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Competition Builds Among High-Rise Developers: The Race Is On Among Those Vying To Build Office Towers In Downtown Orlando

By Jack Snyder of The Sentinel Staff

Copyright 1998 Sentinel Communications Co.
The Orlando Sentinel
January 23, 1998 Friday, METRO

Like drag racers revving their engines as they edge to the starting line, developers are closing in on the start of the first private downtown Orlando high-rise construction in more than eight years.
The dirt will fly this year. The only question is, how much?
Four developers considered closest to starting their projects:

• St. Joe/CNL Realty Group Ltd., which could be the first under way with a 14-story, 350,000-square-foot tower next to Orlando City Hall. The joint venture is getting permitting and has hired a general contractor, Brasfield & Gorrie LLC.
  
  The building, off south Orange Avenue, is expected to be under way by March - or sooner. That's because co-owner CNL Group Inc. intends to use most of the building for its headquarters, so an anchor tenant is unnecessary. CNL is a fast-growing real estate, finance and development company.
• Highwoods Properties Inc., which says it will be under way soon on the first of two 350,000-square-foot towers at Capital Plaza. The company is completing permitting and has done soil testing of the site, at Rosalind Avenue and Pine Street.
  
  Jim Heistand, Highwoods' director of Florida operations, said the first tower and a parking garage may be built simultaneously. He said he is negotiating with several possible tenants. Highwoods is expected to draw business from its existing properties - the 201 E. Pine St. building and Signature Plaza. The company also is buying the two-building, 442,000-square-foot Landmarks Center on Robinson Street.
• Faison Associates, which has completed permitting and says it will start construction this fall on the 18-story, 200,000-square-foot Magnolia Building at the northeast corner of Livingston Street and Magnolia Avenue across from the Orange County Courthouse. The only tenant announced is Faison itself, which would take 20,000 square feet for its Florida headquarters.
• Pizzuti Development Co., which hopes to start construction on the first of two towers totaling 800,000 square feet at Orlando City Center, a mixed-use development at Livingston Street, across Orange Avenue from the court- house. Kim Simback, Pizzuti's Southeastern development director, said the company is getting closer to a start.
  
  "We may surprise people," he said.
  The first tenants in the new buildings should get sugar-sweet deals, space brokers say.
  Competition is intense, with five other developers aiming to build if they can find enough tenants to justify construction.
  
  The others are: Tower Realty Inc., formerly Feldman Equities, a 450,000-square-foot tower at north Orange and Marks Street; Boston developer Mark Dickinson, a 150,000-square-foot building at south Orange and Anderson Street; Tishman-Speyer Inc., a 220,000-square-foot building at north Orange and Legion Place; Dr. Phillips Inc., a 180,000-square-foot building at Rosalind and Robinson Street; and Schrimsher Properties Inc., a 120,000-square-foot building at Hughey Avenue and Concord Street.
  

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