Miami-based Parmenter Realty Partners, owners of the 772,826-square-foot Primera Towers I-V in Lake Mary, plans to enhance the value of its office park by bringing a hotel and food hall to adjoining vacant land.
The real estate investment company is seeking city approvals for a five-story, 122-room TownePlace Suites by Marriott on half of a 4.7-acre parcel directly in front of Primera Towers on Primera Boulevard. The property is just west of Interstate 4 and north of West Lake Mary Boulevard. The other half of the property will be the site of a 10,000-square-foot food hall.
Parmenter has also applied for permitting from the St. Johns River Water Management District for a water collection system for the hotel.
Parmenter bought the property for $2 million in July 2017, nine months after the company purchased Primera Towers for $130 million.
“It was definitely important to us to control what was done there,” Parmenter asset manager Nathan Reser told GrowthSpotter. “We bought it partially as a defensive move so something we didn’t want there, like a competing office building or a massage parlor, didn’t come in.”
Just as important to the company, Reser said, was that there are walkable amenities for visitors to the office park.
“If you ever hear a complaint about the office park, it’s that our tenants wish there were more nearby walkable options for food and entertainment,” he said. “That food hall, we think, would go over big with our tenants.”
Primera Towers has 50,000 square feet of office space available for lease, Reser said. Having a hotel next door will be a great way to entice new tenants.
Parmenter plans to secure full entitlements for the hotel site, then sell it to developer PKY Properties of New Jersey. Reser said PKY has developed a Hilton Garden Inn, a Staybridge Suites and a Hilton Homewood Suites, all in New Jersey, and a Hampton Inn by Hilton in Massachusetts. This will be the company’s first hotel development in Florida, he said.
Meanwhile, Parmenter is talking to a retail developer for the food hall, which will give customers options beyond fast food and casual chain restaurants.
“We are trying to create some of those walkable areas people are calling the urban-suburban feel,” Reser said.
Company executives have not decided whether the land for the food hall will be leased or sold to the developer.
Reser said obtaining necessary approvals for the hotel is priority. Though Lake Mary officials are aware of the planned food hall, Parmenter has submitted nothing formally.
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