Vorbeck Buys Two St. Joe Assets for $17M

ORLANDO-Vorbeck Equities, a little-publicized, 35-year-old, family-run property development, management and acquisition company in Ellenton, FL, has acquired two St. Joe Co.-developed office buildings totaling 136,741 sf for $17.2 million or an average $125.78 per sf.

Vorbeck paid $9.1 million, or $131.26 per sf, for the one-year-old, 69,327-sf Tree of Life headquarters building at 405 Golfway West Dr., St. Augustine, FL, and $8.1 million, or $120.15 per sf, for the two-year-old, 67,414-sf Nextel Partners’ call center at 200 Beckrich Road, Panama City Beach, FL.

The Tree of Life building sale gave St. Joe a pre-tax gain of $1.2 million; the Nextel deal, a pre-tax gain of $1.9 million. Frank W. Herring Jr., president of St. Joe Commercial which developed both buildings, calls Panama City Beach “a prime business location” in Florida. “The fact that a fine company such as Vorbeck would acquire an active business property here indicates that people are taking notice and seeing this area as an attractive place from which to do business,” Herring says.