South Florida Office Brokers Association

Tag: crocker partners

  • Class A Office Building In Boca Fetches $99.5 Million

    Class A Office Building In Boca Fetches $99.5 Million

    KBS assisted in the acquisition of One Town Center, a 191,294 square-foot Class A office building in Boca Raton.

    The property was acquired from a joint venture between prominent commercial real estate firm CP Group, formerly Crocker Partners, and Siguler Guff & Co. for $99.5 million by Prime US REIT (PRIME), which trades on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limits ticker as: OXMU. KBS serves as the U.S.-based asset manager for the portfolio, which included identifying and sourcing this asset on PRIME’s behalf.

    One Town Center is a Class A property consisting of a 10-story office building and an adjacent parking deck. CP Group has been retained as on-site property management.

    “This is one of three acquisition for the portfolio since listing on the Singapore Exchange in 2019,” says Marc DeLuca, Eastern regional president for KBS. “Acquiring One Town Center marks another strategic investment into a prime location and a premier asset. At 95% occupancy, One Town Center is one of the most desirable office properties in the Boca Raton market with strong in-place cash flow and a diverse base of creditworthy tenants.”

    Boca Raton is increasingly drawing in residents due to its proximity to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, appealing climate and lifestyle, lower taxes and relative affordability, added DeLuca.

    “Palm Beach County has seen a higher-than-normal influx of new residents as a result of the pandemic, and Boca Raton has become one of the nation’s most attractive markets for wealthy decision makers,” said DeLuca. “Companies such as Elliott Management, Citadel and Moelis have been encouraged to open satellite offices in Florida or allow their employees to be based there, and office tenants are drawn to the Boca Raton West submarket for its high connectivity, surrounding residential areas and access to great talent.”

    According to Newmark, leasing activity was up 29% from deals seen a year ago and South Florida’s unemployment rate fell to 6.3% during the first quarter of 2021, with Palm Beach County, where Boca Raton is located, remaining the lowest unemployment rate in the region at 4.5%.

    Boca Raton’s office market also features significant barriers to entry with prohibitive construction costs and no buildings currently under construction.

    As one of the premier office properties in Boca Raton, One Town Center is a 10-story building with an adjacent 435-space parking garage and 274 surface parking spaces, resulting in a parking ratio of 3.7 per 1,000 square feet. The property is well positioned in the Midtown Boca Raton corridor, close to upscale executive housing and 1.2 miles from I-95. The asset also features close proximity to Florida’s Turnpike, the Boca Raton Airport, executive country clubs and housing communities, hotels and retail and dining options.

    “KBS worked with PRIME to acquire a top-quality, well-located asset in a growing submarket of one of the strongest regions in the country,” says Allen Aldridge, asset manager for One Town Center and senior vice president of KBS. “This acquisition, which is within a five-minute stroll of 2.1 million square feet of dining and retail options, is in the best location in Midtown Boca Raton. It gives us another opportunity to apply our hands-on management strategy to deliver best-in-class, well-amenitized office space and services that exceed tenants’ expectations.”

    Built in 1991 by Thomas Crocker, One Town Center features one of the two tallest buildings in the market. The property offers a plethora of on-site amenities including a high-end café, a restaurant, a fitness center and upgraded landscaping. The building is also within walking distance of numerous dining, shopping, fitness, salon and hotel amenities, with additional amenities accessible within a short drive. One of the most notable walkable amenities is the Town Center at Boca Raton, South Florida’s third-largest mall.

    KBS is planning to implement several upgrades to the property, including a lobby refresh, restroom renovations, front-entry enhancements, building out a management office, updating the fitness center and locker rooms, and bringing vacant suites up to spec suite condition.

    Chris Lee, vice chairman and Jose Lobón, executive vice president of CBRE brokered the sales transaction.

    “KBS once again leveraged its deep understanding of the market and relevant fundamentals to purchase one of the most sought-after high-quality office towers in the South Florida market,” says Lee.

    Attorneys Bruce Fischer, Tatyana Litovsky, Chrisdo Fan and Howard Chu, and paralegal Amanda Kennedy,  of global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP’s Orange County office, attorney  Jody Saltzman in Greenberg Traurig’s New Jersey office, and attorney Steven Landy in Greenberg Traurig’s Miami office,  represented PRIME as legal counsel in the acquisition.

    “We were very pleased to represent KBS in this significant strategic transaction on behalf of PRIME,” says Fischer, Greenberg Traurig’s Chair of the West Coast Real Estate Practice and Co-Managing Shareholder of the Orange County office, who led the Greenberg Traurig team and represented KBS.

