Wachovia Buys Hughes Square for Estimated $25M

ORLANDO-Unable to find a tenant for its vacated 56,000-sf quarters at the 28-story, 307,780-sf Wachovia Tower, locally based Hughes Supply Co. has cut a deal with Wachovia Securities, selling its one-year-old, 225,000-sf headquarters building to the Winston-Salem, NC-based firm on Downtown’s West Church Street for about $25 million, brokers intimate with the deal tell GlobeSt.com.The estimated price equates to $111 per sf, making it the largest Downtown office building sale this year to date, brokers tabulating industry sales tell GlobeSt.com. Hughes Square was constructed at a hard cost of $35 million, or about $155 per sf, area construction industry estimators familiar with the project when it was being built, tell GlobeSt.comHughes disclosed last year it took a $1.2-million hit in third quarter 2003 because it wasn’t able to sublease its former headquarters space at the 16-story, 307,780-sf Wachovia Tower at 20 N. Orange Ave., as GlobeSt.com previously reported. Hughes was paying an effective rent of $21 per sf at the time it left Wachovia Tower in June 2003 to occupy 150,000 sf on a 20-year lease at its own building, brokers tell GlobeSt.com.Other tenants at Hughes Square include the US Attorney’s office which occupies 40,000 sf and a Bank of America branch operating in 8,000-sf quarters.Wachovia Tower was purchased in January 2003 by a joint venture comprise of New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon’s Sterling American Property IV LP and Miami-based Continental Real Estates Cos. They bought the 19-year-old, 92%-leased building from Hanover Reinsurance Co. of Hanover, Germany for $30 million, as GlobeSt.com previously reported.