The Via Bice retail building on Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue has hit the market with brokers expecting it to fetch more than $20 million.
Long-time owner Tricony Management is looking to sell the 18,712-square-foot building with two addresses, 313 1/2 Worth Avenue and 320 Peruvian Avenue, listing broker Luis Castillo of HFF told The Real Deal. The property is one of two available for sale on the high-end retail street, joining the Tiffany building at 259 Worth Avenue that hit the market in November.
“That’s part of the beauty – that the properties on Worth Avenue don’t trade that often. We used to say that about Lincoln Road, but Worth Avenue has been insulated from a lot of that,” Castillo said.
Records show Tricony affiliate Via 313 1/2 Worth Avenue Ltd. paid $750,000 for the building in 1998. At $20 million, the building could sell for nearly $1,070 a foot. Bice is leasing 4,635 square feet, generating about $349,000 a year in rent. About 12,100 square feet is leased to retail tenants, generating nearly $828,000 a year in rental revenue, according to marketing materials. Castillo, Hermen Rodriguez and Eric Williams, all of HFF, are co-listing the building, built in 1987 on a 24,800-square-foot lot.
Tricony is a family owned firm that focuses on office buildings, according to its website. The company is based at the Worth Avenue building.
Castillo said the asking price is in line with investors’ expectations. Properties on Worth Avenue are generational-type assets, Tiffany included, but both listings could be a sign that more deals are to come for the street, ranked in 2015 as the 14th most expensive retail street in the U.S., behind Lincoln Road at 10th. Tenants include more than 250 stores, restaurants and art galleries like Chanel, Brooks Brothers, Hermès and Louis Vuitton.
The Tiffany building, which is unpriced but expected to fetch more than $40 million/$2,400 per square foot, has been in the Madden family for decades.
Since 2007, at least three deals have closed on Worth Avenue. In early 2014, the buildings at 150 and 151 Worth Avenue sold for about $2,000 a square foot.