    One Town Center is located at One Town Center Road in Boca Raton.

     

  • Fort Lauderdale Office Tower Fetches $117 Million

    Fort Lauderdale Office Tower Fetches $117 Million

    CBRE has arranged the sale of One Financial Plaza in Ft. Lauderdale.

    The 282,883-square-foot office tower is located at 100 Southeast 3rd Avenue, just steps from the heart of Downtown Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas District.

    Alliance Partners HSP purchased the fully renovated office tower for $117 million.

    The property recently underwent a comprehensive $8 million renovation including a new lobby, security desk, fitness center, conference center, upgrades to elevator landings and restrooms, and elevator modernization. A $2 million overhaul to the exterior of the building is on-going including the relocation of the primary building entrance to the eastern side of the building along Financial Plaza Drive, expanding the exterior facade to increase the lobby area and add 2,500 square feet of new retail space, enhanced building signage above the lobby entrance, and installing new pavers and sidewalks along the entire length of Financial Plaza Drive.

    “One Financial Plaza has been among the most desirable office buildings in the CBD,” said John Osborne, Senior Vice President at Crocker Partners. “With the recent capital improvements that position is enhanced for the long-term.”

    CBRE Capital Markets Vice Chairman Christian Lee and Executive Vice President José Lobón facilitated the sale on behalf of Crocker Partners.

    “One Financial Plaza features a highly attractive core-plus business plan, providing strong in-place cash flows while offering significant upside potential. The largest tenants at the Property, leasing at least a whole floor, feature 7.8 years of weighted average lease term, while near-term upside is afforded via the lease-up of 26,861 sq. ft. of currently vacant space and the roll-to-market of 82,011 SF of leases expiring over the first 5 years.” explained Lobón.

     

    “The exterior renovations and the to-be-constructed multi-family will dramatically improve the sense of arrival and overall appeal of One Financial Plaza,” added Lee.

    The CBRE Capital Markets team also included Senior Vice President Amy Julian, with CBRE’s Debt & Structured Finance, and Senior Financial Analyst Andrew Chilgren.

     

  • Kroger Relocates, Inks Whopping 43,000 SF Office Lease

    Kroger Relocates, Inks Whopping 43,000 SF Office Lease

    The Kroger Co., the largest grocer by revenue in the U.S., has leased 43,000 square feet of office space at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus at 4800-5002 T-Rex Avenue in Boca Raton.

    The company will move its office from 5400 Broken Sound Blvd. Northwest into BRIC’s 4700 building. The new office is about the same size, but it will have a more efficient layout with a large contiguous space, landlord Crocker Partners said.

    Crocker Partners and Rialto Capital Management paid $179.3 million for the sprawling tech office complex, marking the biggest office sale in the tri-county region at that time since 2016. The 1.68-million-square-foot office park sits on 123 acres in Boca Raton near I-95. It was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by IBM as its North American Research and Development facility. IBM closed it in 1996.

    The main function of the office is digital operations.

    Mitchell Millowitz of Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) represented Kroger in the lease. Crocker was represented by VP Danielle Vennett and CBRE’s Jeff Kelly.

     

    Source:  SFBJ

  • NKF Brokers Three Office Deals Totaling More Than 98,000 SF

    NKF Brokers Three Office Deals Totaling More Than 98,000 SF

    Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) announced the completion of three high-profile office deals in South Florida totaling more than 98,000 square feet.

    The flurry of activity illustrates a recent NKF research report showing vacant office space in South Florida dropping to its lowest level since the Great Recession began more than a decade ago.

    In the first deal, Oakland Sun Partners, LLC purchased 1 Dambrackas Way, a 48,671-square-foot Class B office building located in Sunrise. Originally built in 1985, 1 Dambrackas Way is also within a short drive to several nearby retail and dining destinations. The new owners purchased the building for $4.02 million.

    NKF Executive Managing Director Mitchell Millowitz, NKF Senior Managing Director Ryan Rosalsky and Associate R.J. Ward represented the buyer.

    Millowitz also executed a new lease agreement for e-commerce company Vitacost at 4700 Exchange Court at Boca Raton Innovation Campus. The 35,438-square-foot deal is part of an ongoing transformation for the online vitamin and healthy product supplier, which is a subsidiary of Kroger. Vitacost will relocate from its current headquarters at a one-story building in The Park at Broken Sound in August.

