Principals at Praedium, Tower and DRA couldn't be reached by GlobeSt.com's publication deadline to learn why the deal was done at this time. Area brokers familiar with the 49 office buildings that comprise the 6.5-million-sf Maitland Center submarket tell GlobeSt.com the $94-per-sf-price is below the estimated replacement cost of about $125 per sf for a comparable structure.

Major tenants at Maitland Forum, located at 2600 Lake Lucien Dr., are Wells Fargo Bank and IKON Office Solutions. Praedium brokers Mark Lippmann and Jeff Hertz negotiated the deal for their company.

This was the fifth transaction in the past few years involving Praedium and Tower Realty. Praedium and Tower recently joint ventured the acquisition of Orlando Airport Business Center, a 20-year-old, 177,000-sf, 96%-leased property at 5730-5892 S. Semoran Blvd. Praedium-Tower paid Orlando-based OABC Ltd. $17.25 million or $97.45 per sf for the asset.

Tower Realty also owns the three-story, 50,805-sf Maitland West II office building in Maitland Center. Tower paid Principal Global Investors Inc. $4.98 million or about $98.02 per sf for the property, according to Orange County real estate records.

The Maitland Forum transaction marked the second office building sold at Maitland Center in the past 30 days. Rubicon America Trust of Edgecliff, Australia paid Parkway Properties Inc. of Jackson, MI $28.4 million, or $137.86 per sf, for the 21-year-old, 206,000-sf, 96.5%-leased class A Maitland 200 building, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.