California teachers lose $132M in Palm Beach land sale

Here endeth the lesson.

The California Teachers Retirement System learned the hard way not to invest at the peak of a market, taking a $132 million loss on a vacant industrial property in Palm Beach County, according to a published report.

CalSTRS and First Industrial Property, operating through FR/CAL 3 South Florida LLC, recently sold the 537-acre First Park South Florida site for $29.85 million in five transactions, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The deal was brokered by CBRE’s Robert Smith, Jeffrey Kelly and Kirk Nelson, according to the paper.

The sellers bought the site, formerly known as the Palm Beach Park of Commerce and the Florida Research Park, for $162 million in 2007.

“I guess they really wanted to get out,” Steve Garine, of S&K Worldwide Realty, who sold the property to CalSTRS, told the publication. “It takes a lot of money to carry the park. It’s a lot of taxes and a lot of management.”

The new owner is YTG Palm Beach, an affiliate of Atlanta-based TPA Group.  Atlantic Capital Bank wrote a $20 million mortgage that covered two properties in other counties, the paper reported. [South Florida Business Journal] — William J. Gorta