Chuck Whittall’s Unicorp sells Griffin Farm retail property in Lake Mary near Orlando
One of metro Orlando’s busiest high-profile developers has parted with a prime retail property it built in Seminole County.
Unicorp National Developments Inc. sold the retail components of its Griffin Farm mixed-use project in Lake Mary to Largo-based Equity Management Partners on Jan. 1. Ben Mallah, the principal and founder of Equity Management Partners, confirmed the off-market deal to Orlando Business Journal.
Why this matters: High-dollar commercial real estate properties can be important momentum drivers for the local economy and signal bullishness by investors on submarkets where they take place.
The deal includes three separate properties at 211, 236 and 242 Wheelhouse Lane, adjacent the Drake Midtown apartments, which also were part of Unicorp’s original mixed-use project but sold in a separate deal in 2019.
Unicorp President Chuck Whittall told OBJ his company originally had not intended to sell the property before being approached with the off-market offer.
“Interest rates continue to be awful and we want to have plenty of dry powder for projects,” Whittall said. “It made sense to free up that capital.”
Altogether, the retail components total 150,000 square feet of space spanning 10 acres.
Tenants include Winn-Dixie, 24 Hour Fitness, First Watch, Zaza Cuban Comfort Food and Crumbl Cookies, among others. The space is 100% leased, Mallah said.
Mallah further said his team liked the fact that new, Class A apartments were on site, building in consumers in close proximity, not to mention Lake Mary’s strong demographics.
“We like the fact that it was a newer project, so we don’t have any deferred maintenance,” Mallah said. “It has good tenants and good clientele profiles.”
Mallah complimented Unicorp on a well-done project, adding that he anticipates it will be a stable asset in his firm’s portfolio “for a very long time.”
Daniel Baruch, a broker and vice president for New York-based Legacy Realty Group, brokered the deal.
Equity Management Services has been active in Orlando previously, having owned and sold an International Drive hotel. Currently it holds a small retail property there, as well.
Mallah said he is still interested in further acquisition in Central Florida, in spite of what he termed a very difficult market. “I’m actively pursuing anything, anywhere that makes sense.”
Meanwhile, Whittall said he is not alone in his intended pullback for projects in 2023 and keeping an eye on 2024 as a time to ramp up again as costs may have come down by then. “I’ve talked to many fellow developers who do apartments, as well as retail, and they’re just putting everything on hold.”
This also is true on a national level, as construction starts declined by 18% in November 2022, according to Dodge Data and Analytics.
Richard Branch, Dodge’s chief economist, told The Business Journals previously that he has forecast a 10% decline in construction starts for nonresidential this year — and much of that dip will come from the office, industrial, hotel and retail sectors.