When it came to naming the 2024 Developer of the Year, the NAIOP judges were split between repeat winner Tavistock and boutique firm Atrium Development Group. So for the first time since the Central Florida chapter held its “Best of the Best” gala, both were declared winners.
Led by Adam Wonus, Atrium has helped transform Orlando’s Milk District into a trendy main street district full of distinctive, locally-owned businesses. Milk Stacks, the company’s 27-unit apartment building on S. Bumby Avenue, was named Multifamily Development of the Year for its creative design and public art that pays homage to the neighborhood’s history.
Co-winner Tavistock Development Co. earned recognition for the Retail Deal of the Year for securing SuperTarget and Total Wine as tenants for Lake Nona West, a 405,000-square-foot lifestyle shopping center.
The annual ceremony held at the Alfond Inn honored the past year’s top brokers, land deals, developers, and development projects. Cushman & Wakefield’s Jeff Sweeney won the chapter’s inaugural Broker of the Year award in 1996, and on Tuesday, he was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement award.
Sweeney, managing director for advisory sales, has leased or sold over 35 million square feet of commercial space and represents prominent clients, such as Goodwill, AdventHealth, and Morgan & Morgan. “When you got decades of effort in an industry, and you’ve seen so much change that we’ve seen in Central Florida, to be recognized by your peers as a legacy contributor to the growth of our industry and our community. It’s just truly an honor,” he said.
Sweeney is considered one of the industry’s leading mentors, helping shape the careers of junior brokers into leaders in their respective fields. At each major brokerage firm, and many boutique brokerage firms, there are numerous professionals that have worked closely with Jeff who credit him with their early career development.
“I’ve always encouraged people to find their sport — to find the particular thing that they’re good at — and to focus on that, because we all have superpowers, we just need to find what those superpowers are, and then pursue a career, utilizing those,” Sweeney told GrowthSpotter.
Colliers took home two awards, for Land Deal of the Year and Office Sale of the Year. The Hickory Groves sale in Lake County was one of several high-dollar land closings last year in the Wellness Way area. Richland Communities paid $60 million cash for the property, which had entitlements in place for over 1,200 homes and 48 acres of non-residential uses.
Trevor Hall Jr., director of land services for Colliers, has a longstanding relationship with the seller and approached a handful of select buyers for the Hickory Groves piece. “We did it very discreetly on this one,” he said. “It’s not an amateur’s game for 410 acres. And so I went to a few prospects, and Richland clearly stepped up.”
Rick Solik and Matthew McKeever with Colliers brokered the $122 million deal with Charles Schwab for the Maitland Summit office park on Dec. 18. The sale included four buildings plus two parking garages and the park’s signature water features. The company said the deal would allow them to consolidate and grow their Florida operations.
CBRE‘s Michael Phipps and Colin Morrison took home the award for Office Lease of the Year by signing Travel+Leisure as the anchor for downtown Orlando’s 186,000-square-foot HD Supply building. The city offered a $6 million incentive package to lure the vacation club operator to move its offices — and 900 employees — from a location near Seaworld to the central business district.
Industrial REIT Prologis won its third project of the year award for its Airport Industrial Park of Orlando | AIPO. The company completed a build-to-suit distribution center for longtime tenant, McKesson Medical-Surgical Inc. “They already had 470,000 square feet. We added an additional 90,000 square feet to that building,” Vice President Joey Barnes told GrowthSpotter.
This $47.35 million project consisted of $42.6 million in building and land improvements and an additional $4.75 million in tenant improvements to further operational efficiencies. The new Class A, LEED-certified warehouse allowed McKesson to expand and consolidate its operations into a central, best-in-class logistics facility.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Rick Colon, Mike Davis, Rick Brugge and Dominic Montazemi brokered the Industrial Deal of the Year for the $140 million portfolio sale in Davenport. Global real estate firm KKR acquired four warehouses encompassing 1.2 million square feet in the Park 27 and Florida Central Park logistics centers, just north of the U.S. 27 interchange at Interstate 4. The sellers were Duke Realty and Prologis.
Individual honors went to:
- Industrial Leasing Broker: Bobby Isola, JLL
- Industrial Sales Broker: David Murphy, CBRE
- Industrial Landlord Broker: Monica Wonus, CBRE
- Industrial Developing Leader: Scott Gould, Marcus & Millichap
- Office Leasing Broker: Andrei Savitski, CBRE
- Office Sales Broker: Ron Rogg, CBRE
- Office Landlord Broker: Jay Dixon, CBRE
- Office Developing Broker: Colin Morrison, CBRE
- Retail Leasing Broker: James Mitchell, CBRE
- Retail Sales Broker: Brad Peterson, Colliers International
Retail Landlord Broker: Cabot Jaffee, CBRE - Retail Developing Leader: Tarek Chbeir, Marcus & Millichap
- Multifamily Broker: Matthew Prozzillo and Benjamin Skinner, Marcus & Millichap
- Financing Broker: David Borge, CBRE
- Land Sales Broker: Robert McEwan, CBRE
- Volunteer of the Year: Alex Eastwood, Lincoln Property Company
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.
