Downtown Coral Gables office building asks $40M

Tenants include Shikun & Binui, JAG Insurance Group and Appelrouth Farah & Co.

999 Ponce and Benjamin H. Silver  
999 Ponce and Benjamin H. Silver

UPDATED, Oct. 16, 10:08 a.m.: A Miami developer is looking to sell 999 Ponce, a Coral Gables office building, for $39.5 million.

Property records show a company controlled by Xavier Rosales of Key Biscayne, who owns Weda Developers, acquired the building at 999 Ponce de Leon Boulevard in 2005 for nearly $21 million.

The 11-story, 129,000-square-foot building hit the market with Benjamin H. Silver and Douglas K. Mandel of Marcus & Millichap, he said. Jorge Morales of Blue Box Real Estate is handling leasing.

Rosales’ company completed a multimillion-dollar renovation of the building in 2016. It’s about 88 percent leased to tenants that include Shikun & Binui, one of the largest construction and infrastructure companies in Israel; JAG Insurance Group; and accounting firm Appelrouth Farah & Co.

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Following the renovation, rents in the building are now about $38 per square foot, up from the low $30s, Silver said. The property also has a 395-space parking garage and is in front of a trolley stop.

The building was built in 1981 on a 1.15-acre lot, records show.

Silver said the office market is going through a resurgence in Coral Gables, and that the Class A- building is competing successfully with Class A and B buildings. The occupancy rate in the Gables has remained at about 90 percent since 2014 with a net absorption rate of 1 million square feet, according to a release.

Development is booming in downtown Coral Gables. One of the largest projects under construction is The Plaza, a 2.25 million-square-foot project with a 242-key hotel, 174 apartments, 161,000 square feet of retail space and more than 2,000 parking spaces. Agave Holdings, a commercial real estate firm that includes the family behind the Jose Cuervo spirits brand, is the developer behind that project.