A Louisiana-based foundation has acquired a key asset from the University of Central Florida (UCF).
Provident Resources Group, headquartered in Baton Rouge, purchased the UnionWest building located at 601 W. Livingston St. in Orlando's Creative Village for $126 million, as confirmed by Orange County records.
The deal closed on December 19.
Previously, the UnionWest building was owned by Creative Village SHP Owner LLC, a joint venture between student housing developer Deven and Ustler Development Inc., the company behind the Creative Village project.
The 15-story, mixed-use structure, which opened in 2019, serves as the primary facility for UCF's downtown campus and also provides academic resources for Valencia College. The top 10 floors contain 121 dormitory units, offering 641 beds, while the ground floor features six retail suites spanning 12,302 square feet. Additionally, the property includes a 602-space parking garage.
Craig Ustler, president of Ustler Development, shared with the Orlando Business Journal that his company held on to the UnionWest property longer than expected due to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which began soon after the building opened in 2020.
"We did not anticipate this kind of challenge so early in our operations, but we navigated it as best we could," Ustler said, noting that student activity has just returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The building can accommodate up to 7,000 students.
The sale was off-market, with Ustler's company directly negotiating with Provident.
"We were familiar with Provident. They're a leading player in the industry and the most prominent nonprofit student housing owner in the U.S.," Ustler explained.
Founded in 1999, Provident has developed thousands of student housing units across 27 states, including NorthView, an eight-story facility near UCF’s main campus in east Orlando. Provident’s chairman and CEO, Steve Hicks, mentioned that the company has a strong presence in Florida, citing projects in Tampa Bay, Gainesville, and South Florida. He emphasized that Florida’s population growth and the distances between universities have made the state an attractive destination for student housing developers.
The deal comes with a special stipulation: while Provident now owns the building, the land was donated back to the UCF Real Estate Foundation. The foundation then leases the land back to Provident, making Provident the owner of the building with an underlying ground lease. Once the bonds tied to the property mature in 35 years, UCF will take ownership of the building.
Source: OBJ