    A former IBM corporate hub, Boca Raton Innovation Campus features an impressive array of onsite amenities that include a state-of-the-art fitness center, high-tech conference center, food hall, on-site accredited day care center and numerous walking trails. CBRE Executive Vice President Jeff Kelly represented the landlord, Crocker Partners.

    “Vitacost conducted an extensive search of amenity-laden office properties in the region to fulfill its charge of finding a modernized, collaborative workplace environment with an abundance of natural light,” said Millowitz. “Boca Raton Innovation Center is the Southeast’s premier science and technology hub, and its proximity to talent and walkable amenities will provide Vitacost with a significant recruiting advantage in the years to come.”

    In the third deal, Millowitz, Rosalsky and Ward represented AlphaStaff, a HR outsourcing firm, in its office relocation from Cypress Creek to Sunrise Corporate Plaza. AlphaStaff will occupy 14,604 square feet of space at the Class A office building in Sunrise beginning in January 2020. Built in 1999, Sunrise Corporate Plaza totals 107,748 square feet and is 100% occupied. Madelayne Garcia and Tom Kates represented the landlord, Stiles.

    Two of the three transactions occurred in Broward County, which recorded 191 lease deals totaling more than 563,000 square feet in the first quarter of 2019. Broward also accounted for more than 58% of all Class B leasing activity across South Florida in Q1 2019, as limited blocks of availability in Class A buildings continued to aid the Class B sector.

  • West Palm Office Building Fetches $98 Million

    West Palm Office Building Fetches $98 Million

    Crocker Partners and Greenfield Partners sold the Northbridge Centre in downtown West Palm Beach for $98 million, marking one of the largest office sales in the city’s history.

    The partnership sold the 294,000-square-foot Class A office tower for $333 per square foot to Chicago-based Vanderbilt Office Properties and New York-based C-III Capital Partners, records show. The property is located at 515 North Flagler Drive.

    Boca Raton-based Crocker Partners bought the office property in a joint venture with Westport, Connecticut-based Greenfield Partners for $68 million in 2016. The joint venture then spent $15 million on renovations, including adding a new conference center, a cafe and a barista bar as well as upgrading the common areas and lobby.

    The building is known to locals as the “Darth Vader building” because of its dark windows.

    CBRE’s Chris Lee and Jose Lobon brokered the sale.

    Brett Reese of Crocker Partners said that when the partners purchased the building rents averaged about $20 per square foot, but rents now range up to $42 per square foot due to the renovations. Reese said he’s also seen a change in the tenant mix as West Palm Beach has evolved to become more of a destination for investment managers and private equity firms.

    “Since we renovated, we brought in over 10 new family offices and private equity [firms] to the building,” Reese said. “Historically it has been a building where lawyers have gravitated to given its proximity to the courthouse. It’s now changed. We are seeing more financial services.”

     

    Source:  The Real Deal

  • Crocker Partners, Rialto Pay $179M For Boca Raton Innovation Campus

    Crocker Partners, Rialto Pay $179M For Boca Raton Innovation Campus

    Crocker Partners and Rialto Capital Management just paid $179.3 million for the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, in the biggest office sale in the tri-county region since 2016.

    The joint venture purchased IBM’s former sprawling tech office complex at 4800-5002 T-Rex Avenue from Farallon Capital Management and Next Tier HD, according to Real Capital Analytics.

    Eastdil Secured brokered the deal.

    The 1.68-million-square-foot office park sits on 123 acres in Boca Raton near I-95. It was developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s by IBM as its North American Research and Development facility. IBM closed it in 1996.

    Boca Raton Innovation Campus is about 71 percent occupied to tenants that include Bluegreen Corp., Tyco Integrated Security, TransUnion, and Modernizing Medicine, according to RCA.

    Portions of the office campus could be redeveloped. The Palm Beach Post reported last year that Farallon and Next Tier were working with the city of Boca Raton to rezone parts of the property to allow for 720 apartments, 20 townhomes, a 120-room hotel and 81,000 square feet of retail space. A number of office parks in South Florida are being redeveloped to include apartments, retail and hotels, like the Park at Broken Sound in Boca Raton.

    The property last sold for $128.7 million in 2015, according to RCA.

    In 2017, the largest office sale was Rockpoint Group’s $155 million purchase of 1221 Brickell in Miami.

    Boca Raton-based Crocker Partners owns 24 properties with an estimate value of $2.1 billion. The majority of the investment firm’s portfolio is in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Rialto is owned by Lennar Corp.

