A 168,532-square-foot shopping center anchored by a newly rebuilt Publix just sold for $69.1 million, marking the highest price ever paid for a single retail property in Seminole County history. Alafaya Square, located at 81 Alafaya Woods Blvd. and 1351 Alafaya Trail in Oviedo, changed hands in late September 2026 in a deal that eclipsed a county record that had stood for two decades.
According to Orlando Business Journal, in August 2006, Weingarten Realty Investors purchased the Marketplace at Seminole Towne Center in Sanford for $50.9 million. The Alafaya Square sale was nearly $18.2 million higher, according to CoStar Group data cited by the outlet.
The buyer, Phillips Edison & Company, is a national player in grocery-anchored retail. As of June 2026, the real estate investment trust held a portfolio of 302 wholly owned grocery-anchored shopping centers totaling 33.9 million square feet spread across 31 states, per Commercial Search.
A Fast Price Jump for the Seller
The seller was a joint venture tied to MCB Real Estate, which gained control of Alafaya Square through its January 2026 acquisition of Austin-based Epic Real Estate Partners. Epic had originally purchased the shopping center in July 2022 for $49.55 million, the same outlet reports, meaning the property appreciated by roughly $19.55 million in just over four years.
Built in 1987, the 21.1-acre property includes eight buildings anchored by a 54,964-square-foot Publix supermarket that was completely rebuilt in 2024. That fresh construction on the grocery anchor is widely seen as a major driver of the property's climbing valuation.
Near-Full Occupancy Near a Massive Student Population
At the time of the transaction, Alafaya Square was 96% leased across 37 tenant spaces, according to JLL. Tenants include Planet Fitness, IHOP, Keller Williams, Froggers Grill & Bar, and Arcade Monsters.
The center sits roughly three miles north of the main campus of the University of Central Florida, which maintained Florida's largest student enrollment with more than 70,000 students and 13,000 employees as of fall 2025, per the same JLL account. That built-in population helps explain the steady customer base supporting the center's retail mix.
The shopping center sits at the intersection of Alafaya Trail and Alafaya Woods Boulevard, near State Road 434 and State Road 417, roughly 19 miles northeast of Downtown Orlando.
Broker Team and Market Context
The seller joint venture was represented in negotiations by a JLL Capital Markets advisory team that included Executive Managing Director Danny Finkle, Senior Director Jorge Portela, and Associate Evan Lahr, the firm announced.
The sale lands amid a broader surge in Central Florida retail investment. Commercial retail transaction volume across the Orlando metro area reached $950 million in the first half of 2026, a 67.5% jump compared to the same period in 2025, according to Commercial Search, which cited Cushman & Wakefield data.
The Alafaya Square sale adds to retail activity in the Oviedo area this year, following Hoodline's coverage of Toys R Us's planned year-round Oviedo Mall comeback.
