Plantation Office Portfolio Fetches $43 Million

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Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap announced the sale of Plantation Corporate Center I & II.

The two-building, 239,616-rentable-square-foot office portfolio, located within the Jacaranda Park of Commerce in Plantation, sold for $43,150,000.

The transaction closed February 12.

“Plantation Corporate Center I & II is a high-end asset with stable income that presents new ownership with an opportunity for future upside through re-leasing and potential development,” says Douglas K. Mandel, senior managing director. “Both assets are leased to Crawford and Company through 2021, with Centerfield and Aetna Life Insurance Co. occupying the buildings under sublease agreements.”

Mandel and C. Todd Everett, SIOR represented the seller, a limited-liability company and procured the buyer, a joint venture partnership between IP Capital Partners, LLC and a fund managed by Westport Capital Partners LLC.

Plantation Corporate Center I & II is located on a 20.3-acre lakefront land parcel at 1600 and 1601 SW 80th Terrace between University Drive and Pine Island Road on the north side of Interstate 595. Access to Florida’s Turnpike, Interstate 95, and the Sawgrass Expressway is nearby.

 

Avison Young Fills 60,000 SF At Office Tower In Cypress Creek Market

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Avison Young completed 60,000 square feet of office lease transactions at Trade Centre South, a 215,000-square-foot class A office project located in the Cypress Creek submarket of Broward County, at 100 West Cypress Creek Rd.

Avison Young’s Greg Martin, Principal, and Peyton Moore, Vice President, facilitated the transactions on behalf of the landlord.

Several lease agreements at the building demonstrate the trend of office tenants relocating from Downtown Fort Lauderdale and/or expanding within Cypress Creek for quality, cost-effective space.

Recent lease agreements secured by the agency leasing team at Trade Centre South include:

  • a new 20,125-square-foot lease with the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization for its new headquarters which will facilitate its day-to-day operations, board meetings, and community hearings.
  • a new 4,703-square-foot lease with Whitehouse Engineering.
  • a new 4,395-square-foot lease with AFLAC.
  • a new 2,702-square-foot lease with Paradise Cruises.
  • a new 6,834-square-foot lease with Imperial Brands which represents an expansion and relocation from Downtown Fort Lauderdale.
  • a new 5,049-square-foot lease with Moffa, Sutton, & Donnini which represents an expansion and relocation from Downtown Fort Lauderdale.
  • a 3,390-square-foot lease with new-to-market tenant JDI Data.
  • a 2,029-square-foot lease renewal with American Friends of Hebrew University.
  • a 4,460-square-foot expansion and renewal of Cequint’s previous 5,615-square-foot space for a total of 10,075 square feet.
  • a 2,704-square-foot lease renewal with Triumph Staffing.
  • a 4,290-square-foot lease renewal with ACE/Jiffy Lube.

“Significant increases in rental rates in Downtown Fort Lauderdale are pushing some tenants to evaluate suburban office opportunities,” said Martin. “Trade Centre South provides great value and quality amenities to tenants with an onsite Tri-Rail station, free structured parking, a class A office environment and finishes, all at suburban rental rates significantly lower than the Downtown Fort Lauderdale area.”

One of Cypress Creek’s largest blocks of contiguous space totaling approximately 38,000 square feet is currently available on Trade Centre South’s fifth floor.

Spanning ten stories, Trade Centre South is conveniently located at the crossroads of Interstate-95 and Cypress Creek Road, approximately 15 minutes from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Additionally, the property offers a prestigious corporate neighborhood with restaurants, hotels, and nearby amenities.

Sawgrass Pointe I In Sunrise Sells For $51.1 Million

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CBRE arranged the sale of Sawgrass Pointe I, a 230,668-sq.ft. 6-story Class A office building to New York-based True North for $51.1 million.

The property located at 1000 Sawgrass Corporate Parkway in Sunrise was sold by an institutional investor. CBRE’s Capital Markets team of vice chairman Christian Lee and senior vice president José Antonio Lobón represented the seller.

“Sawgrass Pointe I is located in South Florida’s largest office park, Sawgrass International Corporate Park, which is strategically bounded by the Sawgrass Expressway, Interstate 75 and Interstate 595,” explained José Lobón, senior vice president, CBRE Capital Markets. “Being at the nexus of three major South Florida roadway systems offers the business park unmatched access – an estimated 5.6 million people, more than 90 percent of South Florida’s population, live within a 60-minute commute.”

Built in 2002, Sawgrass Pointe I features an above-market parking ratio of 5.0 per 1,000 square feet, water views and recent common area upgrades. The property is 96 percent leased to 17 tenants with a remaining weighted average lease term of more than five years. The office park is the regional headquarters to several blue-chip companies, including Ford, Fidelity Information Systems, AT&T, American Express, Harris Corporation, Xerox and Ticketmaster.

“Sawgrass Pointe I’s location and high-quality modern design make the property extremely attractive to both tenants and investors. Consequently, demand within the investor community was robust,” explained Christian Lee, vice chairman, CBRE Capital Markets.

Market fundamentals in greater Broward County are strong, with positive net absorption and vacancy declining continuously over past six years. Broward’s unemployment rate of 3.3 percent as of October 2017 is the lowest in South Florida, despite robust population growth. The Sawgrass Park submarket has been exceptionally strong. Vacancy has averaged in the single digits over the past six years and currently sits at just 7.6 percent.

