The Yamato Office Center in Boca Raton traded for $45.9 million.
A joint venture of MHCommercial Real Estate Fund II and an unidentified New York-based institutional real estate fund bought the two-building complex at 999 and 1001 Yamato Road from Adler Real Estate Partners, according to a news release from MHCommercial Real Estate.
This is the fund’s second purchase in South Florida since it was formed in January by NAI/Merin Hunter Codman principals Dung Lam, Neil Merin and Jordan Paul.
Christian Lee and Marcos Minaya of CBRE represented the seller. Corey Winsett of MHCommercial, as well as Elizabeth Jones and John Strickroot of Shutts & Bowen, represented the buyers.
The JV scored an undisclosed amount of financing from Greenwich, Connecticut-based LoanCore Capital, according to the release. Steve Kay and JP Kost of LoanCore structured the loan.
The complex spans 10 acres. The three-story 999 Yamato Road building, built in 2000, totals 82,974 square feet; and the four-story 1001 Yamato Road building, built in 1986, totals 88,750 square feet, according to the release.
Yamato Office Center is 71 percent leased, according to the release. Tenants include investment bank Oppenheimer, tech firm Connection, employment agency Accountable Healthcare Staffing and telecommunications company Phoenix Tower International.
The complex gained in value since Miami-based Adler Real Estate, led by founder and managing principal Matthew Adler, bought it in 2015 for $32.3 million.
The buyers plan capital improvements to the Class A properties in a bid to increase tenancy, the release states.
The deal comes on the heels of MHCommercial Real Estate Fund II buying the EcoPlex office building at 1641 Worthington Road in West Palm Beach and its attached garage for $32.5 million in April. The fund partnered with New York-based Waterfall Asset Management for that deal.
Fund II is targeting a total of $250 million commercial real estate acquisitions throughout the Southeast over the next year to a year and a half, according to the release.
Lam, Merin and Jordan Paul’s previous fund, formed in 2019 and fully invested by December, bought roughly $115 million in property, according to an April MHCommercial release. That included the purchase of the three-building Golden Bear Plaza office complex at 11750, 11760 and 11770 U.S. Highway 1 in Palm Beach Gardens for $49.8 million in 2020.
The Palm Beach County office market has picked up since the pandemic’s work-from-home shift that started in 2020. The vacancy rate was 9.6 percent in the first quarter, as well as the fourth quarter of last year, the lowest since early 2019, according to a Colliers report. Rents reached $37.59 per square foot in the first quarter, up from $35.85 during the same period last year.
In another recent Boca Raton office deal, Pebb Enterprises and Banyan Development scooped up Florida Atlantic University’s tech and innovation-focused Research Park for $37.5 million in May.