NEWS & NOTABLES

MIAMI—Federal Capital Partnerscreated a new position for Bruce Gago. He serves as vice president of acquisitions. He's charged with establishing a South Florida office. Gago will source multifamily investments and work closely with the company's commercial and structured investment teams on transactions in those sectors. “After entering the Florida market with investments in Tampa and Orlando in 2016, FCP intends to increase its activity across the state, with particular focus on South Florida,” says FCP managing partner Alex Marshall. Gago joins FCP after serving as vice president for acquisitions and underwriting at Mast Capital in Miami Beach. While there, he was a key contributor to the firm's first fund raise and managed investment sourcing activities for the firm.

TAMPA, FL—Donald Jennewein, Michael Strober and Nathan Lynch, three mortgage bankers in the Central Florida market, have joined Colliers International to lead a new capital markets team to support the firm's Florida offices. This marks a major entry into commercial mortgage banking in the primary commercial markets in the state. Strober and Jennewein both joined the firm as senior managing directors of capital markets, while Lynch joins as managing director. They bring significant experience in mortgage banking from another national commercial real estate firm. Colliers also hired team members John Charles Tacot as associate and Lidia Rodriguez as production analyst to support the capital markets team. Both previously worked with Strober, Jennewein and Lynch.

BOCA RATON, FL—The law firm of LeClairRyan has expanded into Florida, opening an office in Boca Raton under the leadership of shareholder Robert A. Wayne. With the new location in Boca Raton, LeClairRyan now has offices in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The firm has approximately 350 attorneys nationwide. “The opening of the office in Florida is consistent with LeClairRyan's strategic focus of comprehensively serving the needs of our clients,” says CEO C. Erik Gustafson. “Florida is particularly significant to our clients' operations, and the opening of our office in Boca Raton will better serve our support of our clients and their legal needs. Bob has long handled our clients' commercial real estate matters in Florida, and we look forward to expanding those services and other services with Bob's leadership of the office.”

DEAL TRACKER

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL—Cushman & Wakefield negotiated the sale of a two-story, 20,594-square-foot free standing office building at 4701 Northwest 33^rd Avenue. The tenant advisory team of executive director Jeff Holding and senior director A.J. Belt represented Traci Lynn in its acquisition of the asset from the Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida. The transaction was valued at $3.44 million, or $167 per square foot.

LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL—Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of Miles Media Building, a 28,600-sqaure foot office property in Lakewood Ranch. The asset sold for $5 million, or $175 per square foot. Robbie McEwan, senior associate, and Nicholas Hanson, associate, both in the firm's Orlando office, and Armando Rodriguez, associate, and James Medefind, vice president investments, both in M&M's Tampa office, represented the seller, a private investor. Miles Media Building, located at 6751 Professional Parkway West in Lakewood Ranch, is a 28,600-square foot office building built in 2002. The stabilized asset was 100% occupied at the time of sale. Lakewood Ranch, a well-known master planned community, is an affluent high income district of the Sarasota-Bradenton MSA. The average household income is $89,032 within a five-mile radius of the building.

TAMPA, FL—Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of 213 West Beach Place, a four-unit multifamily building located in Tampa. The asset sold for $590,000. “This property is located in one of the most desirable neighborhoods of Hyde Park and features hard wood floors and vaulted ceilings,” says Shawn Rupp, associate in the firm's Tampa office. “The buyers plan to conduct a major renovation to the property to bring it to its full potential over the next six to twelve months.” Rupp, along with Casey Babb, and vice president investments, and Luis Baez, CCIM and senior associate, all in Marcus & Millichap's Tampa office, represented the seller and procured the buyer in this transaction.

MELBOURNE, FL– Brenner Real Estate Group inked retail leases in Melbourne. Carla Casey, regional manager of property management and College Wood, a commercial associate, handled the following deals: Yong Massage 1,323 square feet of retail space at 7007 Wickham Road. The landlord, Goodwill Industries of Central FL, represented itself. Aldrew renewed its lease for 960 square of retail space within the Centre at Suntree, 6300 North Wickham Road. Casey and Wood represented the landlord, Centre at Suntree c/o BREG. The tenant represented itself. Williams Realty Group renewed its lease of 400 square feet of retail space within Suntree Plaza, 6963 North Wickham Road, Melbourne. Casey and Wood represented the landlord, St. Andrews-North, LLC. The tenant represented itself.

