Tiny Downtown Office Building Sells for Record $265 Per SF

In what brokers tell GlobeSt.com was the most unconventional office building sale of the year, the property at 44 E. Central Blvd. was appraised for $350,000; listed at $850,000; and sold for $935,000--after six buyers vied for the asset.

Colliers Arnold senior broker Michael Caridi negotiated the deal for the seller, 44 E. Central Inc., to 44 East RM Central LLC., a local restaurant investment group. Gus Benitez of Orlando represented the buyer. The property is expected to be converted to a restaurant-nightclub destination, Downtown retail brokers familiar with the buyer principals tell GlobeSt.com.

The deal took 86 days to complete, from contract signing to closing, Caridi tells GlobeSt.com. The broker received the listing in November 2003 "after providing my initial valuation (to the sellers) about 20 months ago." The property was under contract on Jan. 5, 2004.

Orchestrating the sale transaction was harrowing but not overly challenging for Caridi. "As we all know, our Downtown is going crazy," he tells GlobeSt.com. "I knew what level of interest a property such as this would attract. As expected, we received six offers, five of which were full price."

After receiving two identical offers, Caridi started what he calls "best and final" negotiations with the buyer prospects. The winning bid was $935,000. "It's a nice situation to be in," Caridi says. "However, it's impossible for both parties to leave the table happy."

Although the $264.72 per-sf price is the steepest yet recorded at the Orange County Real Estate Records division, Caridi says he feels the buyer didn't overpay for the property because of its strategic location and immediate highest-use development potential. "There's only one like it Downtown," the broker says.

The buyer group includes the owner of WildSides Restaurant, "one of the most popular venues" in the new Thornton Park subdivision, Caridi says. "The building itself, which includes some on-site parking, is almost perfectly designed as a chic restaurant, overlooking Heritage Square and Wall Street Plaza."

Caridi says he's "not sure what the buyers' final plans will be for the site but with the people involved, I expect it to be something exciting."

The building sits on a .41-acre lot--about 17,860 sf or less than a half acre. If a full acre were involved in this transaction, Downtown brokers familiar with asking land prices tell GlobeSt.com the 44 E. Central Blvd. property would have generated a sale price of at least $2 million.