"The competitive market for large-scale office space made this move irresistible," says FDN CEO Mike Gallagher. The Orlando division of Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle, led by vice president and leasing director Jim Barton, orchestrated the move for the telecommunications holding company.
"It took about four or five months to do," Barton tells GlobeSt.com. Knowing that FDN's five-year lease was expiring at the 28-story, 400,000-sf Bank of America Tower, Barton put together another five-year lease for FDN that would give them more space and amenities for roughly the same aggregate rent total. Among the amenities: a custom-built fitness center for the entire building but insisted on as part of the deal by FDN.
FDN's 350 employees are moving into 67,000 sf on two floors at the four-story, 18-year-old, 261,000-sf Maitland Colonnades building, 2301 Lucien Way in the Maitland Center office hub, about seven miles north of Downtown Orlando. Barton declines to disclose the aggregate value of the lease contract but says average asking base rents at the Colonnades are "below $20" per sf.
However, area brokers intimate with the Maitland Center submarket tell GlobeSt.com the estimated FDN deal is valued at $6 million based on a base rent of $18 per sf. At the Bank of America Tower, FDN was occupying 55,000 sf over four floors and paying about $25 per sf or about $1.4 million-per-year rent and an estimated $6.98 million for the five-year life of the lease, Downtown Orlando brokers tell GlobeSt.com.
"The tenant got more space and unlimited free surface parking for roughly the same rent total," says a broker who called the deal "a big play" for Jones Lang LaSalle and the Maitland Colonnades owner, Florida Office Property Co., a privately held REIT whose three million sf of class A properties in Florida are managed by Jones Lang LaSalle. "Florida Office Property is the largest owner of class A office properties in the state," Barton tells GlobeSt.com.
The FDN lease brings Maitland Colonnades to 70% occupancy. The building had suffered a major blow when its anchor tenant, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, halted operations here last year. The bank had occupied 112,000-sf on an eight-year lease with an estimated gross aggregate value of $17 million in May 2001, one of the largest office deals of the year. The lease brought the Colonnades to 98% occupancy. Barton also handled that deal.
The Bank of America Tower at 390 N. Orange Ave., owned by Dallas-based Gaedeke Landers Inc., is about 19% vacant.
Asked how leasing activity was shaping up so far in an overall metro office market with a 17.4% vacancy level and five million sf of available rentable space, Barton tells GlobeSt.com, "One day you make a million dollars. The next day you're in line to borrow a million.
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