How Orlando’s 200-acre Infinity Park was born

On a recent Sunday around 6 a.m., Rasesh Thakkar’s phone lit up with a text message.

It was from Steven McCraney, CEO of West Palm Beach-based developer McCraney Property Co. McCraney sent the senior managing director of Windermere-based Tavistock Group a photo of himself watching the sun rise over a line of scraggly green trees.

Beneath the horizon, workers poured the concrete foundation for a building in Infinity Park, a 206-acre speculative business park near the Orange County Convention Center. McCraney rose early to watch the project take shape — and later, hopped on a concrete Zamboni to get into the action.

“We’re always passionate about it, and we put a lot of creativity and pride in it,” Thakkar said. “It becomes like one of your children.”

McCraney Property and Tavistock teamed up to shift the focus of what originally was a massive office-centered complex in southwest Orlando to include an element involving the hot industrial real estate market. The project now is expected to create thousands of full-time and temporary jobs and have a major economic impact on Central Florida.

For the full story, visit the Orlando Business Journal online.