3 office buildings sold in Celebration

[TravisMT81]

-Orlando Sentinal

Walt Disney Co. has sold the three signature office buildings at the entrance to its Celebration community in Osceola County.

The buyer, Inland Real Estate Acquisitions, is part of The Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. based in Oak Brook, Ill. The sales price was not disclosed, but sources pegged it at more than $70 million.

The three buildings total 440,000 square feet and are occupied by such Disney units as Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Cruise Lines.

The buildings, designed by noted Italian architect Aldo Rossi, were built as part of Celebration Place Office Park between 1995 and 1998. The park is planned for 1 million square feet of office space.

Rick Fox of Inland Communications said that, even though the Central Florida office market is very soft right now, Inland considers the buildings a good investment because they are Class A quality and leased long term to Disney.

Matthew Kelly, vice president of real estate development for The Celebration Co., a Disney subsidiary, said the buildings at 200 Celebration Place, 210 Celebration Place, and 220 Celebration Place were sold because they "were well valued."

Joe Cosenza, chairman of Inland Real Estate Acquisitions, said the Celebration Place Office Park "is well positioned as a strong player in Central Florida's next emerging commercial corridor."

The Celebration deal is Inland's first office-building investment in the Orlando area, but an affiliate, Inland Retail Real Estate Trust, owns about a dozen shopping centers in the region, Fox said.

Jack Snyder can be reached at jsnyder@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5094



Why would they sell them, if they occupy the buildings?

 

[Herbie53]

A company I worked for helped build an office complex in a small rural community so that the tax base could be expanded to help with a financial crunch in the school district. The company happened to be looking for office space as it was, so the charity was minimal. The company's big contribution was agreeing to stay in the building for several years ( I think it was five, but I'm not sure). The reason for this was to protect the initial investment. This builidng is not in an obvious place for an office complex, so the community needed some extra time to lure new tennants. Perhaps Disney is doing the same thing. Ensuring occupancy is a sure way to help get an office complex on it feet, and I'm sure there is a certain amount of convincing that would need to be done for a company to move into Celebration. There's no particular reason for Disney to hold on to those buildings. It's not their type of investment, you might say its too small. If they wanted control over the establishment of this office park, that doesn't mean they would want the burdens of maintenance. Beside which, having tons of Disney offices outside Celebration isn't much of a help to the community. So maybe Disney's occupancy of the buildings was only meant to be temporary to make the property more attractive to investors. Once the leases are up, they can pull out, and the new owners will probably already have done all the work involved in getting new tennants.

I'm certainly not a real estate expert, but the two situations didn't seem to be that different.

 

[epcot71]

so now disney still owns the golf course and the downtown area and all the other land with the exception of the residential land owned by home owners