Mill Creek Residential Trust turned to SK+I Architecture to design its fourth Modera-branded tower in downtown Orlando, south of Lake Eola.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based firm specializes in urban-infill mixed-use developments and designed the company’s Modera Central tower across the street in 2016.
The 25-story Modera South Eola would rise on a 2.1-acre site that was previously approved for a third office tower for the Highwoods Properties Capital Plaza complex on Pine Street at Rosalind Avenue. Highwoods jointly submitted plans for a 100,000-square-foot office building called The Commons. Both are seeking master plan approval and requesting a courtesy review by the city’s Appearance Review Board.
The project has been revised since GrowthSpotter first reported the conceptual plans in May. Initially, the tower was slated to be 22 stories — now it’s 25 with an eight-story parking garage lined on three sides by residential homes and topped with a 17-story “L” shaped residential tower. The development team also added a live-work component to the ground floor between the lobby and retail section, which now fronts on E. Pine Street. The building height for the Modera South Eola tower would be approximately 262′ feet tall.
A pedestrian promenade, called the via, would separate the two buildings. The residential building would have 400 units and about 6,369 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
Under the new master plan, the office building shows potential 6,000-square-foot restaurant space also fronting on Pine, but the majority of the first floor and both upper floors would be dedicated to new offices. The second and third floors of the office building feature spacious balconies along the north, west and south elevations with transparent railings and wood-look metal siding applied to the ceiling.
Instead of expanding the existing Capital Plaza parking garage, as shown in the initial concept, a new garage podium would be constructed to accommodate 400 dedicated spaces for the apartment tower. The site plan from engineering firm Atwell shows a 15-foot separation between the two structures. An amenity deck with a pool would be built on the roof of the new parking structure, along with about 4,000 square feet of interior amenity space. A second, 4,116-square-foot amenity space is shown on the 25th floor, where it should have views of Lake Eola.
The existing Capital Plaza Garage, consisting of 1,531 parking spaces would provide 210 parking spaces for the new Commons office building.
The Highwoods-Mill Creek joint venture turned to RVi Planning+Landscape Architecture to create the streetscape, which includes a contrasting design with gray and tan pavers, sleek lightings and outdoor furnishings, and a mix of new and existing street trees. The office building was even designed with a recess in the northwest corner and a slight curve to the southwest corner to accommodate two existing trees on S. Rosaland Avenue.
The estimated construction costs for the project is $20 million for the office building and $98 million for the tower, with construction beginning in September 2023 on the tower. The start date for the office building is to be determined
Mill Creek has completed more than 42,000 apartment homes since 2011, making it the nation’s third-largest multifamily developer. This would be Mill Creek’s fourth Modera-branded project in Orlando. The Boca Raton developer entered the Orlando market in 2015 with the Modera Central, a 22-story mixed-use tower at 125 E. Pine Street, just across the street from this site. The trust sold the 350-unit tower in late December for $137.25 million.
The company is now leasing its recently completed midrise Modera Creative Village with ground-floor retail, and it has approved plans for Modera Baldwin Park, another midrise 400-unit apartment building just east of Orlando Fashion Square Mall.
The city’s Appearance Review Board meets next on Dec. 15, 2022. The master plan is scheduled for the Dec. 20 Municipal Planning Board meeting.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261, or tweet me at @byLauraKinsler. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
