Atlanta's Vlass Group Buying Prime Suburban Tract for City Center

Vlass plans to joint venture the planned Altamonte Springs Town Mall, an estimated $200 million, one million-sf city center retail-office-entertainment and 2,000-space parking garage project, with the city of Altamonte Springs, seven miles north of Downtown Orlando. The city plans to contribute about $15 million for the garage construction and improvements near the project.

The land deal is scheduled to close no later than March 29. If it does, the city would sell Vlass an additional six acres it owns on the west side of Cranes Roost Boulevard. The 14 acres are along the east side of Cranes Roost Boulevard, south of Cranes Roost Park, a hot development hub.

If the deal goes through, Vlass plans to break ground on the project by fall with first-phase completion in fourth quarter 2003, broker sources tell GlobeSt.com.

Vlass and Altamonte Springs city manager Phil Penland couldn't be reached at GlobeSt.com's publication deadline. But area brokers familiar with the Altamonte retail submarket tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity the 14 acres will probably go for at least $200,000 per acre ($4.60 per sf) or a total $2.8 million. The city's six acres will be at least $4 per sf, broker sources tell GlobeSt.com.

The deal would be the largest of its kind this year in metro Orlando. The 14 acres are within minutes of Interstate 4, Cranes Roost Park and Altamonte Mall, one of the most shopper-intense hubs in Central Florida.

The Vlass deal follows a failed transaction by developer Guy Scott's Altamonte Springs Development Corp. in November 2001. Scott was planning to buy 20 acres from Morgan Stanley for about $8.3 million or $415,000 per acre ($9.53 per sf). Morgan Stanley was asking $8.5 million or $425,000 per acre ($9.76 per sf).

Scott had planned to do the same project Vlass is now envisioning. Initial plans by Scott for a 150-room hotel were scrubbed.

The Vlass project will be comparable to the successful $200 million Cranes Roost Park undertaking the city and private investors, headed by Emerson International Inc., created five years ago out of distressed properties behind the Altamonte Mall.