    The Boca Raton Innovation Campus deal is the first partnership for Crocker Partners and Rialto, according to RCA.

     

  • One Financial Plaza Fetches $87 Million

    One Financial Plaza Fetches $87 Million

    Crocker Partners sold a 28-story office tower in downtown Fort Lauderdale to an affiliate of Walton Street Capital for $86.75 million.

    Records show Crocker affiliate One Financial Plaza LLC sold the building at 100 Southeast Third Avenue to W-Crocker Fin Place Owner VIII LLC, which is controlled by Doug Welker, principal of asset management at Walton Street Capital, a private equity firm based in Chicago. The buyer financed the deal with a $61.23 million loan from SunTrust.

    The deal marks the first large sale of an office building in Fort Lauderdale this year. It breaks down to about $314 per square foot.

    The 276,572-square-foot Class A office building was built in 1972, and was originally known as the Landmark Bank Tower. When it opened, it was the tallest building in Fort Lauderdale, and is now the sixth-tallest, according to Emporis. One Financial Plaza was renovated in 2011, data from Real Capital Analytics shows. Crocker Partners paid $44 million for the 4-acre property in 2011.

    Tenants include the Tower Club restaurant on the penthouse level, anchor tenant Regions Bank, Pipeline Workspaces, AXA Advisors and Fowler White Burnett. Pipeline signed a 20-year lease for a full floor at the building and opened in October. One Financial Plaza includes an attached parking garage, a renovated lobby, new gym and conference space and a redesigned entrance, according to a Loopnet listing.

    The office tower is about two blocks away from Las Olas Boulevard, which is going through a commercial and residential resurgence. In September, a JP Morgan investment manager sold the Las Olas City Centre office tower to Deutsche Bank for $220 million, marking one of the biggest office deals in South Florida in 2016.

    And the sale of One Financial Plaza is the second big office building that Crocker has traded in recent months. The Boca Raton-based investment and management firm, along with Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, sold the Esperanté Corporate Center in West Palm Beach to RedSky Capital for $126 million in July.

    One Financial Plaza’s new owner, Walton Street Capital, has handled more than $8.4 billion of investments from public and corporate pension plans, foreign institutions, insurance companies and banks, endowments and foundations, trusts, and high net-worth individuals, according to its website. Affiliates of Walton Street Capital have invested more than $7.5 billion of equity into the private equity real estate investment firm.

     

    Source:  The Real Deal

  • Crocker Partners Names Managing Partner

    Crocker Partners Names Managing Partner

    Crocker Partners LLC announced that Angelo Bianco has assumed the role of Managing Partner for the real estate investment and development firm. Bianco, a partner and senior executive with Crocker organizations since 2001, takes the helm of a company with a $2 billion portfolio of 8.6 million sq. ft. of Class A office and mixed-use properties in the southeast U.S.

    Founding Partner Tom Crocker said, “Angelo has played a lead role in Crocker Partners’ growth and success, building a solid foundation for the future. Along with real estate expertise, he brings the vision and creativity to make the most of our opportunities.”

    He noted that in addition to being a significant office landlord in markets including Miami,Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Orlando, and Jacksonville, FL, and Atlanta, the company has several active development projects. While Bianco guides day-to- day operations, Crocker will continue to be active in the company’s strategic direction and investment decisions.

    “Over the past 30 years, Tom created one of the foremost commercial real estate companies in the southeastern U.S.,” said Bianco. “I’ll be building on that legacy, and am thankful Tom will continue in his strategic planning and advisory roles, which have been critical to our success.”

    Most recently, Bianco managed Crocker Partners’ capital markets activities and investor relations, and directed operations in Florida and Texas, including acquisition and development opportunities, asset management, property management and leasing functions. He joined the Crocker organization in 2001 as Senior Vice President at CRT Properties, Inc., responsible for acquisition of properties totaling 2.1 million sq. ft. and for managing the company’s Florida assets, comprised of ten office centers with 77 buildings.

    Previously, Bianco was counsel for Tishman Speyer Properties concentrating on the redevelopment of Rockefeller Center in New York City. He began his career as a real estate attorney with Bachner, Tally, Polevoy & Mishner and subsequently became a partner at Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C., a New York-based law firm where he specialized in real estate. Bianco was admitted to the State Bar of New York in 1994.

    He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the George Washington University.