PANAMA CITY, FL—NGKF Capital Markets brokered the sale of the Hancock Center, a 96,646-square-foot class A property in Panama City. Michael Lapointe and Scott Gordon with the Miami Capital Markets group, along with senior managing director Scott Ford represented the seller in the transaction. Royal American Development acquired the asset for $6.6 million. The Hancock Center is one of the only class A office towers within the submarket. The building is 64.1% leased to tenants including Merrill Lynch, Hancock Bank, TGI Friday's and IAP. The asset is being delivered free of any debt. Three new leases were negotiated during the sale process, adding additional value for the new owner and yielding the optimal price and terms for the seller.

MIAMI—Avison Young completed a new 22,500-square-foot lease on behalf of Entercom Communications, the fourth-largest radio broadcasting company in the US. Entercom's Miami operations will take the entire second floor as the anchor tenant of The Citadel, a 62,000-square-foot class A mixed-use building in active development at 8300 Northeast 2^nd Avenue in Miami's Little River submarket. Donna Abood, principal and managing director of Avison Young's Miami operations, and Joe Abood, senior associate, represented the tenant during the transaction. The deal marks the expansion of Entercom Miami's footprint from its current 15,000 square feet in Miami Gardens and the relocation of its 104-employee operations to Little River. “Just north of the Design District and south of Miami Shores, Little River is a fast-growing community within Miami-Dade attracting trendy restaurants, art galleries, and creative businesses,” says Abood. “While commercial activity has tapered off in some areas of the county, this submarket's transformation has continued to draw developers and gold-standard tenants such as Entercom, which sought out space in this area to accommodate its growth.”

TAMPA, FL—ARA Newmark brokered the sale of Modera Westshore, a landmark multifamily asset in Tampa, Florida's primary job center, the Westshore Business District with over 13 million square feet of office space and nearly 100,000 jobs. Executive managing directors Patrick Dufour and Kevin Judd, director Scott Ramey and vice chairmen Richard Donnellan and Marc deBaptiste, represented the seller, Dallas-based real estate developer, Mill Creek Residential. Lantower Residential, a subsidiary of Canadian real estate trust H&R REIT that specializes in US multifamily communities, purchased the property. “Modera Westshore attracted significant institutional interest due to its quality and location, along with Tampa's favorable supply-verses-demand metrics for additional yield over core markets,” says Dufour.

OCALA, FL—Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of Shadow Ridge & The Oaks Apartments, a 32-unit, two-property multifamily portfolio in Ocala. The asset sold for $1.7 million. Jason Hague, associate in Marcus & Millichap's Tampa office, along with Nicholas Meoli and Michael Donaldson, both vice president investments in the firm's Tampa office, represented the seller and procured the buyer. Shadow Ridge consists of two, two-story buildings comprised of 24, two-bedroom/two-bathroom units with approximately 962 rentable square feet. The Oaks consists of two, two-story buildings comprised of eight, two-bedroom/one-bathroom units with approximately 896 rentable square feet.

MIAMI—NAI Miami's Edward Schmidt and Sherry Halstead represented the seller, 4649 Building, in the sale of a 7,659-square-foot office property on 16,976 square feet of land. The property is located at 4649 Northwest 36^th Street in Miami Springs, Florida. 4649 Northwest 36 Street, LLC acquired the asset.

JUPITER, FL—Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of a 20,000-square foot net-leased property located in Jupiter. The asset sold for $4 million. The buyer, a private investor, was secured and represented by Barry M. Wolfe, first vice president Investments, Alan Lipsky, associate, and C. Todd Everett, senior associate, who are all in Marcus & Millichap's Fort Lauderdale office. The property is located at 1830 Park Lane South in Jupiter and has been occupied by the current tenant since July 2008 and recently renewed their lease for an additional five years.

Strong. That's how Florida's commercial real estate market wrapped up January. New positions were created at growing firms. Mortgage bankers shifted allegiances. Another law firm has expanded into the Sunshine State, and plenty of deals inked this week in Florida's middle markets.

