One of Central Florida’s hottest office destinations may see more office space construction.

Lake Nona developer Tavistock Development Co. wants to increase the amount of office space it can build in the Lake Nona Town Center by 145,211 square feet to 525,389 square feet, according to city of Orlando documents.

Orlando-based HuntonBrady Architects is the project architect. The increase in office construction shows the demand office users have for the southeast Orlando neighborhood.

“We attribute much of the demand to the fact that in Lake Nona, companies can provide their employees with a rich environment that goes beyond just the workplace, thanks to our thoughtfully designed, innovative buildings in mixed-use settings,” Ralph Ireland, vice president of development operations, said in an email.

In recent years, Lake Nona has attracted major office users including the new KPMG Lakehouse training facility, Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute and the corporate headquarters of both BBA/Signature Flight Support and ClosetMaid Corp.

“They’ve been able to capture in-bound office space demand probably better than anybody else,” said office expert Jeff Sweeney, managing director with Cushman & Wakefield, who is not involved in the project.

Office Center Stats

Southeast Orlando is a growing office submarket. The airport/Lake Nona office submarket had an 8.9% vacancy rate, compared with the Orlando-area overall average of 9.5%, according to Cushman & Wakefield plc’s (NYSE: CWK) most recent market report. In addition, the submarket’s Class A average rents are $31.69 per square foot, well above Orlando’s overall $26.27 per square foot, which shows demand for office space in Lake Nona.

Lake Nona Town Center

The new office space will join the the $780 million, 3.8 million-square-foot, mixed-use town center that Tavistock is developing in partnership with Columbus, Ohio-based Steiner + Associates. The town center also will feature the Lake Nona Wave Hotel, which is designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica with Dallas-based Balfour Beatty Construction as the general contractor. The property will bring 239 hotel rooms to the region and may open in 2021.

Source:  OBJ