MIAMI-The law firm Hunton & Williams, the largest tenant in the former Mellon Financial Center, now Sabadell Financial Center, on Brickell Avenue, with nearly 63,000 square feet, renewed its lease for 10 years in late spring, a span which includes the remainder of the existing lease.

Hunton & Williams had leased three floors, but sublet some of that space to another tenant and there was a little more space they were not using besides, so the landlord took back both spaces, says Jack Lowell, vice president at Coral Gables-based Flagler Real Estate Services, who, along with Adriana Jimenez, Flagler's leasing director, brokered the deal for the landlord, TESTA, SA, a Spanish company. Ocean Club, the subtenant, had a little over 7,000 square feet and the additional space that Hunton & Williams no longer wanted was less than 5,0000 square feet, so 12,000 square feet was returned to the landlord.

Although the lease was not up until early next year, as a condition of the law firm staying, the landlord took back the space from Hunton & Williams, says Lowell. The firm has two and a half floors, he says. In addition to taking back space, says Lowell, the landlord gave concessions to Hunton & Williams, in the form of lower rent and tenant improvement dollars.

Lowell says that he is engaged in ongoing negotiations with five or six other tenants in the Sabadell Financial Center, because the building is ten years old and many of the early leases are up for renewal or will be up over the next two years. Hunton & Williams was one of the original tenants in the building, he says. “Almost all the leases for larger tenants were for ten years,” says Lowell.  He expects that the name tenant, Sabadell, will be taking two floors or about 50,000 square feet. 

In May, at the Sabatell Financial Center, Barclay’s Latin American regional office renewed  its lease as did Guggenheim. Each renewal is a major event, because the downtown and Brickell Avenue office markets are exceeding competitive. Recently, two Class A office buildings opened in the area with a total of 1.3 million square feet.  There are few tenants coming in from outside the market. New tenants are often gained at the expense of another downtown or Brickell Avenue building.