When Chris Cortez invited me to meet him at First Watch for a discussion about Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts—his funky performance space in a modest warehouse tucked away on Kentucky Avenue—the advice that I gave him turned out to be worth roughly what he paid for it: The price of a cup of coffee.
The owners of the Kentucky Avenue warehouse where he and his wife, Melody, had operated “The Boo” for seven years—hosting an eclectic roster of concerts in an array of genres, most prominently jazz but also everything else from folk to flamenco—were going to triple their rent.
Although the small nonprofit venue had attracted an enthusiastic following and many concerts were selling out, The Boo’s business model would no longer be sustainable at that location.
So, asked Chris, what did I think about his making an audacious play to lease the 33,000-square-foot building that had housed the Winter Park Library? “Audacious,” actually, was my word. It all seemed eminently logical and doable to Chris.
Sure, he said, the operation would need to raise funds and win grants totaling seven figures to make it work. But the result would be a vibrant, three-story cultural center with a state-of-the-art listening room on the first floor and other nonprofits subleasing space on the upper floors. And it would be in a high-visibility location along the gateway to Winter Park.
My sage counsel was to forget about it. Rollins College was after that building and intended to retrofit it as the Rollins Museum of Art. Chris—a musician and entrepreneur whose mantra was “figure out what’s possible; the rest is logistics”—already knew this yet remained undaunted.
That meeting marked the first—and the last—time I underestimated Chris’s skill at, well, “logistics.” To make a long (and heavily covered) story short, as of June 2025 The Boo was drawing fans from all over Central Florida to concerts and jam sessions at 460 East New England Avenue—yep, the old library building, remodeled and reborn.
Tragically, however, just as his dream came to fruition, Chris was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer. An accomplished jazz guitarist, he performed a poignant farewell concert at The Boo on October 30 and died on December 21—just six months after the venue opened.
Could The Boo survive? You bet it could. Although he couldn’t have anticipated his illness, Chris had wisely assembled a high-powered, well-
resourced board of directors who brought business expertise to the table and shared his passion for The Boo.
That board—some newbies and some long-
timers—had helped shepherd the project through the roller-coaster processes of grant applications, construction permitting, budgeting and strategic planning. They had even provided volunteer labor when needed to help get the old building into shape.
“All of the tools for success have come together for The Boo,” says Jeff Flowers, chair of the board of directors. “The management team has found its footing and joined with our donors to get the job done. I’m fully committed to this. We all are.”
Jeff, who recently retired after a long career as the second-generation owner of the largest environmental testing firm in the state, is also principal violist with the Maitland Symphony Orchestra and its Bravo Chamber Orchestra as well as co-founder, with his wife, June, of Performing Arts Matter (PAM), an umbrella organization that supports the symphony and other arts nonprofits.
Did I say retired? He’s actually running The Boo, at the moment, with help from June and other board members. And extraordinary things have been happening. The venue is fully booked through summer, fundraising has been robust, ticket sales have been solid (musical genres in addition to jazz are attracting new patrons) and income is meeting or exceeding expenses.
The smaller Bravo Stage was activated in March, and later this year will see the debut of the outdoor Jazz Garden. And the “Thursday Night Hang,” a weekly program that offers free concerts and an open invitation to young musicians who’d like to jam with the pros, has been a remarkable success.
“This is the legacy that Chris left us, bringing the local pros to mentor the next ones,” says Jeff. “Music lives in the hearts of musicians and can’t be passed on any other way.” Concurrently, discussions are underway with potential tenants for the upper floors. Finally, in a highly visible statement of permanence, signage is in the works for all four sides of the building.
Adds Jeff: “Blue Bamboo is here to stay.” Somewhere, Chris Cortez is saying: “Of course it is. I told you it was just logistics.” OK, Chris, count me as a believer.