Developer Daryl Carter is following a great deal of development activity happening on the outskirts of Orlando’s affluent Lake Nona community and south of the Orlando International Airport.
With the help of investment partner and broker Jim Dowd, principal of land company Dowd Properties Inc., Carter is pursuing Orange County guidance to begin the development process of converting roughly 23 acres of ranch land at 14727 Boggy Creek Rd. into a new mixed-use project, called Bennett Place.
A recently submitted Preliminary Review Item shows Carter is seeking to develop up to 50,000 square feet of commercial and medical office space, a possible hospital or care facility with up to 150 beds, a hotel with up to 200 rooms and entitlements suitable to house around 350 multifamily units.
The property, located less than a half-mile north of the Osceola County line, between Boggy Creek Road and Happy Lane, is currently owned by the Bennett Family Revocable Living Trust, of which Shirley Bennett is the primary trustee.
Dowd is brokering the deal between the two parties. Matthew Gillespie, with Kimley-Horn, is the engineer.
Carter said he’s jumping on an opportunity to develop and sell land near large single-site employers, like Medical City and Orlando’s growing international airport.
“You have a nucleus there,” Carter said. “[The Lake Nona/Airport submarket] is the envy of most other places.”
He also points to several infrastructure improvement projects happening that could support more growth in the area, which he calls the Boggy Creek Road corridor.
The expansion of Boggy Creek Road into a four-lane urban roadway is scheduled to be reconstructed next year, and the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) is extending utilities to the county line.
“The Narcoossee Road corridor is running out of land,” he said. “Boggy Creek Road is the next Narcoossee Road corridor.”
In September, GrowthSpotter reported of plans by a group of property owners seeking to annex about 36 acres of land, just north of the Bennett Place, with plans to develop 380 apartments, 92 townhomes and 78,000 square feet of commercial space.
Across Boggy Creek Road, D.R. Horton is under contract with land owner AdventHealth to purchase and develop roughly 115 acres. Pending permits would allow for 660 multifamily units, 166 townhomes, 160 senior housing units, 150,000 square feet of retail use and 150,000 square feet of office uses.
Just south of that project, the mixed-use Tyson Ranch master-planned community is underway and will consist of a 324-unit apartment complex developed by luxury multifamily real estate firm Bainbridge Companies and more than 300, two-story townhomes being built by M/I Homes.
Without providing any names, Carter told GrowthSpotter he’s talking to several interested buyers and potential partners.
“A lot of that area is broken out into five- or 10-acre tracts, so it’s hard to do anything of scale,” he said.
Major developments happening nearby include, Poitras East, which is a roughly 1,100-acre planned neighborhood along Narcoossee and Boggy Creek roads in Orange and Osceola counties being planned by Tavistock Development Company. The property is designated as an expansion of its Lake Nona community, and calls for more than 2,700 residential units and 100,000 square feet of non-residential uses.
Meanwhile, its Poitras West planned neighborhood spans about 700 acres on the opposite end, and is slated for up to five million square feet of office, industrial and commercial uses. Tavistock purchased the land last year for $49.35 million, in cash.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at arabines@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-5427, or tweet me at @amanda_rabines. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
