With condominiums selling for less than single-family homes, the condo-heavy MetroWest area racked up more new residential closings than any community in Metro Orlando during the first half of this year.

Six builders in the west Orlando development sold 153 properties -- all condos -- with a total sales volume of $35.3 million, according to a recent analysis of closings by location by Charles Wayne Consulting Inc., a Maitland-based real estate research and consulting company.

That average sales price of $230,600 in MetroWest was second-lowest of the 10 most-active sales communities, the report showed.

Sullivan Ranch in Lake County averaged $228,200 per sale; it came in sixth place, with 72 closings totaling $16.4 million.

Baldwin Park in northeast Orlando was the second-busiest for closings between January and the end of June, with 81 properties -- condos and single-family homes -- sold, for an average price of $441,600 apiece.

Of the 20 communities with the most new-home or new-condo closings in Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties and part of nearby Polk, 12 were in Orange County, with two in each of the other counties.

The 1,167 single-family homes and condos sold for a combined $352.8 million, or an average of about $302,400 each.

The 20 communities reported a total of 58 active single-family subdivisions and 38 active multifamily (condo and attached-housing) projects.

Those 20 busiest communities accounted for more than 20 percent of all new homes sold and closed on in the survey area during the first half of the year, the Charles Wayne analysis showed.


International

Foster Conant & Associates, Orlando's oldest landscape architectural practice, has gone international, working many projects in Brazil. The 14-person firm is the landscape architect and overall manager of a massive urban community known as Brooklin Village, a mixed-use project in the Morumbi district of Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populated city.


More landscaping

Closer to home, Foster Conant & Associates has secured its 135th contract for landscape architectural services with apartment and town-home developer Atlantic Housing Partners. The landscape architect's newest contract is for Southwinds Cove, a town-home community developed through the corporate entity Southwinds Partners LLLP. With 112 units in seven two-story buildings, the complex is on 9 1/2 acres in Leesburg. Slocum Platts Architects of Winter Park designed the complex, and Madden Engineering of Maitland provided civil engineering. Throughout its 17-year relationship with Atlantic Housing Partners, Foster Conant has provided site-specific landscape architectural services for 135 apartment and town-home communities that total 30,000 residential units in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Michigan, Ohio and New York.


Leasing

Cushman & Wakefield's Orlando office announced two recent leases brokered by Richard Solik and Betsy Owens. Solik and Owens represented the landlord, America's Capital Partners, in a 15,000-square-foot lease to MHNet Specialty Services, for an expansion of the company's presence in Interlachen Corporate Center in Casselberry. Cherry, Bekaert & Holland leased 8,400 square feet in One Orlando Centre from landlord Eola Capital, represented by Solik and Owens. The transaction represents a renewal and an expansion of the tenant's presence in the building. Staubach represented the tenant.


Expansion

Real Property Specialists Inc., a 17-year-old development, leasing and management business based in Orlando, has expanded its operations into the Tampa Bay market and hired local real estate executive Bruce Swain to run the new regional office. Swain has been active in all aspects of the shopping-center business the past 30 years, mainly in commercial leasing, representing both regional and national tenants and the development community. Swain will serve as vice president of marketing and retail operations and will operate in an office in Westchase Town Center, near downtown Tampa.


Construction

J-Car Inc., a commercial-construction company in Winter Park, is completing the second phase of a small-bay, flex-space warehouse in south Orlando at Orange Avenue and Lancaster Road. The $2 million second phase totals 31,446 square feet; the 18,200-square-foot first phase is fully leased, said James Bankston, who founded J-Car in 1998. Bankston's real estate development company, Holly Investments Ltd., owns the 2.62-acre site and has J-Car handling the general contracting work. Bankston said he has two signed tenants for the second phase: a 2,400-square-foot lease to Pan American Diagnostic Services Inc. for one year and a 2,700-square-foot lease to Starline Limousine Inc. for two years. . . .

Harkins Development Corp., the full-service development and general contracting division of Sanford-based Harkins Cos., was awarded a $775,000 contract to construct a 6,000-square-foot medical-office building for the 3,000-square-foot dental office of Paul F. Hettinger on Old Winter Garden Road in Ocoee. Completion is planned for April, according to Harkins Development President Matt Harkins. The project was designed by DSI Architecture of Lake Mary. The remaining 3,000 square feet of office space is for sale or lease.


More small bays

Small Bay Partners LLC, one of Central Florida's more active developers of industrial facilities for small-bay users, has opened industrial facilities totaling more than 63,000 square feet in the first phase at Poinciana CommerCenter, on U.S. Highway 17-92 at Poinciana Boulevard in Osceola County. Howard Schieferdecker, a Small Bay principal, said three buildings have opened. One is reserved for retail showroom space, while two others in the first phase offer office-warehouse space. Small Bay has developed other CommerCenter facilities in Sanford, Winter Garden, southeast Orlando and northeast Orlando totaling more than 500,000 square feet, designed for users who need 1,350 to 25,000 square feet of space.