CLERMONT - A medical office complex described by its developer as the first of its kind in South Lake County is about to be constructed near South Lake Hospital.
Scheduled to be built on 16 acres at Citrus Tower and Oakley Seaver boulevards, the office park will consist of 15 buildings ranging in size from 2,500 square feet to 30,000 square feet.
According to Cid Kent, a sales executive with Stirling Sotheby's International Realty, which is handling the marketing and sales for the complex, what makes the project unique is that it will be almost totally physician owned.
"Ideally we're looking at each (building) being owned individually by doctors," Kent told The Reporter.
To be called South Lake Medical Arts Center, it will be the first of its kind in the area, according to Wayne King, the vice president of business development at Schmid Construction and Development Inc., the Clermont firm developing the property.
"Our research shows more and more physicians want to stand out in their own buildings with the name of their practice permanently affixed," he said in a press release announcing plans to build the center. "Not to mention the financial advantages of investing in their own facilities and leasing any unoccupied space to other professionals."
Kent described the project as being "like a medical campus" with the buildings forming a circle on carefully landscaped property. There will be perimeter parking spaces at each building as well as a 200-space parking garage that will be constructed behind the two 30,000 square-foot office buildings.
In all, Kent explained, the center will provide 116,000 square feet of upscale medical professional office space to meet the needs of one of Florida's fastest growing areas.
"You're looking at an average of 30,000 families moving into Central Florida each month," she pointed out. "Obviously, we need infrastructure."
Kent added that South Lake County is leading the state in the number of adult-oriented communities, and that translates into a need for medical facilities such as the new center.
As Kent explained it, "The developer is selling the land with a building shell on it."
In the case of a 2,500-square-foot building, the initial investment would be $210,000. Finishing the building brings the cost up to $525,000, and the new owner then completes the interior to his or her taste and needs.
Three of the buildings have been sold, Kent said, and negotiations are underway with a physician to buy one of the largest buildings. She added the developer is considering keeping the other 30,000-foot structure to lease to doctors who don't want to buy their office buildings.
