:quality(70)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tronc.s3.amazonaws.com/public/7SJXS7LGHVDENLHT2VW4JLVVMQ.PNG)
Tampa-based Ocean Bleu Group paid $21.77 million on Thursday for a shopping center and multifamily site that will add over 400,000 square feet of new retail uses to Kissimmee’s booming LOOP submarket.
The 85-acre site fronts Osceola Parkway, directly across from The LOOP shopping center, and stretches south of Ball Park Road.
“We are excited about this project moving forward and anticipate breaking ground some time in April,” Ocean Bleu CEO Bryan Schultz told GrowthSpotter.
The city’s Development Review Committee meets in January to review the new site plan that identifies 23 retail buildings – everything from a gas/super convenience store to restaurants to big boxes as large as 80,000 square feet – on the upper 50 acres.
Berkshire Realty’s Jared Ettinger and John Park represented the buyer and are heading the leasing and sales for the shopping center.
“Jared has done a great job getting tenants lined up,” Schultz said.
The 35-acre multifamily site between the shopping center and the Ball Park Road extension is entitled for up to 400 units and would likely be sold to an outside developer, Schultz said.
David Calcanis, managing director of land for Colliers International in Orlando, represented the sellers, Kelly Properties. “I have been working on this project for a number of years and there have been many suitors for the 50 acre retail site,” he said.
Calcanis said Schultz’s vision for the site aligned with those of the seller and the City of Kissimmee, so he worked with the buyer to amend the Flora Ridge Mixed-Use Planned Unit Development to allow for apartments on the lower 35 acres. That portion of the MUPUD had been designated for office uses.
“I want to give credit to the city’s planning staff,” he said. “All of those people are so wonderful to work with.”
The project falls within one of Kissimmee’s most desirable apartment submarkets because of the plethora of shopping nearby and easy access to major highways. Fore Property Company has already developed four communities on lands formerly owned by Tupperware.
Epoch Residential purchased the 74 acres immediately south of the project last year and is currently building the first two phases of a three-phased project entitled for 788 multifamily units.
“The vision is to have an inviting, walkable development that will have a spine road traversing from West Osceola Parkway south through the 85 acres and the Epoch 788 multifamily project currently under construction south of Ball Park Road,” Calcanis said. "This project is expected to the coup de grace of the LOOP shopping and entertainment experience. "
Elevation Development and The Latigo Group are co-developing another 640 luxury rental units between sister apartment communities on the former Osceola County Softball Complex, just east of the site.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261, or tweet me at @LKinslerOGrowth. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.