California investment firm pays $16M for two South Florida bank buildings

Pontus Capital, a private investment company based in California, just paid roughly $16.1 million for two bank buildings in Broward County.

The two deals, recorded in county records Tuesday, show an affiliate of Pontus bought the two buildings from KBS Realty Advisors, another California company that manages real estate investments.

In the first, Pontus paid $9.5 million for the 3,835-square-foot SunTrust branch at 12396 West Sunrise Boulevard in Plantation. Built in 1994, the property’s last trade on the open market was for $1.376 million in 2005, according to county records.

12396 West Sunrise Boulevard

For the smaller of the two deals, La Jolla, California-based Pontus put down just under $6.6 million for the 1980s-era TD Bank location at 3325 West Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach. Measuring 6,170 square feet, its last sale price was $2.32 million in 2005.

Newport Beach, California-based KBS Realty Advisors came to own those branches plus more than 800 other banking locations and small offices when the former Gramercy Capital Corp. defaulted on a $500 million mezzanine loan owned by KBS, according to published reports.

Gramercy had used the financing to partially fund its $3.3 billion acquisition of the American Financial Trust and its portfolio of 29.2 million square feet of commercial space in the U.S.