Creative Engineering R&D Office

The Creative Engineering R&D Office (47 W Jefferson St, Orlando, FL 32801), was the original research and development location for Creative Engineering's animatronic endeavors, alongside being the production building for the first eighteen Rock-afire Explosion shows for Showbiz Pizza Place.

After the downsizing of the company in the late 1990's, the building became the main headquarters for the company, with it now referred to as the 'Creative Engineering Building' and the 'Jefferson Building'.

History

TODO:

Early Use

TODO: Talk about its use as an R&D Office

Incorporation As Company Headquarters

TODO: Talk about the company using it as the new headquarters, and the move of equipment and animatronics from other locations into it.

Contract Work

TODO: Talk about Smitty's, Hannah Banana, Hard Luck Bears, ect. All the shows the company began working on.

Building Tours

TODO: Talk about tours, their impact on the community, ect.

The Blast

TODO: Summary on blast, but most info will go into The Blast's page.

Upstart On Remanufacturing

TODO: Talk about CEI beginning to sell characters and provide more services for replacing parts. New masks, fur, replacements, ect ect. This was more notably done.

2022 Relocation

In March 25th of 2022 Creative Engineering announced its relocation from the main building to a smaller workshop in a Creative Engineering Premium Subscription video titled 'Day 03 of Huge Project - Details Revealed - Letting Things Go'. The building was purchased by Cameron Property Company, LCC on February 28, 2022 for $4,500,000.^[1] In the video, details on the move were provided. The most important belongings would be first sent to the workshop, while historic Creative Engineering pieces would be left in the building until the lease expired. These pieces would stay until the company could attempt to house them in a Creative Engineering museum. If this could not be done before the due date, they would be moved into the workshop.

The reason for the relocation was due to a number of factors, mainly the upwards of $30k in property taxes on the building each year. Due to the company's small use of the building, the large cluttered space was a waste of the money being used to maintain it. The age of the building, along with its damage from The Blast left it unsuitable to refurbish as well. The company's hope of splitting its endeavors into two smaller buildings, that being a museum to keep up its history of fan tours, and a workshop to produce replacement parts for private CEI animatronic shows, was felt as a worthwhile use of its time and money.

As of now the company is still in the moving process of the building, with nothing shown of the new workshop building or its location. Cameron Property Company LCC will likely demolish the Creative Engineering building for use as parking or new development in the coming future, though as of April 10, 2022, they have stated they are not sure whether they will tear down the building, or put it to use.