Colonial Properties Plans First-Quarter Start on 225,000 SF of Retail

ORLANDO-Colonial Properties Trust’s $200 million Colonial Town Park in the competitive suburban Lake Mary-Heathrow submarket will be breaking ground early next year on the first 225,000-sf retail phase in the 175-acre mixed-use development.

Also surfacing in April will be the Birmingham, AL-based REIT’s five-story, 155,000-sf office building. No leases have been announced to date. The site at County Road 46A and Interstate 4 is 25 miles north of Downtown Orlando. The REIT’s ambitious construction plans for the rest of 2001 and 2002 are to complete some of the 450 planned apartment units and start on a portion of the 420 planned hotel rooms.

Colonial sees a niche in new office development despite third-quarter vacancies of 12.4% in the Lake Mary/Heathrow/Sanford submarket. There was 463,240 sf of new office under construction in the third quarter, according to Grubb & Ellis Co. Net absorption was 83,408 sf for the quarter and 323,180 sf for the nine-month period. The submarket has a total 3.37 million active sf.