A Value-Add Play

At $42 million, last month's sale of the glass-skinned office tower at 501 E. Kennedy Blvd. would have been significant under any circumstances.

But the 19-story tower's sale is also distinctive in that it may be the last major office building to trade hands in downtown Tampa for the next three to five years, brokers say.

“The timing was certainly right,” says Dale Peterson, a senior vice president at services and brokerage firm CBRE Inc., who sold 501 E. Kennedy together with the firm's Chris Lee, in Miami, and a team of others.