A Metro Atlanta developer is prepping to break ground on a new mixed-use project at the southwest corner of Osceola Parkway and Orange Blossom Trail.
SJC Ventures, which specializes in retail and mixed-use development, paid $7.8 million on July 8 for the 16-acre site and received a $33.8 million construction loan for the project dubbed Orange Blossom Plaza.
“The intention is to start construction in mid-August, and it’ll take us about 18 months to start opening our shop tenants and grocery anchor,” SJC Principal Jeff Garrison said. He told GrowthSpotter the firm’s total investment in the project will be about $55 million.
The land lies within the Osceola Corporate Campus, a massive planned development that was assembled and entitled by Tupperware. In 2019, the company entered into a joint-venture agreement with O’Connor Capital Partners, which had developed the Crosslands and Cinque Terre shopping centers — both on former Tupperware property.
The firm has an approved Site Development Plan calling for a two-phased development that would start with 82,450 square feet of retail and commercial space, anchored by a 43,410-square-foot grocery store. A future phase would be slated for the northeast corner of the parcel and calls for a 5-story office building with 156,120 square feet and an attached, 6-story parking garage with 600 spaces.
Garrison declined to name the anchor tenant, but said it would be an upscale grocer. SJC Ventures and its Chairman, Steve Collins, have completed more than a dozen shopping centers anchored by Whole Foods and have two more in development now in St. Petersburg and Boynton Beach. The Amazon-owned grocer has three stores in the Orlando region, in Winter Park, Doctor Phillips and Altamonte Springs, but none in Osceola County.
“This is such a high-energy corner in Osceola County — it’s going to attract a lot of restaurants, sit down and quick service restaurants, fitness boutiques,” Garrison said. Other potential tenants could include salon/spa services, pet services, pediatric services. “So all those things that that you see at these high energy locations, where you’ve got 75,000 people that pass this site a day. So we’re very excited.”
SJC Ventures also has extensive experience with urban mixed-use developments, including the Interlock and Parkview on Peachtree in downtown Atlanta and Southern Post, a $100 million development in the Atlanta suburb of Roswell.
SJC Ventures will be adding a traffic signal and turn lanes at Orange Blossom Trail and Country Boulevard, which is part of the $2 million investment in traffic improvements. The site plan from Harris Civil Engineers also calls for a deceleration lane and right-in right-out driveway on Osceola Parkway. The developer also will have to spend about $1.5 million to relocate an existing FDOT pond toward the back of the site and build its own stormwater facility on a semi-detached parcel.
“We think that the challenges of developing the site are about to be put to bed,” Garrison said. “There was a time when the engineering challenges didn’t allow for the property to be put into its highest and best use because of the infrastructure cost.”
Hawkins Construction will be the GC.
The Orange Blossom Plaza likely isn’t the only major retail development in the pipeline for the Tupperware area. Just last week, Harris Civil Engineering’s Abdul Alkadry held a pre-application meeting with Osceola County planners to discuss a new commercial project right across the street on the vacant property between Barn and Still streets. He submitted a conceptual site plan on behalf of an unnamed client for a 50,440-square-foot single-tenant commercial building. The project would be served by the new signal at Country Boulevard.
Just south of that, Miami-based Legacy Residential Group has an approved development plan and submitted building permits for a 300-unit apartment community called Legacy Osceola. Last September, the developer paid $4.5 million for the 20-acre site at the intersection of Orange Blossom Trail and Woodland Creek Trail.
Garrison said the new development within the Osceola Corporate Campus and along the Orange Blossom corridor is part of what attracted the firm to this project.
“There are there are a lot of exciting things being worked on in this area,” he said. “That’s part of what attracted us. It’s not only what’s there now but the potential. Our job is to see the future today and what it can be, and so that’s why we’re investing.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated to correct the purchase price of the property.
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