MetLife Nets Building, Land With $20M Buy

MIRAMAR, FL-MetLife has purchased Miramar Centre I, a 94,649-sf, class A office building here, and is in the process of buying a six-acre tract of land within the same corporate park for development of a similarly sized office development. The purchase price for the building and the land total $19.9 million.Miramar Office A LP, the office park’s developer, sold the building for $17.5 million, or approximately $184.89 per sf. Miramar Centre I is one of two existing buildings in the Miramar Centre Corporate Park.Miramar Office A is selling the land for $2.4 million, or about $400,000 per acre. The sale is under way but has not yet closed. It should be closing at the end of July or the beginning of August, says Jones Lang LaSalle vice president Suzanne Martinez, who negotiated the sale for Miramar Office A LP. The third building in the park will be like the other two there, about 95,000 sf, says Martinez, who did not know a time line for the new office development.Martinez says the sale of the four-story building, located on the southwest corner of Interstate 75 and Miramar Parkway, was a strategy by its developer. “It was obviously a development strategy, get in … develop the buildings and sell,” she says.Miramar Office A sold Miramar Centre II about a year ago to an investment fund form Santa Barbara, CA, according to Martinez. This building was 100% occupied by Humana when it sold. With the most recent sale, “They waited to obviously stabilize the tenancy, which didn’t take long,” she says. Both buildings were completed in 2001.Miramar Centre I is currently 87% occupied. The building’s investment-grade tenants include Ameriquest Mortgage, First Allmerica Financial, Humana Medical Plans, Mattel and the US Department of Treasury.The growing popularity of the Miramar office submarket of Broward County contributed to the plan to build more office space at the park, says Martinez. “I think in general, the Miramar office market is relatively new but has really become hot,” while the area is experiencing residential and retail growth, she says. Companies such as the Home Depot, CVS and other retailers have opened recently in the area. “There is tremendous highway access, and it is really a midpoint between Fort Lauderdale and Miami.”