Small Buildings Sell Fast at Top Prices

ORLANDO-Small buildings in strategically located areas of Central Florida continue to be in strong demand by investors and users who are paying over $100 per sf for many of the properties, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

“The cost replacement factor is probably the key element in many of these deals,” Dean Fritchen, senior broker at Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT in Winter Park,, tells GlobeSt.com. “If it’s going to cost you more to put up a new small building than it is to buy an existing structure that you could renovate and retrofit to your needs, then buying the existing building is almost always the best choice.”

That may have been one of the factors that convinced Shops at Hancock LLC to pay Chester C. Fosgate Co. of Winter Park $3.2 million, or about $229.64 per sf, for a 14,000-sf retail building adjacent to a 150,000-sf SuperTarget in Clermont, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.