Insurance giant PGIM has divested the 717,805 sq ft Ponce office complex in Coral Gables, Florida, for US$97.8 million. The buyers include Intalex, Itero, Greenwall Capital Management, and the family office of the late entrepreneur Carl DeSantis, who founded Sundown Vitamins and was an early investor in Celsius Energy Drink.
The property, which is 65 per cent leased, comprises four building components. These include a Mediterranean-style office building with 257,168 sq ft at 2525 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, an adjacent office building with 93,670 sq ft connected to a six-storey car park at 2555 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, and a three-storey car park opposite at 152 Valencia Avenue.
Extensive Renovation Work Planned
Acore Capital provided a US$105 million loan for the acquisition. The buyer partnership plans to invest approximately US$30 million into renovating the complex. The complex was constructed between 1966 and 2004. Completion of the refurbishment measures is expected next year.
Jack Henry Kapp, managing partner at Greenwall, commented on the transaction in a statement: “Class A assets in high-growth, supply-constrained markets continue to outperform.” He added that pre-leasing activities even before the transaction closed meant they were well ahead of schedule in executing the business plan.
PGIM acquired the property 20 years ago for an undisclosed price from Hines, which had developed and repositioned Ponce. Hines will continue to manage the asset. Chris Lee, Sean Kelly, Tom Rappa, and Matthew Lee of CBRE represented the seller, while Amy Julian and Andrew Chilgren, also from CBRE, arranged the financing. A PGIM representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Market Activity in Coral Gables
This transaction follows another notable repositioning sale of an office building in Coral Gables, an affluent Miami suburb. In January, Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm sold the Alhambra for US$120 million. This amount is roughly what they paid for it over a decade ago. The buyers were private equity firms Lone Star Funds, Square2 Capital, and Highline Real Estate Capital.
