Electrical Contractors Working at the University

ENTINEL STAFF WRITER

October 19, 2009

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Suburban apartment-rental markets in Casselberry, Winter Springs and Oviedo are outperforming the Orlando area as whole, which has a 12 percent vacancy rate, according to a report by Charles Wayne Consulting Inc.

Complexes in those Seminole County cities are only 7 percent vacant, based on the Maitland real-estate research firm's September apartment census.

More than one-fourth of the 623 rental complexes in the region were 95 percent full, which is considered capacity by industry standards. And 245 of them had managed to boost their occupancy rates during the last six months.

Apartment complexes in west Orange County appeared to be the hardest hit in the market, with vacancy rates of more than 20 percent.

Apartment properties built from 1990 to 2004 had vacancy rates of less than 10 percent.

Mortgage activity up
Mortgage payments for homebuyers are now hovering around $1,200 a month, more in line with Orlando-area rents, according to a quarterly report by FBC Mortgage of Orlando.

In keeping with Orlando's high sales volume and plummeting prices, mortgage amounts are dropping while the number of transactions increases, said Rob Nunziata, FBC president.

"Although credit and underwriting guidelines have tightened, buyers are still able to get financing and rates are still at historically low levels," he said.

The report noted an increase in federally backed mortgages, with the local market in a position to loan more than 50 percent of its mortgage money via FHA, VA and USDA loans. The last time government financing reached such a level was in 2003. Refinancing activity ground to a halt, as 90percent of loans in the market went to homebuyers.

Credit scores dropped in the third quarter of the year, following two quarters of improved credit ratings, according to credit-reporting agencies.

Construction
HW Davis Construction Inc. of Orlando recently completed the Solantic walk-in, urgent-care facility on South Orange Avenue in Orlando and a new cardiac-catheterization lab for Health Central. The company was also selected by Orlando Health to construct a data center in the SunTrust Tower in downtown Orlando. Fred M. Humphrey & Associates Inc. was the architect for the project. ...

Altamonte Springs-based Tri-City Electrical Contractors Inc. is doing $5.8 million worth of work at Orange County Public Schools' 438,765-square-foot Edgewater High School replacement-and-renovation project in Orlando, under its contract with W.G. Mills Inc. of Orlando. Completion is slated for April 2011. ...

Kissimmee-based Terry's Electric Inc. was awarded a contract by the school district of Osceola County for the multimillion-dollar, 105,000-square-foot Elementary School "N" in Kissimmee. W.G. Mills is the general contractor for the project, which is slated for completion in July 2010.

Leases
Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc. announced a lease for Massachusetts-based Autopart International, an after-market automotive-parts distributor moving into the Florida market. The industrial-brokerage team of Lee Morris and Jared Bonshire represented the tenant in the deal for 15,000 square feet at 613 Triumph Court, Orlando, from landlord Harrel & Davis. Autopart International is owned by Advance Auto Parts. ...

Highwoods Properties Inc. announced that Medtronic, a global medical-technology company, has renewed its lease on 2,836 square feet in Highwoods' Capital Plaza II building at 301 E. Pine St. in Orlando. Catherine Reeves represented Highwoods and Medtronic was represented by Sarah Castor of Cresa Partners. ...

Grubb & Ellis Commercial Florida recently negotiated a new office lease for 7,000 square feet at 1505 E. Colonial Drive in downtown Orlando. Jay Dixon and Robert Kellogg, vice presidents in the office group at Grubb & Ellis, negotiated the five-year lease representing the landlord Evans Groves Inc. of Orlando. The new tenant, the Orlando Weekly newspaper, was represented by Shipley Hall of Flagler Development. ...

Southern Commercial Real Estate Advisors LLC principals Tom McFadden and William Bradford Jr. represented the landlord, RREEF, in a five-year lease of 31,500 square feet in Orlando Central Park at 2900 Titan Row, Orlando. The tenant, Carolina Mattress, was represented by Jonathan Moore of Acquisition Consultants in Orlando. ...

Vince Arch, commercial broker with CitiSpace Orlando, recently represented the tenant Kramer America Inc. in a three-year lease of a 4,800-square-foot office/ warehouse space at 3764 Silver Star Road, Orlando. The landlord was represented by Iris Segal of Dr. Phillips Inc.

Installations
Casselberry-based Signature Systems of Florida completed the installation of Access Control and IP Video Systems in the multimillion-dollar University of Central Florida Burnett biomedical center, is the first building on the new UCF College of Medicine campus in southeast Orlando. The building contains a Vivarium, a highly secure research facility, which required sophisticated integration of access-control and closed-circuit TV systems. The company is also serving as prime contractor for the alarm retrofit of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s four-story office in Melbourne. The facility contains more than 100,000 square feet of space. ...

Cuhaci & Peterson Architects LLC of Orlando has been awarded a contract to design the remodeling of two Winn-Dixie stores in Alabama.

Mary Shanklin can be reached at mshanklin@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5538.