Post’s New Multifamily Development will Provide Extra Construction Jobs

By Georgiana Mihaila, Associate Editor

A leading developer and operator of upscale multifamily communities, Post Properties Inc., has recently unveiled plans for yet another development that will add 410 more apartments to its inventory of 21,431 units. The Atlanta-based company will start work on phase III of Post Lake at Baldwin Park in Orlando, Florida.

This development will be located within the Baldwin Park mixed-use community—comprised of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, retail shops, office space and several neighborhood amenities—where Post Properties own another 350 units. According to The Orlando Business Journal, back in 2007 the company paid $5.6 million for the former Centergate at Baldwin Park, the site that serves as home for Phases I and II. Phase III will be developed on two parcels near Lake Susannah that total 11.8 acres and were bought by the company for $21.2 million.

With a total investment of $58.6 million, Post Properties plans on delivering the first apartment units—with an average size of 960 sq. ft.—towards the end of 2012, with construction starting in the third quarter of this year. Post Properties announced that this is not its only project beginning this year, as it will also break ground on a 392-unit apartment complex in Raleigh, N.C. that will also incorporate 18,148 sq. ft. of retail space.

The company has not released any information as to the number of jobs the development would create, but this is one area where Orlando does not lag far behind. According to a recent report by the Associated General Contractors of America, the number of construction jobs in Metro Orlando went down 4 percent this April, as compared to a year earlier; this is slightly lower than the state-wide decline of 6 percent.

The Orlando metropolitan area can consider itself lucky. Based on the 46,700 construction workers it employed, it ranked second in Florida out of the 22 metro areas that were reflected in the study. Tampa was the leader with just over 3,000 extra construction-related workers.