(Crystal Proenza is associate editor of Real Estate Florida.)

WEST PALM BEACH, FL-Cohen Commercial Properties LLC has acquired a 66,130-square-foot office building at 324 Datura Place from Palm Beach Gardens-based Applefield Waxman for $8 million in an all-cash transaction. The New York City-based buyer holds a portfolio of about one million square feet in South Florida and additional property in eight states, 80% of which consists of shopping centers, Andrew Cohen, the firm's founder and chairman, tells GlobeSt.com. Cohen Commercial will relocate its local property management office into the building, bring it to 100% occupancy.

Applefield Waxman decided to dispose of the property, which was built in 1950 with a major renovation in 2001, in line with its strategy of taking underperforming properties and turning them around, says John Bell, managing director of Miami-based DTZ Rockwood. "They had achieved very high occupancy at the property and it was time to harvest profits for their investor groups," says Bell, who handled the transaction on behalf of Applefield.

Cohen says his firm was attracted to the property because of its "irreplaceable location" at the center of the legal and government district, one block away from the new government City Center under construction in Downtown West Palm Beach. Abundant parking availability, proximity to the entertainment district of Clematis Street and a solid tenant base also drew Cohen to the property. The building's main tenant, Healthcare District of Palm Beach County, leases over 40,000 square feet in the building. Small law firms occupy the rest of the space.