Flagler Plans February Launch on Campus Venture

ORLANDO-Flagler Development Co. of Jacksonville, FL, one of the most profitable commercial real estate developers in Florida, is bucking the go-slow industry trend with pre-development activities on 1000 SouthPark, a 140,000-sf spec office building planned in the new, second 10-building phase of Gran Park at SouthPark in south Orlando.

The new structure will be built next to a $9.5 million, 60,000-sf office-educational complex Flagler will start building in February for Santa Ana, CA-based Corinthian Colleges Inc. Corinthian’s Florida Metropolitan University will occupy the build-to-suit when it is completed in late 2003.

Corinthian will be leasing the property from Flagler on a long-term contract at undisclosed terms. Area brokers intimate with the south Orlando office submarket tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity the lease, estimated at 10 years, will have an aggregate rent value of about $12 million, based on an average $20 per-sf-rent.

Despite a sluggish construction market, Flagler anticipates the two buildings will generate owner interest for other new development in the 176-acre business park planned for 2.9 million sf of office and commercial space.

The first 90%-leased first phase has 835,000 sf of class A office at John Young Parkway and the Beeline Expressway (State Road 528). The second phase is planned for 1.8 million sf of office and 50,000 sf of retail. The site is on the west side of John Young Parkway and has about 4,000 linear feet of highway frontage.

“We have continued to be successful in Orlando despite a challenging leasing environment,” Flagler president G. John Carey says in a statement. “This build-to-suit opportunity is a testimonial of the quality of our project, its strategic location and the efforts of our entire team, which includes professionals from Flagler and Advantis.”

Damien Madsen and John Guitar of Advantis Real Estate Services Co., Orlando, represented Flagler in the leasing transaction. Mark Stratman and Paul DiMeo of the Orlando office of Dallas-based Staubach Cos. negotiated for Corinthian which calls itself one of the largest for-profit, post-secondary education companies in the United States.

Corinthian’s Website states the seven-year-old company’s 4,700-person staff operates 63 colleges in 21 states with a total student enrollment of 35,000. Corinthian’s colleges offer master’s, bachelor’s and associate’s degrees.

Orlando-based Hunton Brady designed the Corinthian building. The Orlando office of Birmingham, AL-based Brasfield and Gorrie LLC is the general contractor.