The CBRE South Florida Capital Markets team also included Vice President Amy Julian, Senior Vice President Chris Gallagher and Financial Analyst Tyler Ploshnick.

Declining Sales Volume Ahead For US Real Estate, Economist Warns

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Interest rates are creeping up, confidence in the dollar is waning and real estate transaction volume keeps slipping despite an abundance of investment capital.

Combine those factors and you have a recipe for a looming recession, according to economist Hugh Kelly.

“It’s not just about preparing ourselves for a slowdown three, four years down the road, but also for a contraction,” said Hugh Kelly, principal of Hugh Kelly Real Estate Economics, at CREW-Miami’s 2018 Economic Outlook luncheon in Miami on Wednesday. “Now is the time to begin thinking about how do you prosper in economic contracting conditions.”

Kelly offered a sobering overview of trends that he believes mark the downside of the current cycle.

“Ambitious projections of growth are not going to be achieved,” Kelly said. “I see another year in declining volume in the real estate business.”

The chances of the country’s economic recovery, the second longest in the nation’s history, continuing into next year are not looking good, Kelly noted. “Keeping it going into the summer of 2019, I think, is a riskier bet,” he said. “Confidence in the U.S. dollar and in our ability to sustain the amount of growth we have been seeing is slipping. These are reasons we should begin to prepare for the end of the cycle.”

An alarming uptick in natural disasters is another factor that will hurt the real estate industry in the next decade, Kelly said, which should raise alarms in hurricane-prone South Florida. In the 1980s, there were 43 natural catastrophes on an annual basis around the world, Kelly said. Since 2011, the number has jumped to 82 per year.

That means home insurance premiums are likely to go up and could have a negative impact on residential home sales. Storms, wildfires and floods resulted in nearly $300 billion in insurance claims last year, Kelly said.

“There are only two ways for insurers to pay for increasing costs,” he added. “Either increase premiums or dip into investment returns. When you have $289 billion in claims, that is going to be costly for everybody.”

 

Source:  The Real Deal

The Forum Office Buildings Trade In $22.5 Million Deal

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CBRE arranged the sale of The Forum in West Palm Beach.

The 185,089 sq.ft. property, consisting of two multi-tenant office buildings and a four-story structured parking garage, is located at 1665 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd.

A subsidiary of Triarch Capital Group acquired the property for $22.5 million.

CBRE’s Miami-based Capital Markets team facilitated the sale on behalf of the seller, Crimson Peak and Panther Capital Management. Vice Chairman Christian Lee oversaw the transaction alongside Senior Vice President José Lobón and Vice President Amy Julian. The Capital Markets team representing the seller also included Financial Analysts Marcos Minaya and Joseph Chick.

Neil Merin of NAI/Merin Hunter Codman and Jonathan Kingsley of Colliers also worked on the transaction.

“The Forum features unparalleled connectivity to Interstate 95, great access to West Palm Beach’s major transportation hubs, the highest covered parking ratio among its peers and an unrivaled amenity base that includes an on-site hotel that will become the winter home to the Houston Astros,” said Christian Lee, vice chairman, CBRE Capital Markets.

Located a half mile east of Interstate 95, the property offers tremendous transportation dynamics–over half of South Florida’s 6 million residents live within a one-hour drive from the property. Additionally, the property is adjacent to the Palm Beach Outlet mall.

“The West Palm Beach submarket has seen five straight years of positive net absorption resulting in a 670-basis point decline in vacancy and 18% market rent growth,” commented José Lobón, Senior Vice President, CBRE Capital Markets. “Combined with a lack of any new office construction underway in the submarket, the outlook is positive for further vacancy decline and market rent growth.”

 

Boca Raton Office Complex Has New Owner

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Fountain Square, a 241,000-square-foot office complex in Boca Raton, traded for $54.5 million — a 47 percent increase over what it sold for three years ago.

Bridge Investment Group Partners of Sandy, UT bought the three-building development at 2600, 2650 and 2700 N. Military Trail from a joint venture between affiliates of Contrarian Capital Management LLC of Greenwich, CT, and NAI/Merin Hunter Codman in West Palm Beach.

The sellers bought the property for $37 million in 2014 from JP Morgan, which paid $63.5 million in 2007.

NAI launched a multimillion dollar capital improvement program to upgrade common areas and tenant suites. That resulted in more than 100,000 square feet of leases in the past two years and boosted occupancy from 62 percent to 90 percent.

The owners filled the building by negotiating leases for $15 and $16 per square foot, according to Neil Merin, chairman of NAI Merin Hunter Codman. He said rents today are in the range of $22 to $23 per square foot.

“It’s a real marker for the recovery of values in Florida,” Merin told CoStar News. “We did well — no doubt about it.”

 

Gil Tenzer, portfolio manager and director of real estate investments at Contrarian, said, “Fountain Square represents our commitment to partnering with local operators to invest in and turn around under-performing assets with high potential.”

Christian Lee and Jose Lobon of CBRE and Neil Merin, of NAI Merin Hunter Codman, represented the seller. The buyer did not have representation.

 

Source:  CoStar