New Medical Office Building Pitched For West Orange County In Apopka

A new medical office building has been proposed for west Orange County.

Longwood-based Dafflyn Property 2 LLC plans to construct a new 11,500-square-foot medical office building at 2106 Plymouth Sorrento Road in Apopka on 1.31 acres, according to city documents. A project that size could cost $1.13 million to build, according to industry standards.

The property, which totals 8.95 acres, already has an Apopka Storage location that was built in 2021 on the site. The medical office building is slated to be built adjacent a 0.68-acre lot that would be preserved for future development. The project will go before Apopka’s development review committee on March 2.

Dafflyn Property 2 LLC bought the vacant site in March 2018 for $1.4 million from a trust, according to the Orange County Property Appraiser. The 2021 appraised value for the property is $1.21 million.

Representatives with the developer were not available for comment. The Dafflyn entity is managed by Central Florida dentists Dr. Robert Bliss, Dr. Bobby Garfinkel and Dr. Dennis Horanic.

Meanwhile, the medical office building market has remained steady during the Covid-19 pandemic. There is more than 16 million square feet of properties that include some sort of medical office under construction, according to CommercialEdge, which is part of Santa Barbara, California real estate data company Yardi Systems Inc.

The changing demographics of the U.S. also will create more medical office demand. About 12.8% of Apopka’s population is comprised of people age 65 and older, compared to 12.3% for Orange County.

By 2030, the U.S. is projected to have more people age 65 and older than those age 18 and younger, according to the Census Bureau.

“As the aging population seeks health services closer to home, we expect to see increased demand for medical office buildings in non-campus settings,” said a CommercialEdge report.

That demand could draw conversions for some suburban office buildings outside of health campus settings, but they would have to fit specific development standards when compared to regular office space, like improved HVAC and different ceiling heights.

Source: OBJ