Downtown Fort Lauderdale Office Sale Closes At $220 Million
The South Florida office market keeps reeling in investors ready to drop large sums on the region’s trophy assets.
In one of the biggest commercial real estate deals this year, a downtown Fort Lauderdale office tower changed hands for $220 million.
A company linked to Deutsche Bank‘s asset and wealth management division pocketed the Bank of America Plaza at Las Olas City Centre, a 23-story office tower built in 2002, from J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc., according to Broward County property records.
The pricey deal closed Monday, five years after New York-based J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. originally purchased the asset. The seller walked away with a $56 million gain, or 34 percent
The 725,898-square-foot Class A office building at 401 E. Las Olas Blvd. sits on 2½ acres with about 408,000 square feet of leasable office space. It is anchored by Bank of America, and other tenants include Greenberg Traurig; Boies, Schiller & Flexner; GrayRobinson; Patriot National Inc.; and Farlie Turner & Co.
The deal broke down to $303 per square foot.
Fort Lauderdale’s office market has attracted new players this year looking for valuable assets away from Miami’s congested urban core.
Miami-based Steelbridge Capital purchased the two-building Class A SunTrust Center office complex a block away at 501-505 Las Olas Blvd. for $87 million in June. That deal, at $320 per square foot, was the largest transaction since June 2015.
In August, Massachusetts-based Brookwood Financial Partners sold an 11-story office building in downtown Fort Lauderdale for $46.5 million — $14 million more than what it paid two years ago.
Broward County’s investment sales activity picked up last quarter with eight transactions totaling $134 million, according to CBRE Inc. Overall, commercial transactions totaled $345 million during the first half of the year.
The submarket’s vacancy rates dropped to 12 percent in the second quarter as new entrants vie for space and existing companies expand their footprints.
Source: DBR
