Orlando Office Portfolio Trades for $33M

2145 Metrocenter Blvd. Image courtesy of CBRE

A two-building, 182,753-square-foot office portfolio in Orlando, Fla., has changed hands for $32.5 million, according to CBRE, which arranged the sale of the fee simple interest to Metrocenter Office LLC.

Highwoods Properties, a Raleigh, N.C.,-based REIT, confirmed during its first-quarter 2019 earnings call with analysts Wednesday that it had sold the two suburban Orlando buildings.

CBRE’s Ron Rogg and Chip Wooten represented the seller of the buildings at 2101 Park Center Drive and 2145 Metrocenter Blvd., also known as Windsor and Berkshire at Metrocenter.

The Class A property is 89 percent leased to 11 tenants, the largest of which have a long history at the site, according to CBRE.

“Given the strong historical occupancy and current market conditions, the buyer will benefit from ownership of these assets in a rising rate environment with strong predictable income,” said Rogg, in a prepared statement. “Also, 7 + acres are available for future development, giving the future ownership the ability to scale up to 407,753 square feet.”

CBRE noted Orlando has robust market fundamentals with vacancy continuing to decline to a current level of 9.1 percent—the lowest of all Florida MSAs. The firm said the Orlando MSA has led the country in job growth the past three years and is a consistent national leader in population growth. It is only one of two markets that have experienced positive net absorption each year since 1995.

On a year-over-year basis, Orlando topped major U.S. metros with 5.4 percent office employment growth, while Seattle, Houston and Charlotte also had robust job growth in office-using sectors, according to a survey of 115 markets conducted by Yardi Matrix.

Located in South Orlando, the property has easy access to Orlando’s main highways including Interstate 4, the Florida Turnpike and East/West Expressway (SR 408). Downtown Orlando is six miles away and the Orlando International Airport is 20 miles from the property. It is located in the mixed-use MetroWest community with residential, retail and entertainment options nearby, including the Robert Trent Jones golf course.

Busy Office Market

The Orlando office market has seen several transactions in recent months including the sale of 850 Trafalgar, a 150,000-square-foot office building in Maitland, Fla., for $13.8 million to TerraCap Management. The four-story property in the Maitland Center Office Park was sold by The Praedium Group, which had owned it since August 2007.

In February, Jefferson River Capital purchased Reserve at Maitland, a three-building, 196,835-square-foot Class B office campus in Orlando, for $33.5 million from Taurus Investment Holdings. Taurus had owned the office campus since January 2016.