Miami firm buys Coral Gables office building for $14M

UPDATED, March 9, 4:10 p.m.: A Delaware entity tied to Miami-based Westside Capital Group paid $14 million for a Coral Gables office building with plans to update it, move its headquarters there and lease out the mostly vacant property.

In an off-market deal, 2000 Ponce Owner bought the seven-story building at 2000 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, according to records. The seller, 2000 Ponce de Leon Square, managed by Edmundo Kronfle, paid $840,000 in 1996 for the land and completed the 87,134-square-foot building four years later, records show. The building has 100 parking spaces and roughly 7,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

The property is about a mile south of The Plaza Coral Gables, a new mega mixed-use project developed by Agave Holdings.

Fabio Faerman and Sebastian Faerman with FA Commercial represented the buyer and the seller in the deal.

Fabio Faerman told The Real Deal that he could not disclose the identity of the buyer, but that the building’s new owner is based in Miami. “They have an office in Brickell and they are always looking for value-add opportunities,” Faerman said. “Because this property is almost 65 percent vacant, it was a good fit for them.”

The new owner is Westside Capital Group, according to a press release issued after publication.

The firm’s principals plan to relocate to the seventh floor penthouse suite at 2000 Ponce de Leon Boulevard and renovate the building’s common areas, including the elevators and lobby, Faerman said. “The common areas have not been updated for more than 10 years,” he said. “The location is great and the look and feel of the building from outside is very good.”

The new owner retained FA Commercial to market and lease the ground-floor retail by focusing on hospitality tenants, Faerman said.

The seller didn’t want to be in the office sector anymore and is shifting to retail income producing properties with credit tenants, he added. “We only sent marketing materials to clientele that are looking for value-add office buildings. This buyer won and moved really fast to close the deal.”

Coral Gables commercial properties have been in high demand. In February, Miami-based Constellation Group paid $10 million for a pair of single-story Coral Gables office properties that the company plans to redevelop into a 75,000-square-foot office building with ground-floor retail. In December, New York-based Fortress Investment Group bought Amerant Bancorp’s Coral Gables headquarters building for $135 million in a sale-leaseback deal.