A
recent refinancing deal has secured $96 million for the Northbridge Centre, a 21-story office tower located at 515 North Flagler Drive in downtown West Palm Beach. This transaction was facilitated by Vanderbilt Office Properties and Trinity Capital Advisors, who successfully negotiated the refinancing with BMO. The building is currently owned by a joint venture and is leased to 48 tenants, including SeedTrust Escrow, Home Health Services of The Palm Beaches, and several law firms.
The "Darth Vader building," as it is commonly known, gets its name from its dark windows. The building spans 294,500 square feet and is currently 92% leased. Chicago-based Vanderbilt Office Properties and its partners acquired the Northbridge Centre in 2019 for $98 million from CP Group and Greenfield Partners. At the time of purchase, the buyers assumed an existing $56.8 million loan on the tower and increased it to $84 million.
In 2022, the landlords increased the financing to $88 million, again with the same lender. This month, BMO assumed the loan, which had an outstanding principal of $85.9 million, and refinanced it to $96 million. BMO is the U.S. subsidiary of Toronto-based Bank of Montreal.
Vanderbilt Office Properties, led by CEO Casey Wold, has invested $5.3 billion in office development and purchases since its inception in 2014, according to its website. Trinity Capital Advisors, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, specializes in office, industrial, and life science properties in the Southeast U.S., with a portfolio spanning 28 million square feet.
C-III Capital Partners, led by CEO Andrew L. Farkas, is an asset manager and commercial real estate services firm that is a controlled affiliate of New York-based Island Capital Group, according to C-III and Island’s websites. The owners of Northbridge Centre have invested more than $18 million in capital improvements, including speculative suite buildouts, elevator and lobby renovations, and an exterior facelift.
Downtown West Palm Beach has remained a prosperous office market, thanks in part to billionaire Steve Ross' significant investments. Ross, through his newly formed Related Ross, is the biggest office landlord in downtown West Palm. This year, Related Ross is expected to complete construction of the 25-story One Flagler at the foot of the Royal Park Bridge, and is slated to start building 10 CityPlace and 15 CityPlace. Also in the pipeline is the 25-story 515 Fern.
Despite elevated interest rates and uncertainty over the office market's viability, South Florida's office market has defied a financing slowdown. In one of the biggest refinancings in the tri-county region, OKO Group and Cain International scored a $565 million permanent loan for the 57-story 830 Brickell office tower in Miami's Brickell. This month, Loews Corporation got a $305 million refinancing for its 5-acre, 790-key Loews Miami Beach Hotel at 1601 Collins Avenue, and BDT & MSD Partners scored a $1 billion refinancing of the Boca Raton Resort & Club at 501 East Camino Real in Boca Raton.