  • An Afternoon in Crocker Raton

    An Afternoon in Crocker Raton

    The South Florida Office Brokers Association meeting for June 2015 was held at One Town Center, the former Tyco building located within the complex now known as Boca Center. Our guest speaker Angelo Bianco of Crocker Partners told us that most locals still know Boca Center by its former name.

    The iconic mixed-use complex located along Military Trail south of Glades Road in Central Boca Raton contains office space, a Marriott hotel, and upscale shops and restaurants. It has been used as a case study by the Urban Land Institute for excellence in a mixed-use project. The property was originally developed by Crocker and Company back in the mid-1980s and is still widely known by its original name, Crocker Center.

    Over the years, the buildings were sold to Teachers Insurance and Annuity and Met Life. But over the last 12 months, Crocker Partners has invested more than $340 million in Boca Raton, reacquiring the shops and towers at Boca Center, The Plaza and One Town Center. Just north of Boca Center, Crocker also acquired the 277,000 sf One Boca Place, the longest and largest office building in the market. So even if Boca Center is not renamed back to Crocker Center, the running joke is that maybe the city should be renamed Crocker Raton.

    What is not a joke is that Crocker Partners now controls 94% of the vacant Class-A space in the Boca Raton office market. According to Mike Erickson of CBRE, who leases the Boca Center properties for Crocker, “office rental rates north of $30 per sf triple net (which is over $40 including operating expenses) are the new normal in Boca Raton. Vacancies are down and construction is flat so we are going to continue to push rental rates.”

    In order to justify the higher rental rates,  Crocker Partners will be upgrading the properties to compete in today’s market. One Town Center will be positioned to continue to appeal to private equity firms. The Plaza, the black office tower anchored by Wells Fargo, will be modernized and positioned as an ultra high-end concierge building targeted toward upscale local tenants. It will be priced at a monthly dollar amount rather than per square foot.”A contemporary building with timeless appeal” said Bianco. All of the buildings will also offer valet parking.

    The biggest changes will involve the retail space,which will be re-oriented for street visibility. “Don’t turn your back on the street” said Bianco. The restaurant space at Boca Center will surround an open courtyard to create more of a synergy, and a gym and a spa will be added to the hotel’s lower 2 floors.

    Plans also include the addition of multifamily units to the project to capitalize on the current urbanization trend. The idea according to Bianco, is to combine the upscale shopping experience of Miami’s Bal Harbor shops or Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue with the trendy local appeal of Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue.

    Will Crocker be able to raise the bar on rental rates in Central Boca? Can they repeat their earlier success with an updated Boca Center? And will the City Council consider renaming the city Crocker Raton? We’d like your opinion.

    bianco crocker

  • Crocker Picks Up 339,000 SF In Boca

    Crocker Picks Up 339,000 SF In Boca

    Crocker Partners has acquired two high-profile office towers in Boca Raton from MetLife Real Estate Investors, adding 339,000 square feet of Class A space to its growing South Florida portfolio.

    Crocker paid $81 million for the Boca office complexes.

    The two buildings, both originally developed by Crocker entities, are One Town Center and The Plaza, located just south of Glades Road.

    The two buildings are currently 42 percent leased and major tenants include Wells Fargo and Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors.  This latest acquisition, in partnership with Siguler Guff, brings Crocker Partners’ holdings in Boca Raton to more than 616,000 square feet. Earlier this year, Crocker Partners acquired the 277,390-square-foot One Boca Place office center, and the company expects to finalize another major acquisition by year-end that will bring its Boca Raton portfolio to more than one million square feet.

    “Buying Class A vacancy in one of South Florida’s most desirable office markets is central to our investment strategy,” said Thomas J. Crocker, Founder and Managing Partner. “Our basis in these assets is a fraction of the cost it would take to replace them and we have significant upside potential as both buildings come with extensive development opportunities.”

    Crocker Partners will manage the properties and has engaged CBRE for leasing, according to Angelo J. Bianco, Partner. He said Crocker Partners sees upside potential from development of surplus land surrounding the projects. The company, Bianco noted, has deep roots in the Boca Raton market, where it is headquartered and has developed many of the city’s most prominent buildings.  In addition to The Plaza, built as Boca Raton’s first Class A office tower, and One Town Center, home to W.R. Grace and later Tyco, Crocker introduced the City’s two major mixed-use centers, Downtown Boca Raton’s Mizner Park, and suburban Boca Center.

    Overall, Crocker Partners’ portfolio now includes more than 8.0 million square feet of office real estate in the Southeast U.S. and Texas, representing more than $1.5 billion invested.