Universal executive buys estate high on a Lake County hill
A home high on a hill in the countryside is a perfect place to ponder and be creative.
“It has the most gorgeous sunsets you’ve ever laid eyes on with a huge back patio porch area which is an outdoor dream,” said listing agent Jan Fergerson with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty. “It’s on a gorgeous 5-acre piece of land in Sorrento in Lake County. You could just take a glass of wine and walk around the property. It’s just amazing.”
The 4,278-square-foot estate on Equestrian Trail recently sold for $1.4 million.
According to public records, the buyer is Mike Hightower, president of Universal Creative. The seller is a trust associated with Dayna Whitson.
The four-bedroom, 4 ½ -bathroom home was built in 1988 but was recently renovated.
“It has been totally redone,” Fergerson told GrowthSpotter. “You’d never know it was a house built in the late 1980s.”
Fergerson said the sellers re-did the home intending to stay, but family life changes dictated a move closer to town.
“It was heaven to them and always will be,” she said. “It’s just a beautiful looking property. The thing that people notice the most are the stunning mature trees. They’re just huge and the landscaping is immaculate.”
The home sits on a large piece of land, perfect for horses.
“The horse barn has three horse stalls and the other side is enclosed,” Fergerson explained,” adding the enclosed side is air conditioned and outfitted to house rescue animals.
“Because the road you go down to the house is a private road, there’s little to no traffic so it’s not unusual to see somebody riding their horse down the private drive.”
The enclosed back porch has new pavers around the pool and fire pit area and the indoor spaces are high end.
The home wasn’t on the market long, just more than a week.
“We had numerous showings with pretty much everyone wanting it but for one reason or another weren’t prepared to buy it,” she said. “But when the buyer saw it, they made an offer immediately on it.”
460 acres sells for $96 million
In one of the largest and most expensive local land buys in recent years, Orlando-based Intram Investments has acquired 460 acres between World Center Drive and State Road 417 with plans to deliver a mix of retail, multifamily, and entertainment options in the shadow of Disney theme parks.
The company paid $96 million for the property on Jan. 5, according to Orange County deed records.
This is the most robust land deal in the Orlando market since December 2021 when Gentry Land Company and Wheelock Street Capital bought the 5,937acre Green Island Ranch in Osceola County for $150 million, according to GrowthSpotter archives.
The Intram deal tops the most expensive land deal in 2022. In March, WPT Capital Advisors took over the deed of a 248-acre industrial park site near the Apopka Orlando airport for $92.5
million.
The land Intram snagged sits within the World Gateway Center PD and has been owned for decades by long-time developer George C. Barley, who died in a 1995 plane crash. The vast property touches I-4 to the west, World Center Drive to the north (stretching across both sides of I-Drive), S.R. 535 to the east, and
S.R. 417 to the south.
Of the total tract, 138 acres are developable, said Randy Hodge, Intram’s executive vice president.
“Intram has had its eyes on the property for a long time,” he told GrowthSpotter. “The property is just so well-located—in the middle of everything, and there isn’t a parcel of this size remaining
in the tourist district.”
While Intram has yet to iron out specific plans for the property, Hodge said it’s well-suited for a mix-use development with retail, residential, entertainment, and hotel uses.
He noted that Intram intends to develop some of the retail space on its own but will market some of the parcels for other developers to take over as part of a purchase, ground lease, or joint venture for complementary uses including hotels, timeshares, apartments, and more
”We don’t have any specific project planned at this time, we are evaluating exactly how to approach things,” Hodge said. “Construction costs right now are such that maybe it’s not the greatest time to undertake a significant project until costs and the supply chain stabilize a little better. That’s something we are in the process of evaluating.”