From the Editor and Publisher

We’re All on the Move in Our Booming Hometown

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.

— Albert Einstein

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Imet a friend at a restaurant recently to catch up on business, and we sat at the bar and ordered two glasses of wine to take outside. The bartender happened to mention real estate. Fifteen minutes later, we were still talking with him about the craziness of the residential market.

The bartender and his wife had 10 offers on their house and were expecting to make a significant profit over what they had paid for it. They had already put in an offer on a new, larger home. My friend started playing 20 questions with him. “Where is the house? Which subdivision? Is it at the end near the park, or the other end?” After a quizzical look from me, my friend explained that he and his wife were trying to find a house for their son’s young family. “We’re having a hard time finding anything,” he told me. “It’s tough out there.”

We’re all hearing stories about people competing for houses in this market, where the inventory is at a record low. Many are offering more than the asking price, along with other concessions. When I interviewed Orlando Regional Realtor Association President Natalie Arrowsmith for the article on Page 30, she told me she and her colleagues have been creating spreadsheets to compare the particulars of each offer to help clients sort through them.

Ironically, a couple of us on the i4 Business team have been touched by this phenomenon. Our sales director, Keith Landry, caught the real estate fever and recently left the magazine to sell properties full time. As I write this, I’m going through the buyer-seller dance myself, with no idea how the story will end.

Another business that’s booming is construction. On a recent drive through Lake Nona, I was surprised to see how many new buildings had sprung up while the world was on COVID-19 lockdown. Our special section starting on Page 33 examines why Lake Nona is such a remarkable community.

Mark Israel is remarkable as well. I had the pleasure of interviewing him and some members of his team from Orlando-based Universal Engineering Sciences for the cover story, which starts on Page 12. We had been following this locally grown geotechnical engineering services firm, cheering it on as it expanded coast to coast. Israel has strategically focused on markets where commercial construction is as robust as it is in Central Florida, while staying true to the values his father established when he created the company.

This issue also features people and companies who are keeping real estate and commercial construction interesting. Read about pioneering developer Chuck Whittall (Page 26), CEO and founder of Unicorp National Developments, which is involved in $3 billion in local development projects. Read about the R L Burns construction management and general contracting firm (Page 24), where a second generation of leadership is helping the Orlando company create a sense of place and tackle the lack of affordable housing. Learn about John Crossman (Page 20), who is helping shape the next generation of Central Florida commercial real estate professionals.

Read about Amy Calandrino (Page 18), a commercial real estate broker who has deftly steered her company Beyond Commercial through the eye of the pandemic storm. Learn about The Collage Companies (Page 32), where founder Brian Walsh is passing the baton to his talented successors. And bone up on the future of Orlando International Airport’s latest expansion in an Up Close interview with CEO Phil Brown (Page 56).

Central Florida is indeed on the move.

Have a great month!

Editor and Publisher