Tag Archive for: matthew lee

Class AA Office Tower Trades Hands In Broward’s Second $200M+ Transaction In Two Days

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On Thursday, CRE-sources reported the $208 million trade of 350/450 East Las Olas, the largest transaction in a decade… until Friday.

On Friday, Lone Star Funds announced that an affiliate of Lone Star Real Estate Fund VII, L.P., along with an affiliate of Highline Real Estate Capital LLC and Square2 Capital LLC, has acquired 401 East Las Olas Boulevard, marking the most significant office acquisition in Broward County in the past decade.

CBRE’s Institutional Office Group, led by Vice Chairman Christian Lee and Vice President Sean Kelly, represented the seller, a global investment manager. CBRE’s Debt & Structured Finance Group, led by Vice Chairmen Tom Traynor and Tom Rugg, Senior Vice President Amy Julian, and First Vice President Andrew Chilgren, represented the buyer in sourcing acquisition financing. The CBRE team also included Director Adam Spengler, Senior Associate Tom Rappa, Associate Henry Fenmore, and Financial Analyst Matthew Lee.

“Office properties in Fort Lauderdale’s CBD have thrived in the 2020’s, with strong absorption, sharp rent growth and declining vacancies. This is particularly true for top tier assets, which have outperformed because of an escalating flight to quality,” said Lee.

 

“With soaring construction costs and a dearth of remaining development sites in the Las Olas corridor, future supply will be tightly constrained and will result in continued strong rent growth for the area,” added Kelly.

The transaction closed February 13. While the terms were not disclosed, sources close to the deal reported the sale price to be in the neighborhood of $220 million, equating to more than $535 per square foot.

The 23-story, 410,561-square-foot Class AA office and retail tower—also known as Bank of America Plaza at Las Olas City Centre—sits on a full city block in the heart of Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas Financial District. The property is home to a premier tenant roster, including Bank of America, Greenberg Traurig, Boies Schiller Flexner, Motorola Solutions, and UBS.

“We see a unique opportunity to invest in high-quality office assets that are among the best in their competitive set,” said Jérôme Foulon, Global Head of Commercial Real Estate at Lone Star. “The South Florida office market has strong underlying fundamentals, driven in part by in-migration trends and return-to-work mandates. At the same time, since new developments have all but stopped in recent years, some markets are experiencing shortages of office space in quality assets.”

 

“This acquisition represents our confidence in high-quality, well-located office assets that continue to demonstrate strong leasing fundamentals,” said David Moret, President of Highline Real Estate Capital. “401 has maintained an average occupancy of 94 percent since its inception and is positioned to continue to benefit from the evolving office market.”

 

Jay Caplin, Principal at Square2 Capital, added “with our previous repositioning success at 501 & 515 Las Olas Boulevard, we are confident we can amplify 401’s position as one of the most sought-after office towers in the state. Planned improvements will build upon 401’s status as the most amenitized office property in downtown Fort Lauderdale, featuring six on-site restaurants, a fitness center, and full-service banking.” Square2 Capital will manage the property for the new owner under the direction of Principal Mike Manno.

 

Accesso Completes Acquisition Of South Florida Class A Office Asset

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Accesso, a fully integrated investment manager and operator of multi-tenant office, mixed-use and multifamily assets, announced that it has acquired Sawgrass Lake Center, a Class A, 240,000-square-foot office property located at 13450 W. Sunrise Blvd. in Sunrise.

Sawgrass Lake Center sits in the heart of the Sawgrass Park submarket in Broward County and offers strong connectivity to municipalities throughout South Florida, including Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

“As more companies determine their long-term space needs and the recovery of the office sector continues to take shape, we’ve found opportunities to invest in strategically located assets with high-quality amenities and growth potential,” said John Rivard, Chief Investment Officer for Accesso. “Sawgrass Lake Center is a prime example. It is the dominant office property in a submarket with a fundamentally strong business climate, and offers direct proximity to a variety of retail and restaurant offerings and accessibility to main thoroughfares. We expect to continue to capitalize on the general uncertainly in the office market by opportunistically acquiring assets that meet our investment criteria while applying our proven operating platform skills to add value for tenants and partners alike.”    

