An affiliate of Stiles Corp. paid $13.1 million for a Bank of America drive-thru facility in downtown Fort Lauderdale, a property that could be primed for redevelopment.
The bank sold the 1.45-acre site at 212 S.E. 2nd Ave. — a block north of Las Olas Boulevard — to 212 Partners LLC, an affiliate of Fort Lauderdale-based Stiles Corp.
The 2,797-square-foot financial facility was built in 1983.
Stiles Corp. has developed many office buildings and residential towers in downtown Fort Lauderdale. In a recent feature story on his company, founder and co-CEO Terry Stiles told the Business Journal that he’d like to build a 300,000-square-foot office tower in downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Bank of America drive-thru teller site was one of the possible locations for that project. He’s also exploring putting the office building at the Broward College downtown campus – right next to the drive-thru – as Stiles Corp. is one of three parties in an ongoing request for proposals process with the college to redevelop that site.
So with the acquisition from Bank of America, Stiles Corp. can tell BC that it would have an even larger property to develop if it wins the bidding.
Stiles Corp. Vice Chairman Doug Eagon said it has been trying to acquire the Bank of America property since 2008 and the bank finally put it on the market. He said the property would have the office tower, or be used in combination with the college site – should Stiles be selected – build office and other uses. Stiles will now start approaching prospective office tenants, he added.
“We believe in the downtown office market,” Eagon said. “We think that this is the time to be planning for the development of the next office building downtown…Vacancies have declined over the last few years. We understand what tenants might want to come downtown. We understand the tenants with expansion needs.”
Source: SFBJ
