Parrish Group Purchases Local Corporate Center
Tallahassee Democrat Article, published Aug 22, 2007
By William W. Brown
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
The Parrish Group, local developer of the Hermitage Center, Prestige Infinity and a handful of other locations in Northeast Tallahassee, has announced the purchase of half of the Metropolitan Corporate Center earlier this month and agreement to purchase the other half at an unspecified later date.
The Parrish Group obtained the rights to develop the property after purchasing the 26-acre site earlier this year.
The new office park is located on the southwest corner of Interstate 10 and Thomasville Road.
"What we'll have at that point is development rights for 300,000 square feet for office/medical (space)," said Parrish president and founder Robert Parrish. "As it is for most of our properties, there might be an opportunity for some small portion of that to be sold, but in the predominant portion of that park - as in the past - we'll retain ownership of the buildings and manage it for lease."
Parrish Group will not know how many tenants will occupy the office park until their needs are assessed. Construction will begin on two buildings - totaling 80,000 square-feet - before the end of the year.
Parrish said his company is negotiating with Superior Bank - Parrish is on its Board of Directors - a real estate company, medical offices and an advertising company for space in the first two buildings.
His company is currently designing the initial building, so no artist's view of how the property will look is available. Parrish added it will look similar to other Parrish developments.
"What it does is it helps fill that area of Thomasville Road, where
we, at this point, have not had an office park," Parrish said.
The new development may also help the Farmers & Merchants Bank that is adjacent to Metropolitan. Its president, Mike Sims, said the financial impact the development will have on his bank will be immediate as soon as ground is broken.
"We're excited about it," Sims said. "It will present a lot of business opportunities for us, a lot of activity, and any time you have new business moving in, typically you get some of that business."
Matt Brown, president and chief executive of Premier Bank, said an office park at one of Tallahassee's busiest interchanges provides opportunity for Metropolitan to be "the premier corporate facility for Tallahassee."
"I'm hoping it might be a catalyst of the upgrade of our community along the (interstate)," Brown said. "I think we've already seen a flight in upscale of facilities in Leon County in the past five to 10 years. This facility may create an opportunity for businesses to create regional headquarters in Tallahassee."
Parrish said his company strives to stay ahead of the growth and needs of commercial businesses in town. Metropolitan is an example of having a facility ready for tenants to move into and can be remodeled around their needs.
"This is a natural transition to allow for further expansion in the northeast for the commercial needs for office and medical (facilities)," Parrish said. "We go where our clients are asking us to go as far as having projects for them. This is the area our clients have requested for us to have available for them to expand into."