Sawgrass Lake Center is among the tallest office buildings in Sunrise and is the only property in the submarket with garage parking, adjacent hospitality and walkable retail, including a Hilton DoubleTree hotel and Sawgrass Mills Center, the 2.3 million-square-foot, internationally renowned shopping and dining destination located directly across Sunrise Boulevard. The property resides in one of the most accessible locations in South Florida, sitting near the intersection of the Sawgrass Expressway and Interstates 595 and 75.

The property features a market-leading parking ratio of 5.4 per 1,000 square feet through its five-story structured parking garage and adjacent surface lot. On-site amenities include a grab-and-go café, fitness center, yoga studio, tenant lounge and conference center and outdoor seating area, as well as 50-plus dining options within a 10-minute walk. Sawgrass Lake Center has seen 136,000 square feet of leasing activity over the past two years. Select tenants include AT&T Inc., GoVine Insurance, Watches of Switzerland and StevenDouglas.

An abundance of prominent developments representing the ongoing densification and urbanization of Sunrise are located within a one-mile radius of the property, including: Radius Sunrise, a 32-acre mixed-use development; Metropica, a 65-acre site featuring an existing 263-unit condo building and proposed additional residential units, hotel rooms and retail; Sunrise 18, an 18-acre development surrounding the American Express Regional Headquarters, with proposed residential units and retail space; and the Amerant Bank Campus, a 140-acre planned project with proposed residential units, hotel rooms, a casino, an indoor water park and retail venues surrounding the Amerant Bank Arena, which is the home of the 2023-24 Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Representing the seller in the transaction were Christian Lee, Sean Kelly, Tom Rappa and Matthew Lee of CBRE.

Christian Lee, Vice Chairman with CBRE, said, “The Sunrise office submarket has historically been highly attractive to tenants looking to pull potential employees from South Florida’s entire population base. The key to this is the tremendous access resulting from the intersection of I-75, I-595 and the Sawgrass Expressway, which provides favorable commute times to nearly all of our workforce. While there is some softness today, we are confident that a bright future is in the cards for this property and this submarket.”

 

CBRE Arranges Sale, Financing Of Boca Office Building

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CBRE Capital Markets has facilitated the $20 million sale of Boca Corporate Center, a four-story, 93,219-square-foot boutique office building located at 2101 NW Corporate Boulevard in Boca Raton.

The buyer, Larsen MacColl Partners, is a Pennsylvania- and Florida-based real estate investment firm with a focus on commercial properties in affluent, dense suburban markets and with primarily professional service tenants. Boston-based Spaulding and Slye Investments, with over 50 years of experience investing in the U.S., provided asset management services on behalf of the seller.

Exclusively representing the seller, the sale was facilitated by the CBRE’s Office Investment Sales team, led by Vice Chairman Christian Lee, Vice President Sean Kelly, Senior Associate Tom Rappa, and Financial Analyst Matthew Lee. CBRE’s Debt & Structured Finance team, led by Senior Vice President Amy Julian and First Vice Present Andrew Chilgren, secured a $14 million loan with Deutsche Bank on behalf of the buyer.

“The property’s location within the Midtown Boca micromarket provides immediate access to the City’s top retail destinations as well as I-95 and the Turnpike,” said Lee.

 

“The boutique nature of the property appeals to the smaller tenants that frequent the Boca submarket,” added Kelly.

Boca Corporate Center features recently renovated lobby and common areas, highly efficient floor plates, and walkable amenities. There is significant upside through marking the in-place rents up to today’s higher market rents.

“Boca Corporate Center’s strong occupancy history, in-place income and future upside provided abundant confidence on the future success of the asset throughout the lending community,” said Chilgren.