The owners of Lazy Moon Pizza, the popular cheap-eats hangout near UCF, plan to start construction this week on a second location in the Mills 50 district near downtown Orlando. “We’re looking to expand our footprint,” said Tim Brown, Lazy Moon’s co-owner. “We’re going to try to replicate what we have on the east side.”

The new Moon is taking over the space in the former Cruises Only building in the former Euro Living furniture space, 1011 E. Colonial Drive. Because the site has not been a restaurant before, and because there are several floors of offices above the ground floor space, permitting to get the necessary vents for the ovens has been problematic, said Brown. “We’re hoping to start our construction this week.”

Brown said he lives in the downtown area and saw a need for a pizza joint, and one that would be open beyond 10 p.m. Although they will try to create a similar experience, he acknowledges that there will one main challenge: There aren’t 60,000 students “across the street” as there are at the University Boulevard location.

Lazy Moon Pizza only recently moved into its current location near the university. The original Moon was in the dilapidated strip mall at the corner of University Boulevard and Alafaya Trail. When that mall was demolished for construction of the just-completed Plaza at University, Lazy Moon moved to a newer, smaller strip farther west on the boulevard.

Brown is expecting the downtown Lazy Moon Pizza, which will seat approximately 160 people inside and on a terrace, to open in March.