A five-story parking garage will go up next to the building. Completion is tentatively set for first quarter 2003.

WACX-Channel 55, a Christian broadcasting station owned by SuperChannel Centre Inc., will occupy an estimated 5,000 sf in the building and lease out the balance of the space.

Claud Bowers, the station's president, couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline, but area brokers familiar with the project and the market, tell GlobeSt.com the class A space could demand $25 per sf in 2003.

That would be a 25% leap from the current average asking rent of $19.07 per sf for class A and $15.67 per sf for class B in the 2.5 million-sf submarket that comprises Altamonte Springs, Longwood and East Seminole county.

Grubb & Ellis Co. puts the first-quarter vacancy mark at 12.8% with 325,877 sf vacant. First-quarter absorption was a negative 2,876 sf.

The building will be the tallest in Seminole County, long considered the No. 1 bedroom community of Downtown office and corporate staffers.

From its height perspective alone, the structure is expected to lease up quickly, especially to law firms and other high-profile disciplines, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

"This type of tenant's corporate image fits in well with a lofty office location," Dean Fritchen, a senior broker at Arvida Realty Services Commercial Division, Winter Park, FL, tells GlobeSt.com. "They like to look down on the competition."

Station owner Bowers has planned the project since 1998. He has told associates he has turned down opportunities to fund the venture through conventional loans, seeking instead to pay for the building and garage from ministry donations.