St. Andrews Medical Park sells for $9.5 million

BUYER: AW St. Andrews LLC (principals: Brian Waxman and Peter Applefield), Palm Beach Gardens

SELLER: Healthcare Realty Trust Inc.

PROPERTY: 1350 E. Venice Ave., Venice

PRICE: $9.5 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $5.14 million, September 1996

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, Nashville

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Palm Beach Gardens-based AW Property Co. purchased the 64,197-square-foot St. Andrews Medical Park for $9.5 million.

The price equated to $148 per square foot.

Prominent tenants include: Center for Sight, HCA Surgery Center, Heart Institute, Lehigh Medical Center and Diagnostic Clinic.

Healthcare Realty Trust has owned the property since it acquired the main health care building and a tract of land in 1996.

AW Property purchased the medical park as part of a seven-building portfolio of medical office properties along the Gulf Coast from Healthcare Realty Trust. It paid a total of $30.3 million for the 272,571 square feet of medical space, or $111 per square foot. The purchase included properties in Safety Harbor, Bonita Springs, Fort Myers and Lehigh Acres.

“[Our] strategy is to clean them up, lease them up and operate [them] more efficiently,” says Brian Waxman, managing director of investment management for AW Property. He expects the firm will spend $1.3 million on deferred maintenance and repairs almost immediately.

Waxman says three of the buildings in St. Andrews Medical Park have older roofs, HVAC units, common area bathrooms and parking lots. Although much of the rest of the park is nearly full, those three buildings are running at 50% to 60% occupancy.

AW Property is a real estate investment and operating company that focuses on professional office and medical properties in Florida. Founded in 2002, it currently operates 90 buildings comprising more than 2.75 million square feet of commercial space. The company has an office in Fort Myers with four staff members.

The purchase entity AW St. Andrews LLC mortgaged the property to General Electric Capital Corp. for $13.7 million.