Lexin Capital, a four-year-old, New York-based private investment firm, contracted for the real estate in December and closed the deal Jan. 21 in Celebration. Neither party disclosed the purchase price; however, Orlando industrial brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com the deal went down at about $42.3 million.
Brokers base their estimate on evaluating the 273,000 sf of class A office, retail and multifamily space at an average replaceable cost of $150 per sf. They estimate the 6.8 acres in the three land parcels at $200,000 per acre, or close to $1.4 million.
Celebration Co., the real estate development division of Walt Disney World, still has 1,200 acres of strategically located land left to sell on the west side of Interstate 4. The land is zoned for office, retail and general commercial.
The deal with Lexin Capital follows the $6.5 million sale of the 18-hole, 159-acre Celebration Golf Club, 20 miles south of Downtown Orlando, in September, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. CS Golf Partners LLC of Boston, headed by former National Hockey League stars David Creighton Sr. and his son, Adam Creighton, paid $40,881 per acre for the golf course layout.
Disney is gradually selling off its commercial real estate assets according to a previously formed exit plan. "The Celebration Co. is changing its business to concentrate on selling the remaining commercial land," says company president Perry J. Reader. He says Lexin Capital was selected to buy the Downtown assets because "the Town Center needs an owner who will focus long-term on its growth, management and operations."
The 18-acre Market Street component of Town Center comprises 94,000 sf of office space (93% leased); 105,744 sf of retail (16 shops 100% leased and six full-service restaurants); and 105 apartments (96% rented).
In Lexin Capital, Celebration gets a young company with experienced hands, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Metin Negrin, the company's founder, was also a founding partner and chief operating officer of the Athena Group in New York from 1993 to 2000. He also worked for three years with LaSalle Partners in New York in the corporate finance and land groups. Negrin was also a credit analyst at Citibank from 1988 to 1990.
James Derow, Lexin Capital's director of acquisitions, was an associate and an original member of the Athena Group where he worked with Negrin for five years. Prior to joining Lexin, Derow served as vice president, acquisitions for Taconic Investment Partners in New York.
David Kramer handles property evaluations and analysis at Lexin. He is a former director of professional services for NL Barnes Construction Co. Inc. in San Francisco and a former associate director of capital planning for Stanford University.
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