As improvements to Camping World Stadium attract high-profile events that bring an economic boom to the region, some people are left wondering what the impact is to those already living in the area.

  • Renovated Camping World Stadium attracting high-profile events
  • The Villages of West Lake to be built in the area this year

"If the community is growing, then the businesses should grow," Rick Black said. "If we have businesses here in the community, support the minority businesses. I don't think it's happened to the level where it could be or should be."

Black lives in the West Lakes community, which is a collection of several neighborhoods sandwiched between four lakes and in the shadow of the stadium.

"Most of the people who live here are retired educators, firefighters," said Black's neighbor, Alicia Garland.

Garland has lived in her home for the last 30 years.

"It's a quiet neighborhood — a hidden jewel in Orlando," she said.

Last January, community partners and business leaders assembled to tear down dilapidated housing along Orange Center Boulevard.

Garland said she was concerned and felt out of the loop about the plans. She became skeptical that these kind of projects would benefit her neighborhood.

"When we don't know what's going on, we have no assurance, we have no faith in what's going on," she said. "The people that are doing that have no vested interest in this neighborhood, and those are the concerns we have."

Eddy Moratin, executive director of LIFT Orlando, said that's not the case.

"Part of the role of LIFT Orlando is to try to provide that bridge," he said Wednesday standing alongside the construction site as excavators and bulldozers moved dirt. "That there's real bones here to invest and do something great."

The goal of LIFT Orlando, a not-for-profit organization, is to engage the neighborhood and break down the cycle of poverty through realization, he said.

"We're just outsiders willing to do some heavy lifting," he said of the $40 million mixed-income housing project. "We want to have as many of the local minority developers, contractors and sub-contractors be part of the process. Some of it already has occurred with the use of local businesses for operations here on site. We’re only just getting started."

Despite positive changes, like a cleaner neighborhood and more surveillance, Black — who serves as publisher for African-America magazine Onyx — said he's looking for more collaboration moving forward.

"If the stadium is making money, then the neighborhood needs to be making money," he said. "I think sometimes people tell you what you want versus you say what I need."

Added Garland: "We are worried; we are concerned. We want to feel like our interest is protected here."