The transaction was Caridi's second $200-plus-per-sf sale of the year. On the land value itself, the sale price equates to $1.3 million per acre or about $29.49 per sf.

Locally based Unicorp National Developments Inc. paid Michigan-based Olde Property Corp. the listed price of $1.9 million for the property which houses an H&R Block office at 3301 E. Semoran Blvd., about 17 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.

The transaction also marked the second H&R Block office sale Caridi handled this year. In May, the broker sold a 26-year-old, 3,532-sf building at 44 E. Central Blvd. in Downtown Orlando for $935,000 or $264.72 per sf. The seller was 44 E. Central Inc.; the buyer, 44 East RM Central LLC, headed by developer Rosario Poma.

In the Apopka transaction, Caridi tells GlobeSt.com the small building "was incidental (to the deal) and will not be standing for very long." He says the deal was done at this time because Unicorp was scouting for a prime commercial site in metro Orlando. "They're not making 1.44-acre hard corners anymore, and the buyers felt like they could make some sense out of a redevelopment," Caridi says.

The broker tells GlobeSt.com the deal was also done at this time because "corner development and free-standing retail/commercial development period, remain hot." Caridi says those two aspects were "the only facets within the commercial real estate arena insulated from the down market experienced by office and industrial over the past several years."

The broker says the property was on the market for 45 days. The deal itself took 100 days to complete, from contract signing to closing. The Hunt Club PUD's greenspace requirement was the single challenge the brokers, owner and seller had to overcome before closing the deal, Caridi says.

Tim Keen and Chuck Whitall of Unicorp represented their firm. Caridi negotiated for the seller. Caridi garnered the original listing after doing a preliminary valuation about two years ago, he says.

Unicorp's "original plan was to do a 12,000-sf to 14,000-sf drug store, or the like," the broker says. "However, the Hunt Club PUD's greenspace requirement precluded that. They re-evaluated and determined that they could still make it work with a strip center and bank outparcel."

Unicorp National is staying busy in the metro area. The company is constructing the first $50-million phase of Village Center at the 1,100-acre Baldwin Park mixed-use development in suburban Winter Park, FL. Village Center will have 185,000 sf of retail, 60,000 sf of office and 200 apartment units.

Unicorp also plans a 120,000-sf retail center on 12 prime acres the company bought in 2002 from the Celebration Co., a development arm of Walt Disney World. The tract is along US 192 at Celebration Avenue, about 25 miles south of Downtown Orlando.

Small office and retail buildings at prime locations continue to demand premium prices, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com. Also in May when Caridi was doing his deal, a two-story, 60-year-old, 1,582-sf retail building at 1303 W. Fairbanks Ave. in suburban Winter Park, FL was sold for $476,650 or $303.30 per sf. Dean Fritchen, a senior broker in the Winter Park office of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT, orchestrated and brokered that transaction for owner Edward M. Fadden. The buyer was Lake County entrepreneur George Kalivretenos.