FT. LAUDERDALE, FL-Local investor Bruce Weiner purchased the 89,503-square-foot Boca Corporate Plaza from Invesco Real Estate for $8.6 million, or $96 per square foot on June 1. The 23-year-old building, located on the east side of the Florida Turnpike at Glades Road, is 30% occupied, says Christian Lee, vice chairman of CB Richard Ellis’s Miami office, who was one of the brokers in the deal representing the seller.
Under the new ownership, the property will receive a cosmetic renovation, says Lee. The Boca Corporate Plaza is located in a 22-acre mixed-use lakeside development, which includes a Hilton hotel and numerous restaurants and retail shops, he says. Major office tenants include the Almaco Group, Inc., which builds modular units for ships, Ft. Lauderdale-based Spherion Atlantic Resources, a temp agency, and Tampa-based DEX Imaging, which sells and leases office equipment.
The Boca Corporate Plaza has a high vacancy rate because the economy in Boca Raton is very soft, says Lee, so when an office building loses tenants, it is hard to replace them. “This building had several unlucky situations in which tenants sold out or went out of business,” he says.
“The Boca Raton office market has an approximately 30% vacancy rate,” says Lee. “The financial services industry was hit hard and there were a lot of bankruptcies and consolidations and even those companies which are still in business have chosen to downsize,” he says.
“Along Federal Highway, (near the ocean and way east of the Florida Turnpike), there were a lot of financial services firms,” says Lee. Although the western sub-markets in Boca Raton, including the one in which the Boca Corporate Plaza finds itself, have their problems, the situation is probably worse along Federal Highway near the Atlantic Ocean, which has been known for financial services firms, he says. Along this street, many office buildings are 50% vacant, says Lee.
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