Maryland real estate company resubmits plans for Orlando business park near OIA

Maryland-based real estate and investment firm Bavar Properties Group is once again planning a business park in southeast Orlando — only this time the proposed development is much smaller.

A recently submitted master plan shows the company intends to develop 159,000 square feet of office and flex industrial space at 6249 S. Goldenrod Road.

The project, originally dubbed Orlando OffiCenter, will feature a 91,800-square-foot building that will be made up of 66,000 square feet of office space and 25,800 square feet warehouse space as part of its first phase.

The second phase will be a 67,200-square-foot building with 47,600 square feet of office space and 19,600 square feet of warehouse space.

In 2007, the developer originally proposed building a 375,000-square-foot office campus on a 34-acre parcel of land it bought from real estate broker/developer Daryl Carter for $8.1 million.

Trevor Hall, of Collier’s International Central Florida, worked with the Bavar Properties Group in the past and told GrowthSpotter he worked with the seller to amend the approved uses of the land to allow for multifamily and educational uses after the recession hit.

Bavar Properties Group sold about 16.26 acres of its property to the Orange County School Board last year for $7.86 million. The school board plans to open a new elementary school on the site, called Vista Pointe Elementary, in August.

Both developments stand to benefit from the $1.4 million extension of Market Place Drive, which will connect Goldenrod Road to Narcoossee Road.

Rob Bavar, vice president of Bavar Properties, told GrowthSpotter the company is building the business park on speculation and hopes to begin construction sometime next year.

“Plans all along were to develop the property, we were just waiting for the right time,” Bavar said, adding that plans began rolling before the pandemic. “We love the area, and plan to hold on to the properties for the long-term.”

The Orlando OffiCenter business park is north of Lee Vista Boulevard, right off the Beachline Expressway, near Orlando International Airport.

The area is seeing increased investment and development activity. Earlier this month, industrial real estate investment and management company LBA Logistics paid $26.4 million for two recently completed industrial buildings on the northeast corner of Winegard Road and Sand Lake Road.

There were 41 industrial facilities of more than 10,000 square feet under construction in the Orlando Metro Area, totaling 5.7 million square feet, according to a CBRE first quarter industrial report. Around the same time last year, about 3.7 million square feet was under construction.

About 212,920 square feet of industrial space, across three projects, were completed during the first quarter of 2020.

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