Medical Groups Eye Winter Park’s Skycraft Site For New Office Development
An iconic Winter Park property — that’s been targeted for redevelopment for months — may soon land a buyer.
“Several medical office groups have signed letters of intent to buy the Skycraft Parts & Surplus Inc. property at 2245 W. Fairbanks Ave.,” said Glen Jaffee, senior associate at Cushman & Wakefield, who is marketing the site.
A company was under contract to buy the site, but the deal fell through due to Covid-19. The property has been on the market for less than a year.The Skycraft building may be razed to make way for up to 25,000 square feet of office space on the site.
“No plans have been submitted to the city of Winter Park, but a company is expected to go under contract for the site in the next month,” Jaffee said. “Medical doesn’t go away. There’s always going to be an interest and a need for medical use.”
The site is attractive because it’s in the affluent city of Winter Park and it’s next to Interstate 4, which has 157,000 vehicles a day. That access to I-4 means people from all over the region may be more willing to drive to the site for medical services.
Skycraft Parts & Surplus Inc. currently owns the 0.76-acre property, which features a 6,492-square-foot commercial structure built in 1978, according to Orange County records. The property’s market value is $1.2 million, Orange County records showed.
It’s the latest redevelopment project either proposed or recently completed along Fairbanks Avenue, which is located in an in-demand Winter Park retail area. That’s because retail space on Fairbanks is a bit more affordable than along nearby U.S. 17-92.
“The Fairbanks corridor is going to continue to see a significant uptick in new development, repositions and re-skins,” said Matt Weinberger, vice president of office and industrial advisory services at Millenia Partners, who isn’t involved with the Skycraft property.
More Medical
There may be more medical space that rises nearby. In July, Winter Park-based Raja Investors LLC purchased 954 S. Orlando Ave. for $3.5 million, according to Orange County records. The entity is tied to medical company Orlando Neurosurgery at 1605 W. Fairbanks Ave., state records showed. One of the entity’s managers is Dr. Ravi Gandhi, a physician with Orlando Neurosurgery. Dr. Gandhi wasn’t available for comment. The property’s seller was Krlkm LLP, and the 0.84-acre property features roughly 16,800 square feet of commercial space.
It’s the latest investment for Gandhi whose Winter Park-based Verax Fairbanks LLC in May 2018 paid $3.5 million to buy a 1.6-acre, vacant city-owned site at 1111 W. Fairbanks Ave. A roughly two-story, 20,000-square-foot medical office building was built on the site, and Orlando Health Women’s Pavilion opened as a tenant in June 2020.
Retail Stats
The Winter Park/Maitland retail submarket is one of the most in-demand areas in Central Florida. The submarket features 1.5 million square feet of retail space and a 1.8% average vacancy rate, Colliers International Central Florida reported. That’s well below the Orlando area’s 5.8% average vacancy rate, showing demand for retail space. In addition, the submarket’s average retail rental rate of $36.41 per square foot is nearly double the Orlando-area average of $18.87 per square foot, showing big demand for retail.
Source: Orlando Business Journal
