Close of 2003 Brings Big Real Estate Deals

MIAMI-With the end of 2003 came a number of sizable sales in South Florida real estate, as firms pushed to close deals before the end of the year. The area saw deals close in the hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of sf each.

Among the sales was the 3.4-million-sf Miami International Commerce Center here, which sold for $205 million, or about $60.29 per sf. PS Business Parks LP of Glendale, CA, purchased the retail space in the 53-building park and created a wholly owned subsidiary, PSBP Industrial LLC, to own the industrial space. The deal closed Dec. 30 because the buyer wanted to complete it by the end of the year, according to a source who worked on the deal. The business park, adjacent to Miami International Airport, houses a variety of distribution, warehouse and service properties.

Another blockbuster year-end deal was the sale of the 31-story, 418,404-sf SunTrust International Center Downtown. Fort Lauderdale, FL-based STIC Partners LP, a joint venture between Stiles Corp. affiliates and Guggenheim Partners Real Estate, bought the office tower from an affiliate partnership of Chicago-based Walton Street Advisors. The price on this deal was not disclosed, but reports say Walton was seeking about $80 million for the property.