Neal Communities buys new office building

LAKEWOOD RANCH — A Neal Communities Inc. affiliate has purchased the 25,080-square-foot DooleyMack Constructors headquarters building for $2.48 million.

The eight-year-old building occupies a 2.34-acre parcel in Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park, at 5800 Lakewood Ranch Blvd.

Neal Communities, which currently occupies an 8,600-square-foot building at 8210 Lakewood Ranch Blvd., will relocate its headquarters and three subsidiaries, including its mortgage and title companies, to the new corporate park location.

Charlene Neal pureSTYLE and John Neal Homes will remain at the location on Lakewood Ranch Main Street, Neal Communities President Pat Neal said.

Leisa Weintraub, a spokeswoman for Neal Communities, said the new building is needed because of the homebuilder’s growth in both sales and employees and that it was out of space in its current building. In the past nine months, the firm’s staff has increased from 83 to 93.

“The new building makes sense because it is close to our current home, so our employees won’t have to relocate,” Neal said. “It’s also in the center of the universe, Lakewood Ranch.”

Neal Communities is scheduled to move some time in the first quarter of 2013.

The future of the existing Neal Communities building, at the southwest corner of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and Natures Way, is still being determined, but it likely will be converted to a bank or medical facility or a real-estate office for Neal Communities, Neal said.

Neal Communities will occupy the second level of its new corporate park location and expects to lease out remaining space until the company expands further, Neal said. DooleyMack Constructors Inc. and the University of South Florida Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program are expected to continue to lease space in the two-story building.