BY THE NUMBERS

National and statewide economic growth continues to drive the expansion of Miami-Dade County's office market. Market fundamentals remain relatively sound as demonstrated by a healthy decline in overall vacancy, along with positive net absorption throughout the county. As market conditions continue to tighten, developers are capitalizing on the opportunity with the development of high quality office space, most notably in the Downtown Miami and Brickell submarkets. Foreign capital continues to play an active role as demonstrated by the sale of Southeast Financial Center in the Downtown Miami submarket. (Source: Avison Young)

Miami-Dade continues to experience positive economic activity, which is indicated by the 5.0% local unemployment rate—a 60-bps decrease over the past 12 months ending November 2016. Office market fundamentals remain relatively strong with positive net absorption, active speculative construction and an increase in nonagricultural employment by over 11,000 jobs in that same period. (Source: Avison Young)

NEWS & NOTABLES

MIAMI—Federal Capital Partnerscreated a new position for Bruce Gago. He serves as vice president of acquisitions. He's charged with establishing a South Florida office. Gago will source multifamily investments and work closely with the company's commercial and structured investment teams on transactions in those sectors. “After entering the Florida market with investments in Tampa and Orlando in 2016, FCP intends to increase its activity across the state, with particular focus on South Florida,” says FCP managing partner Alex Marshall. Gago joins FCP after serving as vice president for acquisitions and underwriting at Mast Capital in Miami Beach. While there, he was a key contributor to the firm's first fund raise and managed investment sourcing activities for the firm.

TAMPA, FL—Donald Jennewein, Michael Strober and Nathan Lynch, three mortgage bankers in the Central Florida market, have joined Colliers International to lead a new capital markets team to support the firm's Florida offices. This marks a major entry into commercial mortgage banking in the primary commercial markets in the state. Strober and Jennewein both joined the firm as senior managing directors of capital markets, while Lynch joins as managing director. They bring significant experience in mortgage banking from another national commercial real estate firm. Colliers also hired team members John Charles Tacot as associate and Lidia Rodriguez as production analyst to support the capital markets team. Both previously worked with Strober, Jennewein and Lynch.

BOCA RATON, FL—The law firm of LeClairRyan has expanded into Florida, opening an office in Boca Raton under the leadership of shareholder Robert A. Wayne. With the new location in Boca Raton, LeClairRyan now has offices in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The firm has approximately 350 attorneys nationwide. “The opening of the office in Florida is consistent with LeClairRyan's strategic focus of comprehensively serving the needs of our clients,” says CEO C. Erik Gustafson. “Florida is particularly significant to our clients' operations, and the opening of our office in Boca Raton will better serve our support of our clients and their legal needs. Bob has long handled our clients' commercial real estate matters in Florida, and we look forward to expanding those services and other services with Bob's leadership of the office.”

DEAL TRACKER

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL—Cushman & Wakefield negotiated the sale of a two-story, 20,594-square-foot free standing office building at 4701 Northwest 33^rd Avenue. The tenant advisory team of executive director Jeff Holding and senior director A.J. Belt represented Traci Lynn in its acquisition of the asset from the Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida. The transaction was valued at $3.44 million, or $167 per square foot.

LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL—Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of Miles Media Building, a 28,600-sqaure foot office property in Lakewood Ranch. The asset sold for $5 million, or $175 per square foot. Robbie McEwan, senior associate, and Nicholas Hanson, associate, both in the firm's Orlando office, and Armando Rodriguez, associate, and James Medefind, vice president investments, both in M&M's Tampa office, represented the seller, a private investor. Miles Media Building, located at 6751 Professional Parkway West in Lakewood Ranch, is a 28,600-square foot office building built in 2002. The stabilized asset was 100% occupied at the time of sale. Lakewood Ranch, a well-known master planned community, is an affluent high income district of the Sarasota-Bradenton MSA. The average household income is $89,032 within a five-mile radius of the building.

TAMPA, FL—Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of 213 West Beach Place, a four-unit multifamily building located in Tampa. The asset sold for $590,000. “This property is located in one of the most desirable neighborhoods of Hyde Park and features hard wood floors and vaulted ceilings,” says Shawn Rupp, associate in the firm's Tampa office. “The buyers plan to conduct a major renovation to the property to bring it to its full potential over the next six to twelve months.” Rupp, along with Casey Babb, and vice president investments, and Luis Baez, CCIM and senior associate, all in Marcus & Millichap's Tampa office, represented the seller and procured the buyer in this transaction.

