St. Louis, Missouri-based Summit Real Estate Group is taking control of about 50 acres of land across from the 180-acre Mid-Florida Logistics Park in Apopka where companies like Goya Foods and Amazon have recently opened large distribution facilities.
Managing Director Matthew “Matt” Lederman told GrowthSpotter the commercial real estate company is expecting to close on the property located east of the Western Beltway and south of U.S. Highway 441 by the end of this year.
“This is our first ground-up development in [the Orlando market],” Lederman said, adding the firm is looking for more projects to work on in the future. “We’re big believers in Central Florida…And we have eyes on other projects in Apopka.”
Summit Real Estate Group is readying to build 280,000 square feet of speculative industrial development that will be split between two buildings at 2800 General Electric Road. Plans call for a 98,758-square-foot warehouse and an adjacent 181,679-square-foot warehouse.
Stock & Associates is the engineer.
Lederman said the company is anticipating to commence construction by the second quarter of next year. Foundry Commercial is handling the marketing. Lederman said the company has received interest from a number of potential users.
Currently, the site is owned by Mid Florida Freezer Warehouses Limited, a company led by Patrick Lee, the former mayor of Cape Canaveral who was convicted in late 2000 for participating in a scheme to defraud the U.S. Customs Service by concealing and selling contaminated fruit juices. He was sentenced to the maximum, 10-year penalty and has since had his civil rights restored.
Lee was a major property owner in the area. His company Mid Florida Freezer Warehouses Limited also sold the land that makes up most of Mid-Florida Logistics Park, west of State Road 429. Records show industrial developer BlueScope Properties Group paid Mid Florida Freezer Warehouses Limited $15.13 million for the property in 2019.
Today, companies like Coca-Cola Co., Universal Orlando Resort e-commerce giant Amazon, Goya Foods are popping up in the large industrial park.
Meanwhile, other developers are looking to build similar large industrial projects nearby.
Less than a mile away, Double B Development LLC, a company managed by real estate developer Rhonda Beninati, is proposing to build an industrial development totaling 594,000 square feet of warehouse distribution space at 4212 Hogshead Road.
North of the Orlando Apopka Airport, Blue Steel Development is planning to build 2.5 million square feet of distribution warehouse space on nearly 250 acres on U.S. 441/Orange Blossom Trail.
Philadelphia-based real estate investment management firm Exeter Property Group paid $14.5 million for an additional 100 acres next door. A corresponding Memorandum of Development Agreement shows Exeter also intends to build an industrial park.
Industrial development activity has been healthy in the Orlando metro area. According to a second-quarter report by CBRE, there are 14 industrial projects under construction totaling over 2.2 million square feet.
There are even more projects in the pipeline with over 7.8 million square feet planned and proposed across Orlando.
Net absorption during the second quarter totaled 721,200 square feet, bringing year-to-date absorption to over 1.3 million square feet. Notable move-ins include Humana Pharmacy, which filled162,700 square feet at Liberty Park in Southeast Orlando.
LKQ Corporation signed a 201,291 square-foot lease at 635 Ocoee Business Parkway in northwest Orange County and Frito Lay took 128,341 square feet at 2505 Consulate Drive in southwest Orange County.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at arabines@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 491-3357, or tweet me at @amanda_rabines. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
