Cooking School Signs Estimated $15 Mil Lease

ORLANDO-Almost empty for most of the year, the 132,000-sf Lincoln Park Building, 8511 Commodity Circle, south Orlando, is springing to life with the signing of Orlando Culinary Academy to a 15-year, 52,750-sf lease.

The lease has an estimated aggregate value of $15.83 million or about $20 per sf, the average asking rent in the south Orlando office submarket, area brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

Only 45,000 sf is left to lease, giving the building a 66% occupancy level. Banco Popular is currently the building’s sole tenant, occupying an estimated 5,000 sf.

The class A school, first of its kind in metro Orlando, is being developed by publicly traded Career Education Corp. of Hoffman Estates, ILL in association with Paris-based Le Cordon Bleu chefs training institution. The school plans to open in July with a 150-seat training restaurant. Academy president Ken Shore is shooting for an enrollment of 900 by 2004.

Coinciding with the school’s lease signing was the purchase of Lincoln Park Building by G&I-111 Lincoln Park LLC for $11.5 million or $87.12 per sf from Simmons Vedder Co. of Austin, TX. G&I is a partnership of Tower Realty Partners, Maitland, FL and DRA Advisors, New York. Orlando brokers Clifford Stein and Reid Berman are Tower Realty principals.

Stein and Berman have also purchased the 38,000-sf, 94%-leased Shoppes of Lake Mary in suburban Lake Mary, FL from an undisclosed seller for $2.4 million or $63.16 per sf.

Besides Orlando Culinary Academy, Career Education Corp. operates Atlantic Culinary Academy, Dover, NH; California Culinary Academy, San Francisco; California School of culinary Arts, Pasadena, CA; The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago; International Culinary Academy, Pittsburgh, PA; Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Program at Brown Institute, Mendota Heights, MN; Scottsdale Culinary Institute, Scottsdale, AZ; Texas Culinary Academy, Austin, TX; and Western Culinary Institute, Portland, OR.