GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Condo Developer Pays $300,000 for Air Rights

That's the deal the South Carolina developer cut with the city to protect its planned $175-million, 32-story, 276-unit Traditions Tower residential condominium from any new ventures by another developer on the western side of its 1.5-acre Downtown site. Under terms of the deal, Broad Street Partners will pay the $300,000 to the Nap Ford Community School, a public charter school several blocks away in the redeveloped Parramore district.

The city had initially set a $1.5-million value on the air rights, city staffers confirm for GlobeSt.com. Mayor Buddy Dwyer and other council members later lowered their own real estate department's appraisal when Broad Street Partners representatives argued the air rights would have no real value long term because of the small size of the developer's parcel, brokers and marketers who attend the regular council meetings tell GlobeSt.com.

The twin towers are expected to break ground by year end, as GlobeSt.com reported in March. Besides the condos, the project will have 50,000 sf of office and 18,000 sf of retail at the 150 E. Central Blvd. site. The developer projects the condos will be priced from $400,000 to $1 million-plus. Marketers intimate with the project tell GlobeSt.com about 2,000 potential buyers are already on the developer's waiting list.

A 900-space parking garage is also planned at the 415-foot tall structures. They will be the second tallest buildings in Central Florida after the 442-foot tall, 35-story SunTrust Center Downtown owned by Chicago entrepreneur Sam Zell.

Broad Street Partners obtained the development site in January when University Club, a 79-year-old, 500-member Downtown private professional club, traded its 1.5-acre site for ownership of a planned two-floor sky bridge quarters at Traditions Tower. The University Club's offices, fitness rooms and restaurants will look down on the city from the 32nd-floor level.