'Distressed' Tampa office building sells for $40M in short sale

A 13-story office building at one of Tampa’s busiest intersections has sold as part of a short sale, with the new owner committing to spend $4 million on upgrades.

The building is 1 North Dale Mabry at the northeast corner of Dale Mabry Highway and Kennedy Boulevard, two of the busiest corridors in the city and possibly all of Hillsborough County.

The buyer is Atlanta-based Enverra Real Estate Partners, which announced the deal Wednesday but did not disclose the sale price for the 260,000-square-foot building.

County property records, however, show the sale price was $40.3 million, far short of the $56.5 million the previous owner, Bridge Investment, paid in 2020.

According to Enverra, the deal was part of a “lender-driven short sale,” though county court records don’t show the property was in foreclosure.

1 North Dale Mabry sits about 3 miles west of downtown Tampa and about a mile south of the new Midtown Tampa district and Interstate 275.

The building, which shares a parking lot with a pair of restaurants and an Aldi grocery store, was built in 1985 and has “sustained strong historical occupancy,” according to Enverra. Among the current tenants are Travelers Insurance, Marsh & McLennan Agency, Rissman Law Firm, Ideal Image and PCL Construction.

As for its features, Enverra says the building has floor-to-ceiling windows, a renovated lobby, fitness center and conference facility.

But the goal under the new ownership, says the firm’s Chief Investment Officer Adam Armiger, is to “transform this asset into an amenity-driven workplace — creating a vibrant, tenant-focused environment that drives retention and leasing activity, creating long-term value for our investors.”

To that end, Enverra says it is investing $4 million in the property on a hospitality-quality lounge featuring a coffee bar, landscaped outdoor terrace, enhanced street-level curb appeal and upgrades to the fitness center, conference facilities and common areas.

Enverra was founded in 2004 and operates offices in Dallas, Atlanta and New York City with a focus on office and industrial properties.

The purchase of 1 North Dale Mabry, its first investment in the Tampa market, is the firm’s second purchase of a "distressed property" in the past year. The other was the 230,000-square-foot Parkway Center office building in Dallas.

In all, the firm has completed $3 billion in transactions and bought more than 8 million square feet of commercial real estate.