ORLANDO, Fla. — The largest residential project planned for downtown Orlando is underway, as a developer out of Miami hopes to bring a new "lifestyle" brand of living to The City Beautiful.

Phase one of the Society Orlando project is estimated to cost around $200 million.

The developer, Property Markets Group, already has a similar development in downtown Fort Lauderdale.   

The Orlando construction area is on Orange Avenue across the street from the Orange County Courthouse. Phase One is 484 apartments on 28 floors, with retail planned for the first floor, and multiple amenities in the buildings.

The price entry point for the building is $1,200 a month for a studio, with one- and two-bedroom options.

PMG stated it is tackling downtown affordability in its developments with smaller units and different living options to allow more people to be able to afford to live in urban areas.

The Society Orlando project is delayed by a few months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

PMG officials were hoping to go vertical this month, but that has been pushed back a few months because securing a construction loan has been tricky during the pandemic.

Property officials are hoping to pump up Orlando’s economy during the pandemic by employing around 500 construction workers.

PMG Managing Partner Ryan Shear said the company is offering living options that many others are not.

"Rent by bedroom program, those units come fully furnished, lock room door, you live in our own on-suite, bathroom, your own world inside your apartment. Really, it's just a fancy way of saying you have a roommate," Shear said.

The building is designed to interact with co-working spaces ​and social programming.

PMG officials are hoping to go vertical by the end of this year or early next year with phase one completion by Winter 2022.

Phase Two details are still limited.

One of the employees of Urban Stylez barbershop, not far away on Orange Avenue, is excited to see more development downtown.

"I've noticed a lot of places here downtown are starting to go up, a lot of housing apartments, so that's going to correlate to more business, small businesses like this, so I think that's a good idea for the city," barber Sean Romero said.