Orlando-based CNL Financial Group will spin off its commercial real estate division as a separate company owned by its current executives. Created in 2007, CNL’s commercial division manages 21 million square feet of commercial properties in the Southeast. CNL will remain based in Orlando, as will the company’s 300 employees, and the new spin-off company (unnamed at the time of story) will remain in Orlando. The planned buyout is led by its CEO Paul Ellis, Pryse Elam, the division’s head of development and investment; Ken Loerber, the unit’s president of real estate services; and an outside investor, New York-based HQ Capital Real Estate. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
“No executives will be relocated. We don’t anticipate any job reductions. In fact, they will grow right here in Orlando,” said Tom Sittema, CNL’s chief executive officer.
