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A Connecticut investment firm has acquired the three-building Corporate Oaks complex in Tampa's Westshore district for $32 million, a further sign that buyers are locking into the city's office market amid a dearth of new construction and shrinking vacancies.
Next Generation Net Lease Management LLC's purchase of the 184,854-square-foot complex marks its first Gulf Coast of Florida acquisition. Seller TA Realty, a pension fund adviser based in Boston, was represented in the transaction by Cushman & Wakefield capital markets team of Mike Davis, Rick Brugge and Michael Lerner.
The three-story buildings, at 5405-5505 W. Cypress St., sit on nearly 11.5 acres and were developed in 1983, records show.
New York Life Insurance Co., the sole tenant in Corporate Oaks, has invested $2.7 million in interior upgrades to the complex, along with $1.5 million in recent improvements to heating and air-conditioning systems, elevators and interior finishes.
New York Life, which has slowly expanded into all of the Corporate Oaks' space over the past two decades, employs more than 900 there. The company's lease at the complex runs until 2024, according to Cushman & Wakefield data.
Christian I. Halabi, who created and runs Next Generation, says Corporate Oaks fit the company's acquisition criteria as a single-tenant property.
“It's a well-located and well-maintained property with a high-quality tenant,” Halabi says of Corporate Oaks.
Halabi is the former head of real estate and managing director of Zurich Financial Services' Alternative Asset Management division, which at one time controlled 160 properties in 37 states valued at more than $1.8 billion, according to Next Generation's website. He created Next Generation in 2012.
While no further Next Generation acquisitions are planned in the region, Halabi says he remains “interested” in the Tampa market.
“We think the demographics of the Tampa market are wonderful.”
Next Generation's purchase comes as Tampa-area vacancies are shrinking throughout the market. In both Westshore and downtown, Class A vacancy rates are in the single digits, typically a precursor to new development. A handful of new office developments have been floated for downtown and Westshore, but none has broken ground as yet.
“It's a really nice property in the heart of Westshore,” says Cushman & Wakefield's Brugge. “It's hard to find large blocks of contiguous space there, and this is a property that works really well for the tenant. And there've been lots of improvements made of late, so the physical real estate shows really well.”
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