Office tower plans scrapped
Developer opts to create mixed-use project near downtown Lake Eola
Highwoods Properties appears to be scrapping plans for a third office tower at its Capital Plaza development in downtown Orlando and instead is partnering with a leading developer to create a mixed-use project with a 22-story building just south of Lake Eola.
The North Carolina-based developer had proposed a 15-story Capital Plaza III office tower next to its existing parking garage on Pine Street that currently serves Capital Plaza I and II. The plans go back to 2006 and have been revised over the years, going from 10 stories to 15.
Highwoods now has teamed up with Mill Creek Residential Trust to propose a mixed-use residential tower and scaled-back office component. Rebecca Wilson, shareholder for Lowndes, represented the developers during the pre-application meeting for the project they’re calling “Capital Plaza III and Modera South Eola.”
The conceptual plan calls for a 22-story residential tower and a 100,000-square-foot commercial building fronting on Rosalind Avenue between Pine and Church streets. A pedestrian promenade would separate the two buildings, which would be just north of the Orange County administrative building.
The residential building would have 400 units and about 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, while the second building could have the entire ground floor dedicated to retail use and offices on the upper floors.
The parking garage would be expanded to accommodate 400 dedicated spaces for the apartment tower, and the residential units would wrap the garage addition.
Company officials could not be reached for comment.
This would be Mill Creek’s fourth Modera-branded project in Orlando. The Boca Raton developer entered the Orlando market in 2015 with the Modera Central, a 22-story mixed-use tower at 125 E. Pine Street, just across the street from this site. The trust sold the 350-unit tower in late December for $137.25 million.
The company is now leasing its new Modera Creative Village, and it recently filed plans for Modera Baldwin Park, a proposed 400-unit apartment building just east of Orlando Fashion Square Mall.
Landsea Homes plans Sanford project
A year after expanding its brand into Florida and months after acquiring a local home building company for nearly $200 million, California-based Landsea Homes is looking to add a 149-lot subdivision in Sanford.
The subdivision, to be named Kentucky Square, would go on an assemblage nestled between Eat Lake Mary Boulevard and Eaglewoods Trail, about 3 miles southeast of the Orlando-Sanford Airport. The parcels were acquired by Orlando-based Hanover Family
Builders in 2021 for $12.9 million, records show.
But when the company was bought in January for $179.3 million by Landsea Homes, all of the land moved to its new owners.
It’s surrounded on three sides by large swaths of undeveloped land, with subdivisions and the Galileo School for Gifted Learning to the east.
“It’s a good commuter area for people,” Ben Snyder, vice president of land acquisition and development for Hanover Capital Partners, told GrowthSpotter.
“And it’s a proven sub-market. It’s sold well for years and years.”
The 149 single-family homes within Kentucky Square would range from 1,700 square feet to 3,300 square feet, with 55-foot lots and 7 ½-foot sideyard setbacks, Snyder said. The six-parcel assemblage also includes two commercial parcels on Lake Mary Drive that would be built out in the future.
The planned development has already received approval from the city of Sanford and is awaiting permit approval from the St. Johns
River Water Management District.
Winter Park-based Appian Engineering is handling civil engineering for the project. Snyder said he anticipates construction to start within the next year.
Since its formation in 2013 publicly traded Landsea Homes has primarily served the California market. But in 2021 the homebuilder set its sights on two home-building spots: Florida and Texas. Those states accounted for about 30% of all single-family home-building permits issued in the U.S. in 2021, according to a recent report by the National Association of Home Builders.
Of the 1.1 million single-family permits issued to builders last year, 179,620 were issued in Texas, followed by Florida at 148,735. North Carolina came in a distant third with 68,636.