Tampa-based Icon Residential, a developer focused on urban infill townhomes, has three projects now underway in Greater Orlando and more land in its sights, with $75 million in equity it could place in projects across the Southeast over the next 18 to 24 months, a principal with the company told GrowthSpotter.
The developer has many projects in its home city of Tampa, and expanded into Orlando early last year to begin tying up sites. It’s also pursuing property in Sarasota, Atlanta, Naples and Charlotte.
Their niche is fee simple, three-story concrete block luxury townhomes, priced between $300,000 and $600,000, targeting buyers with the live-work-play mindset by favoring locations within 10 minutes of employment and nightlife.
“We develop these as luxury townhomes, but we’re not ultra-luxury,” said Mike Bednarski, principal with Icon and Broome Capital. “We try to balance quality design and finishes with price points for the middle income household spectrum.”
Icon now has three projects in development locally. The furthest along is Sodo Place Townhomes, a multi-phase 23-unit project off of Grant Street in south Downtown Orlando.
The project’s seven-unit Phase 1 is now under construction, an entry-level product starting at $300,000 for 1,950-2,020 square feet. Six units have been pre-sold, and construction started last month on a four-unit second phase.
Icon manages most of its construction in-house, but for Sodo Phase 1 hired A&M Homes as its general contractor to free up the developer to focus on other projects, Bednarski said.
Its second project is in Winter Park, off of Lee Road on 3 acres bordering Lake Killarney, across from the Ravaudage development. At 10 units per acre (30 units total) this is Icon’s least dense development to date.
Named The Mondrian Winter Park, these units stand two stories instead of ICON’s standard three-story design, and feature higher caliber finishes, rooftop terraces with lake views and boat docks.
Sizes range from 2,100-2,500 square feet, with base prices from $539,000 to $620,000. The company began vertical construction on an eight-unit first phase in early September.
Icon’s third local project is Irving on Park, a 21-townhome development on 1.1 acres at 214 Park Lake St. in Downtown Orlando, which the company acquired in July for $1.4 million.
The property is named after architect Irving Gill, whose style inspired the project’s design. Unit sizes will range from 1,785-2,620 square feet with private rooftop terraces and balconies, and elevator options.
“We’re targeting professional millenials and empty nesters, though we do also expect families due to the good schools,” Bednarski said.
Icon demolished old homes on the site in August, began horizontal site work in September and projects vertical construction to start on a single phase for all the units in December.
The company’s Tampa-based brokerage affiliate Crestview Realty Group is the right hand used to sell its townhomes. They opened an Orlando office earlier this year at 720 E. Colonial Dr., near the Park Lake site.
All three Orlando projects are expected to be complete by the end of 2017 or early 2018, Bednarski said. The company is looking ahead now to new sites it can put into its entitlement and acquisition pipeline for development in 2018.
Icon favors urban infill properties as small as 1 acre near retail, nightlife and employment nodes, preferably within walking distance. Anything east of Interstate 4 in Downtown Orlando could be attractive, as well as larger suburban infill properties of 15 to 30 acres within 10 minutes of downtown, Bednarski said.
“We prefer high barriers to entry for other developers to come in and mirror our product,” he said. “In St. Petersburg we’ve developed mixed use communities, and like the opportunity to design and build those.”
Icon isn’t inclined to be a pioneer builder for residential in the quiet but promising downtown redevelopments of cities like Ocoee, Kissimmee, Apopka and others. The company prefers to see established residential growth before moving in, ideally from a Class A multifamily or other dense residential project.
Bednarski is willing to tackle rezoning for small urban infill sites but doesn’t want to have to change future land use, or request many variances, he said. For larger suburban infill projects that lend themselves to mixed use, Icon is willing to tackle a Future Land Use Map change.
Icon is on pace to invest another $75 million in equity in projects across the Southeast over the next 18 to 24 months, Bednarski said.
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