More than two years of effort plus renovation to lease 13,771 square feet of Class A office space at Crystal Center in Lake Mary

MAITLAND, Fla. – It took more than two years of effort by NAI Realvest in Maitland to lease up most of the remaining space at Crystal Center at 3300 West Lake Mary Blvd. in Lake Mary, but the effort was worth it. Senior Broker-Associate Mary Frances West, CCIM recently negotiated two new lease agreements that total 13,771 square feet of Class A office space at the Crystal Center to the Nemours Foundation and to J.D. Insurance & Financial Group. Now the building is 95 percent leased. West said the biggest problem was the struggling economy. “Costar posted a 19 percent vacancy rate for the first quarter of this year in the Lake Mary submarket and we’re in recovery mode,” West explained. During the same period, Lake Mary showed a 50,000 square foot negative absorption rate, meaning more tenants vacated the Lake Mary submarket than moved into Lake Mary. West said she was able to convince the landlord, Maya Associates, LLC of Okemos, Mich., to renovate the building lobby along with the second floor landing and seal and repair the exterior of the building. The owner was forward-thinking and dropped the rental rate to below market to accelerate occupancy to cost conscious tenants.