FT.LAUDERDALE, FL--Boca Raton-based Fimiani Development Corp. brokered the sale of a two-story, 22,688-square-foot-office building near Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale for $2 million or about $88 per square foot. Fimiani, which was also the receiver for the building, represented the lender, Turnberry Bank of Aventura, Florida, in the foreclosure sale which took place in mid-May. The buyer was a Miami-Dade group of investors in search of distressed assets. The former owner of the building was a Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale area) investor.

The roughly seven-year-old property at 777 SE 20^th Street, which was 25% occupied when it was sold, caters to marine industry businesses, says Mike Fimiani, president of Fimiani Development. The building’s  low occupancy rate was the result of market conditions and the previous owner not making enough of an effort to lease space in the building or actively manage it, he says.

The building is in a great location and had been well-occupied at one time, says Fimiani.  Since his company began to manage the building last November, when it went into receivership, there have been three new tenants, he says. “Now that the property is being actively managed, I expect it to be leased up in the next 12 months and to perform well,” says Fimiani.

Although the 20^th Street building has suffered from low occupancy, most similar buildings in the area, which are better leased, still have experienced a 10% to 15% decline in occupancy since the beginning of the recession, says Fimiani.

Fimiani is a receiver for other properties besides the Ft. Lauderdale building which just sold.  Another one of his receivership assignments involves four single family homes and 14 single-family building lots in the Port Charlotte area, north of Ft. Myers on Florida’s West coast. Plus, Fimiani has receivership assignments for office and retail properties across the state.

More lenders are starting to take action on their problem loans, says Fimiani. They are foreclosing on the collateral or extending the loans, so there has been a pickup in the volume of transactions, he says. “You will see a lot of B and C transactions, mostly cash deals for under $10 Million,” says Fimiani. But lenders are also beginning to do workouts for larger properties as well, he says. As a result, “You will see institutional buyers coming into the Florida market (to buy distressed properties) too,” says Fimiani.