Heistand, Scala team on townhome project

One of the Southeast’s largest office-tower brokers, Windermere resident Jim Heistand, has partnered on 32 townhouses in downtown Winter Garden with completion slated for mid-2019.

The president

forces with of joined

founder Franco Scala, also of Windermere, on the project called Park Place. The partners manage

which is constructing the two- and three-story townhomes at Park Avenue and Plant Street. The pair previously developed The Brownstones at Thornton Park with 28 townhomes on Summerlin Avenue between Jackson and Mariposa Streets in Orlando.

About a third of the Park Place units have sold with prices from the mid-$400s to the mid-$500s, according to pre-engineered metal roof. The building will have space for motorcycle service and sales on State Road 46 in Sanford near Seminole Town Center.

Two industrial tenants leased about 140,000 square feet of industrial space at Bent Oak Industrial Park in south Orlando. took 46,792 square feet for its rental equipment operations and

lighting and video production group leased 94,336 square feet in the industrial park off Taft Vineland Road. Matt Sullivan, Wilson McDowell and Bobby Isola, all of represented the landlord.

and purchased Art Avenue apartments with 300 units at 10201 Lee Vista Blvd., Orlando with a $40.5 million acquisition loan through Senior Managing Director Mitch Sinberg, Associate Director Matthew Robbins and Senior Analyst Wesley Moczul arranged the 10-year floating loan, which has five years of interest. Vice Chairman Shelton Granade, Senior Vice President Luke Wickham and Associate Justin Basquill represent the seller,

Construction in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties is expected to decline 13 percent this year, according to

One of the biggest drops is forecast for office and bank buildings, which had $245 million of construction last year and that is expected to drop in half this year.

Leading up to this year, Florida overall ranked second nationally for home construction employment. The state has not returned to peak-market levels of 2006 but it had 361,000 of those laborers last year, or about 3.9 percent of the workforce. California led with 788,000 residential builders. Even though Florida’s share of home-construction workers exceeded the national average of 3.9 percent, the state’s housing labor group remains about half what it was 12 years ago when Florida led the U.S. for employment of residential construction workers, according to a report by American Community Survey.