it buys through a holding company called City Storage Systems. The company targets "parking, retail, and industrial and then repurpose(s) the spaces for digital-age businesses" according to The Real Deal. They're sometimes located in Opportunity Zones, areas of the country in which the Federal government provides tax incentives for investing capital there.
The estimated cost of the Orlando project, which includes all new mechanical, plumbing, electrical, AV/T, fire protection and fire alarm systems, is $1,146,687.
After a $400 million investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund, CloudKitchens could be worth about $5 billion according to Wall Street Journal. (Paywall)
City Council will vote Monday whether or not to allow CloudKitchens to build less parking spaces (29) than required (38). The company says the business model, as demonstrated in other cities outside of Orlando, generates a lower parking demand than is typical for similar land uses.
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