Twenty years ago, downtown Orlando was famous for Horace Grant's goggles and Shaquille O'Neal's shoes. Today, we have Dwight Howard, and the place where Horace and Shaq once played (the Magic O’rena) has been demolished to make way for the new "Creative Village". Now, Orlando anxiously watches as laptop computers, silicon chips, and miles of high speed cable replace the goggles and the gargantuan shoes that were once in the same place.

Construction began on the Magic O’rena in 1987 for the purposes of providing a large facility for concert events and also to lure an NBA franchise to Orlando. During that same year, the NBA announced that Orlando would receive the Orlando Magic franchise, which has been a source of pride to the community since the very beginning. Early stars included Shaquille O'Neal, Horace Grant, Penny Hardaway, and Bo Outlaw. As those stars retired, the Magic re-loaded with stars like Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and current franchise player, Dwight Howard.

The Magic O'rena served the community well until 2006 when the City of Orlando and Orange County officials agreed that a new state-of-the-art stadium would be built. The Amway Center, opened in late 2010, and it is widely believed to be the best venue in the NBA. Home to the Orlando Magic, the Amway Center is also home to concerts and shows. In 2012, the Amway Center was showcased nationally when the NBA held its All-Star Game there.

After building a first class facility for the Orlando Magic games and other events, city planners focused on the former home of the Orlando Magic. The local economy is well known internationally as a tourist economy. But, long before the internationally known tourist attractions came to town, Central Florida was well known for innovation. After all, NASA is less than an hour to the east at Cape Canaveral, and the University of Central Florida, outside of Orlando, was initially planned to train rocket scientists for the work being done at the Cape. Before Disney World, Sea World, or Universal Studios, the largest local employer was defense contractor Martin Marietta.

While the tourists come to Central Florida to see characters, roller coasters and animal shows, residents of Central Florida continue to innovate. The University of Central Florida is one of the largest universities in the nation and its science and engineering programs are world-renowned. Near the University of Central Florida, military offices and military contractors design simulation machines to virtually train soldiers for real life problems in battle. Near the Orlando Airport, a new Medical City is being built complete with a medical school, a teaching hospital and research laboratories.

Downtown Orlando is only a few miles away from the tourist attractions, but is a world away in terms of lifestyle. The downtown residents recognize and appreciate the local tourism industry, but also work in the traditional areas of banking, health care, insurance, real estate and law. The downtown core has undergone steady growth in the past decade with residential towers, dramatic expansion of the hospitals, and the current construction of a Performing Arts Center and commuter rail system. With the demolition of the Orlando O'rena, city planners now see an opportunity to expand Orlando's legacy of innovation into the downtown core.
The Orlando Creative Village is intended to be a central home for Orlando's digital media industry. Digital media is a combination of digital arts, science, technology and business for human expression, communication, social interaction & education.

According to the City of Orlando, the digital media industry represents the convergence of already successful industries; modeling, simulation and training (MS&T); film and television production; theme park/ride and show and; interactive and immersive entertainment. Digital media in Orlando has emerged from the union of our MS&T cluster and film and video production industries.

The roots for the Orlando Creative Village and the digital media industry were planted around the Orlando O’rena site over the past few years. Placed next to the site is the UCF Center for Emerging Media, the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, the University of Florida’s Citi-Lab and the east coast headquarters for the House of Moves motion capture studios. The Orlando Creative Village will be a logical extension and expansion of the existing educational facilities, creating high paying, innovative jobs for target professionals identified as young, higher educated, and part of the "Creative Class".