Chalifoux plans second development in Poinciana Industrial Park

June 29, 2006

Longtime Kissimmee-based developer and general contractor Thomas Chalifoux knows a hot spot when he sees it.

Already the owner of 22.75 acres in the booming Poinciana Office & Industrial Park, Chalifoux has contracted to purchase 36 additional acres from park developer Avatar Properties Inc. for the development of an estimated $50-$60 million mixed-use project consisting of approximately 500,000 sq. ft. of retail office and office warehouse space.

The 36 acres, comprised of adjacent 23-acre and 13-acre sites, are located on Poinciana Bouelvard, just north of the CSX Railroad tracks and State Road 17-92

“This is one of the hottest intersections in all of Central Florida,” said Chalifoux, who has been building and developing commercial and retail projects in Osceola, Orange and Seminole counties since 1978.

Chalifoux also owns 22.75 acres just south of 17-92 at the corner of Poinciana Boulevard and Robert McLane Boulevard where he plans to build a $45 million, 320,000 sq. ft. mixed-use development. Plans for that site, which has about 900 feet of frontage on Poinciana Boulevard, call for 62,000 sq. ft. of retail, 120,000 sq. ft. of Class B office space, and 140,000 sq. ft. of small bay office warehouse space, according to Chalifoux, who heads up Chalifoux Management Group and is a member of the Osceola County School Board.

Chalifoux plans to begin development on the 22.75-acre site later this year and expects to complete both projects within four years.

Also recognizing the strategic location of Poinciana Office & Industrial Park and its access to rail service and major roadways is New Jersey-based United States Cold Storage. The company has contracted to purchase 33 acres from Avatar for the planned development of a refrigerated warehouse on Poinciana Boulevard, alongside the CSX Railroad tracks just north of 17-92.

The company, which is well known in the frozen and refrigerated food industry, initially plans to build a warehouse of approximately 150,000 sq. ft. that will create 38 jobs at an average annual salary of $31,137. Construction on the new warehouse is expected to start sometime in 2007. When complete it will complement three other refrigerated warehouse facilities the company has been operating in Orlando over the past 36 years.

At 1,545 acres, Poinciana Office & Industrial Park is the largest industrial park in Osceola County and home to a host of nationally and internationally recognized tenants. The Park currently has over 3 million square feet under roof and some 2,200 employees, many residents of Poinciana, the 47,000-acre master-planned community also being developed by Avatar, the community’s primary homebuilder.

Major users in Poinciana Office & Industrial Park include Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse and its $73 million regional distribution warehouse; Nursery Supplies, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of molded plastic plant containers for the wholesale industry; Graham Packing PET; Jeld-Wen doors and windows (formerly DoorCraft of Florida), Osceola’s 1998 Industry of the Year; Windsor Metal Finishing, winner of the 2004 Sustainable Florida Best Practices Award for Small Business for its use of environmental- friendly technology; Symbol Mattress Company; PepsiCo Beverages & Foods/Gatorade (formerly Quaker Oats); McLane/SunEast; MultiFoods; Cargill, Inc.(Nutrena Feed Division); P.R. Manufacturing; Lehigh Cement; Florida Power Corporation; Amtrak; Texaco; 7-Eleven; Williams Properties, Ltd.; SSI Properties, Inc.; and Commercial Metals Company (dba as SMI Steel Fabricators of Florida).

For more information about Poinciana Office & Industrial Park, contact Avatar’s Tony Iorio, vice president of land development, at (407) 933-5000, or Hank Yunes, Avatar’s vice president of commercial operations, at (305) 442-7000. For more information about the Chalifoux Management Group, contact Thomas Chalifoux at (407) 846-0200.

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