UPDATE: August 18th, 12:00 p.m.: A Palm Beach Gardens-based firm just paid $15.75 million for a chunk of an office complex in West Palm Beach, property records show.
Tambone Investment Group bought the two buildings at 2400 Metrocentre Boulevard and 2410 Metrocentre Boulevard East, which housed the offices of Lincoln Educational Services, a publicly traded network of for-profit technical college campuses. The buildings, which total nearly 93,000 square feet, sold for about $170 per square foot.
Records show Lincoln Educational Services bought the properties in 1995 for nearly $4 million, paying $1.7 million for the Lincoln College of Technology campus, which spans 26,959 square feet, and $2 million for the Florida Culinary Institute building, which spans 65,770 square feet.
West Palm Beach commissioners offered up to $800,000 in city, county and state incentives for companies to move to the office park. Belcan, one of the largest engineering companies in U.S., is expected to open an office there, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Office space in Palm Beach County continues to attract interest from developers, as sales activity increases and vacancy rates fall. Palm Beach’s overall vacancy rate averaged 12 percent during the second quarter, down from 15.1 percent at the start of 2015, according to a second quarter Colliers International Report.
Tambone, led by Richard Tambone, has a portfolio of real estate properties in South Florida, New Mexico and New England, according to its website. It has developed buildings for such companies as Sony, Motorola, Wartsila, Perrier and Wackenhut Corporation.
Harunobu Coryne contributed reporting.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated the “virtual” office space provider Intelligent Office bought the buildings. Instead, one of its clients, Tambone Companies, LLC is the buyer.