MELBOURNE, FL– Brenner Real Estate Group inked retail leases in Melbourne. Carla Casey, regional manager of property management and College Wood, a commercial associate, handled the following deals: Yong Massage 1,323 square feet of retail space at 7007 Wickham Road. The landlord, Goodwill Industries of Central FL, represented itself. Aldrew renewed its lease for 960 square of retail space within the Centre at Suntree, 6300 North Wickham Road. Casey and Wood represented the landlord, Centre at Suntree c/o BREG. The tenant represented itself. Williams Realty Group renewed its lease of 400 square feet of retail space within Suntree Plaza, 6963 North Wickham Road, Melbourne. Casey and Wood represented the landlord, St. Andrews-North, LLC. The tenant represented itself.

PANAMA CITY, FL—NGKF Capital Markets brokered the sale of the Hancock Center, a 96,646-square-foot class A property in Panama City. Michael Lapointe and Scott Gordon with the Miami Capital Markets group, along with senior managing director Scott Ford represented the seller in the transaction. Royal American Development acquired the asset for $6.6 million. The Hancock Center is one of the only class A office towers within the submarket. The building is 64.1% leased to tenants including Merrill Lynch, Hancock Bank, TGI Friday's and IAP. The asset is being delivered free of any debt. Three new leases were negotiated during the sale process, adding additional value for the new owner and yielding the optimal price and terms for the seller.

MIAMI—Avison Young completed a new 22,500-square-foot lease on behalf of Entercom Communications, the fourth-largest radio broadcasting company in the US. Entercom's Miami operations will take the entire second floor as the anchor tenant of The Citadel, a 62,000-square-foot class A mixed-use building in active development at 8300 Northeast 2^nd Avenue in Miami's Little River submarket. Donna Abood, principal and managing director of Avison Young's Miami operations, and Joe Abood, senior associate, represented the tenant during the transaction. The deal marks the expansion of Entercom Miami's footprint from its current 15,000 square feet in Miami Gardens and the relocation of its 104-employee operations to Little River. “Just north of the Design District and south of Miami Shores, Little River is a fast-growing community within Miami-Dade attracting trendy restaurants, art galleries, and creative businesses,” says Abood. “While commercial activity has tapered off in some areas of the county, this submarket's transformation has continued to draw developers and gold-standard tenants such as Entercom, which sought out space in this area to accommodate its growth.”

TAMPA, FL—ARA Newmark brokered the sale of Modera Westshore, a landmark multifamily asset in Tampa, Florida's primary job center, the Westshore Business District with over 13 million square feet of office space and nearly 100,000 jobs. Executive managing directors Patrick Dufour and Kevin Judd, director Scott Ramey and vice chairmen Richard Donnellan and Marc deBaptiste, represented the seller, Dallas-based real estate developer, Mill Creek Residential. Lantower Residential, a subsidiary of Canadian real estate trust H&R REIT that specializes in US multifamily communities, purchased the property. “Modera Westshore attracted significant institutional interest due to its quality and location, along with Tampa's favorable supply-verses-demand metrics for additional yield over core markets,” says Dufour.

OCALA, FL—Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of Shadow Ridge & The Oaks Apartments, a 32-unit, two-property multifamily portfolio in Ocala. The asset sold for $1.7 million. Jason Hague, associate in Marcus & Millichap's Tampa office, along with Nicholas Meoli and Michael Donaldson, both vice president investments in the firm's Tampa office, represented the seller and procured the buyer. Shadow Ridge consists of two, two-story buildings comprised of 24, two-bedroom/two-bathroom units with approximately 962 rentable square feet. The Oaks consists of two, two-story buildings comprised of eight, two-bedroom/one-bathroom units with approximately 896 rentable square feet.

MIAMI—NAI Miami's Edward Schmidt and Sherry Halstead represented the seller, 4649 Building, in the sale of a 7,659-square-foot office property on 16,976 square feet of land. The property is located at 4649 Northwest 36^th Street in Miami Springs, Florida. 4649 Northwest 36 Street, LLC acquired the asset.

JUPITER, FL—Marcus & Millichap brokered the sale of a 20,000-square foot net-leased property located in Jupiter. The asset sold for $4 million. The buyer, a private investor, was secured and represented by Barry M. Wolfe, first vice president Investments, Alan Lipsky, associate, and C. Todd Everett, senior associate, who are all in Marcus & Millichap's Fort Lauderdale office. The property is located at 1830 Park Lane South in Jupiter and has been occupied by the current tenant since July 2008 and recently renewed their lease for an additional five years.