McCraney Property wants to build headquarters on land city wanted for park
The property management company is under contract to buy land on Orange Avenue owned by Bank OZK
Sept. 22, 2023
By Beth Kassab
After city officials learned earlier this month that Bank OZK accepted another offer on two acres the city tried to buy to expand Seven Oaks Park, speculation swirled over the identity of the buyer.
This week representatives of McCraney Property Company reached out to city staff and said they plan to purchase the land and are proposing to build an office to serve as the company’s headquarters, a city spokeswoman confirmed.
The city has not yet received any documents related to the plans. A call to the offices of Steven McCraney, the company’s president and chief executive officer who also lives in Winter Park, was not returned.
McCraney Property has offices in Orlando, West Palm Beach and Charlotte, N.C., according to its website.
“Since its founding in 1989, the company has grown to be one of the most active developers of high-finish industrial real estate – e-commerce fulfillment and distribution facilities – and private acquisition in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina’s major markets,” the site states.
It’s unclear when the sale of the land will close or how soon the company is looking to start construction.
The city offered Bank OZK (formerly Bank of the Ozarks) about $6 million for the property on top of waiving impact fees on a site at mixed-use development Ravaudage, where the bank apparently now intends to build a branch.
The Winter Park Land Trust offered $500,000 in private funding to help the city purchase the land and convert it to park space. The above renderings show the site as it exists today compared to how it could have looked as greenspace.
Questions or comments? Email the editor at WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com
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By: Beth Kassab
No biography available at this time
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This entity seems very Steve Walshish with projects up and down the East coast and a PR firm spinning a neatly packaged image.
And, minus respect for community investment – a ME acquisition.
Someone needs to tell the CEO he can’t buy votes, those politicians have been voted out…except one.
Good work Voice finding out who the buyer is.
I guess Not this time McCraney
Give – Care – Share
Being an engaged, responsible, and active community partner is a deeply-rooted part of McCraney Property Company’s culture. Our team has cultivated strong relationships by supporting and participating in a broad range of Civic and Professional organizations within and around the communities we serve.
“We’re always a believer of what goes around comes around and it’s helpful if we can help bring it around in a positive manner.”
Steven McCraney
Source:
https://mccraneyproperty.com/about/give-care-share/
Please no more office buildings.
http://www.graphicmania.net/42-most-weird-buildings-architecture/
Give us our park.
Demetree builds an office building across the street from MLK Park.
So McCraney builds an office building across the street from Seven Oaks Park.
Just a 2 minute drive down Denning from each other.
…You gotta see what this guy plans to do with the property.
Where did all the “activate” people go?
Those folks who want parking garages, restaurants, theaters, retail, apartments next to Seven Oaks Park?
What happened to them?
I don’t see any of them complaining that this project won’t “activate” the park.
So maybe they know something about this project WE don’t?
Like why anyone would pay an estimated $6 million for almost two acres to build an office for no more than a dozen main office employees?
That dog don’t hunt.
All you folks out there who were poo poo ing Seven Oaks Park as “Pointless Park” you have some crow to eat.
When the largest developer of warehouse space in Florida decides to plant their headquarters where?
Right across the street from the PARK!
This never would have happened without the PARK.
Winter Park needs more PARKs.
When will you ever understand that?
I thought Bank OZK was over on the other side between the sunrail station and golf course? That’s not where Seven Oaks Park is.
It will be a shame if they go through with it. More development, more multi story buildings, more office space, more concrete, more cars, more congestion, more pollution. The actions by Bank OZK and the developer are direct actions AGAINST green space, parks, trees, and community gathering places. All great, well planned, sophisticated cities include numerous areas of green space. And this particular piece of natural land more strategic than others. This does not bode well for the future of Winter Park and its residents. Most people did not move here with the hope of having more and more office buildings. The city continually talks about “small town charm.” This is the opposite of that.
The only small town charm that WP residents can count on is Park Avenue.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Everything else in Winter Park is negotiable.
Has been that way ever since Terranova left office.
The lots that most of charming Park Avenue store fronts sit on are too small to be redeveloped in a way that makes sense for the landlords or else they would have redeveloped them by now.
Especially with what they can lease the existing Park Avenue buildings for in today’s market.
So for the most part anyway, Park Avenue is safe from the bulldozers – at least for now.
And as we learned not that many years ago – nothing else is protected from over development in Winter Park – not even MLK Park.
The only solution is to vote for genuine “pro-resident” candidates for City Commission. Not the fake ones who tell you that they “put residents first” but the real honest-to-goodness ones who work hard every day to make Winter Park the kind of town that it used to be that residents loved.
Although Sad at best,
Especially for the current buyer,
City of WP & McCraney
FIND A BETTER SOLUTION FOR
BOTH PARTIES,
CIVIC legacy and even a better
Location for McCraney does
Co-exist -now more than
Ever. Rise & Shine, all
Of us wake up.
Just passing through,
Next gen ahead.
Trade the old library property! A win-win for everyone.
First large condo buildings filled every downtown corner and street, now large office buildings. Both make me sad for Winter Park.
Nobody has built anything on the Ozarks property since the announcement about the sale.
It is still vacant property.
As long as it stays vacant there is still hope for it becoming a park one day.
Don’t stop believing.
Let the new owners donate all or part of the land and have the city name it McCraney Park.