SYLVANIA, OHIO — Athena Career Academy has leased 8,004 square feet of space at Starlite Plaza, which is located on Monroe Street in Sylvania. The academy is a career education school that focuses on nursing. John Healey and Mike Scannell of Toledo, Ohio-based Park West Realty represented Athena; Robert Saggese provided in-house representation for the landlord, Centro Properties Group. Terms of the lease not disclosed.
ORLANDO, FLA. — Construction is under way for a new 53,351-square-foot aircraft maintenance facility for Avocet Capital at Orlando Sanford International Airport in Orlando. The $5 million project is scheduled for completion in January. It consists of 44,000 square feet of hangar space, 5,351 square feet of administrative offices and 4,000 square feet of maintenance space.
WINTER PARK, FLA. — The groundbreaking has been held for the new Winter Park Community Center. The project will include the demolition of the existing center and the construction of a 38,572-square-foot facility that will contain a swimming pool, an ancillary building, a playground, an exterior stage and additional parking. The project will be seeking LEED-Silver certification. The general contractor is Turner Construction Co., and the project architect is SchenkelShultz Architecture.
NEW YORK CITY — Stalco Construction has begun construction for the new Battery Park City Community Center. The 60,000-square-foot project will comprise two cellar levels, a street level and a mezzanine. It will feature a curving, 550-foot long glass arcade wall that will face West Street immediate north of Ground Zero. The wall will sit opposite of two swimming pools and a gymnasium inside the building, and two ball fields and a soccer field outside the building. The community center will also feature a fitness center, a theater/auditorium, dance studios, locker rooms, classrooms, offices, a cafeteria and a kitchen. The project architect is Hanrahan Meyers Architects, and the construction manager is The LiRo Group. The owner, the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority, anticipates the project receiving LEED-Platinum certification.
MOORPARK, CALIF. — Construction has begun for the new $12.7 million home of Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management Program (EATM). Replacing two portables that have served EATM’s staff, students and 150-plus animal inhabitants, the new facility will include two 50-seat classrooms, a veterinary medicine laboratory, a bookstore, a ticket booth and faculty offices. Overcoming the challenges of working in close proximity to exotic animals and building the structure into the campus’ hillside, Heery International is providing construction management services for the 13,000-square-foot facility, which is slated for completion in April 2011. Based at Moorpark’s Ventura County, Calif., campus, the EATM prepares students for careers working with animals in television, film, zoos, theme parks and more.
ST. LOUIS — St. Louis-based Kwame Building Group has completed the construction of William J. Harrison Northside Education Center for St. Louis Community College in St. Louis. Located in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood, the $10 million, 31,000-square-foot center opened for classes in August. Designed by KAI, the property is seeking LEED Gold certification as a green building. Green elements include heat pumps in classrooms and offices, controllable lighting, the use of recycled materials, low VOC paint and non-toxic building materials and furnishings.
AUSTIN — A $32 million data center has been completed on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, a project approved by the UT board of regents in 2008. An existing facility was renovated for the state-of-the-art data center. It will house enterpise-wide services critical to students, faculty and staff, including Blackboard, WebSpace, UT Direct, e-mail, Web Central and all mainframe functions. The facility includes approximately 4,700 square feet of space for computing equipment.
SOUTHLAKE — School of Rock has leased a 7,525-square-foot space located at 3220 Southlake Blvd. in Southlake for its third Dallas-Ft. Worth location. The performance-based rock music school plans to open nine more schools in the Metroplex by 2013. Dean Tarpley, owner of School of Rock Southlake, also owns schools in Dallas and Frisco. Dan Harris of Dallas-based SRS Real Estate Partners represented School of Rock in the transaction, while James Keoughan of RE/MAX represented the landlord.
O’FALLON, ILL. — Swansea, Ill.-based Holland Construction Services is constructing a new building for the first phase of an expansion project for New Life in Christ Interdenominational Church in O’Fallon. The $3 million, 8,500-square-foot pre-engineered building will be located at 689 Scott Troy Road. The building will have a standing seam roof, stained concrete floors, an exposed steel ceiling with several skylights and an exterior reflecting pool with two fountains. The second phase of the planned expansion includes a 17,645-square-foot auditorium and sanctuary that will accommodate approximately 1,000 seats.
DALLAS — The Perot Museum of Nature & Science, which broke ground last spring and is expected to open in early 2013 in Dallas' Victory Park as an expansion of The Museum of Nature & Science, has gained support from Houston-based PM Realty Group and Lyda Hill, philanthropist and owner of several commercial real estate buildings in Dallas. Hill's 2811 McKinney building, managed by PM Realty Group, in uptown Dallas has unveiled a mural measuring 80 feet wide by 22 feet tall celebrating the museum's expansion. The Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park was designed by the California architecture firm Morphosis.