Starwood Capital completes Urban Centre purchase

Starwood Capital Group has completed a $143.1 million deal to acquire the two-building Urban Centre office complex in the Westshore business district of Tampa.

Affiliates of the Miami-based investment giant finalized the purchase of the 4830-4890 W. Kennedy Blvd. property on March 13, according to Hillsborough County records.

Starwood bought the twin nine-story complex, whose office tenants include American Momentum Bank, Tribridge and Colliers International, from Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America. Urban Centre is also home to the Westshore Grand Hotel, the Centre Club and Shula’s Steakhouse, among others.

Teachers Insurance had owned the 576,000-square-foot property since paying $105.5 million for it in 2005.

Commercial real estate brokerage firm JLL represented Teachers Insurance in the transaction.

Neither officials from Starwood nor JLL could be reached for comment on the sale on Monday morning.

Urban Centre’s sale marks the largest office deal in the Tampa or St. Petersburg market since December 2015, when Banyan Street Capital and Oaktree Capital Management teamed up to buy the 42-story Bank of America Plaza tower in downtown Tampa for $193.5 million.

Starwood, one of the most active commercial real estate investors in the nation, owns dozens of major properties along the Gulf Coast.

Two years ago, for instance, it paid $95.25 million to acquire the 936-unit Gulfstream Isles Apartments in Fort Myers, one of the largest multifamily rental transactions ever executed along the Gulf Coast.

Even with the sale, Teachers Insurance will continue to have a major presence in the region. Most notably, the firm owns a half-interest, together with a Dutch pension fund, in the 1.2 million-square-foot International Plaza mall, also in Tampa’s Westshore area.