International Corporate Park continues to sell land as it awaits word on whether a nearby, government-run research park will expand within the giant development, which straddles the BeachLine Expressway in east Orange County.

Sam Evans, project manager for the 2,400-acre ICP, said he has more buyers ready to snap up industrially zoned land than he has property on the park's east side. Everything on the park's west side is on hold, awaiting the research park authority's decision, because that's where planned residential development and a town center would be located.

If the Central Florida Research Park forgoes its planned expansion on 231 west-side acres,

ICP's owners would revert to the existing master plan, which is nearly all industrial development, Evans said.

"It wouldn't take long at all to sell out," he said. International investors just purchased three sites, all on the east side, for more than $4.6 million.

They plan to develop industrial buildings on the land. Evans said another $14 million-plus in land on the east side is under contract for sale.

The three completed land deals were brokered by Sammy Evans (Sam Evans' son) of ICP and Saadat Seylithanogu of Signature GMAC Real Estate Inc.

Several other parcels on the park's east side have already been sold for industrial uses such as factories and distribution centers.

The park, created in the 1980s, was originally designed to hold 20 million square feet of developed space, nearly all of it industrial.
Joe Wallace, executive director of Central Florida Research Park, objects to a county mandate that ICP must secure employers with jobs before it can develop housing and retail on the west side. He has been talking to county officials about the jobs-to-housing link, arguing that he can't lure high-quality businesses to his research-park expansion unless nearby housing is already in place.

He said the research park will decide early next year whether to abandon the expansion.
The existing research park is about seven miles north of ICP, next door to the University of Central Florida.
According to Wallace's estimate, it will be full by about 2010. About 10,000 people with average annual earnings of $72,000 already work there.

Jack Snyder can be reached at 407-420-5094 or