Celsius energy drink investor Carl DeSantis pays $25M for Delray Beach offices

Billionaire Carl DeSantis’s CDS International Holdings bought a Bank of America-leased property in Delray Beach for $25 million.

CDS International, based in Boca Raton, purchased the building at 551 Southeast Eighth Street and adjacent bank drive-thru ATM at 551 Southeast Fifth Avenue from an affiliate of Dallas-based Spirit Realty, according to a news release from the buyer’s broker.

Keith O’Donnell of Avison Young and Mark Rubin of Colliers represented CDS International. Leslie Maister and Chris Bosworth of CBRE represented Spirit Realty’s affiliate.

The buildings, totaling 54,765 square feet, were constructed in 1975 on almost 4 acres, property records show. The property is fully leased to the bank.

Spirit Realty, led by CEO Jackson Hsieh, is a triple net-lease real estate investment trust focused on single-tenant industrial, retail and office real estate, according to its website. The company paid $15 million for the Delray Beach property in 2008.

DeSantis’ first entrepreneurial venture was Sundown Vitamins, a mail-order company that he grew into vitamin manufacturer Rexall Sundown, according to CDS’ website. After selling Rexall in 2000 for $1.8 billion, DeSantis embarked on various investments through his Boca Raton-based CDS. They include Celsius energy drink maker Celsius Holdings, which at one point was delisted from the Nasdaq, but eventually grew into a popular fitness drink; and indoor agricultural firm Hyperponic, which offers a vertical grow system for anything from cannabis to strawberries, CDS’ website says.

CDS also invests in real estate, paying $3.1 million in 2019 for the Delray Beach office building at 401 West Linton Boulevard.

In 2016, CDS sold its stake in the Atlantic Crossing project, also in Delray, to its partner in the venture, Edwards Cos., through a land sale valued at $38.5 million. At the time, the redevelopment endeavor was bogged down in a lawsuit with the city, with DeSantis saying CDS is a real estate investor but not a developer.

Some of CDS’ other South Florida properties are office buildings at 100 Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach and at 2424 North Federal Highway in Boca Raton, according to CDS’ website.

Delray Beach, a city perhaps best known for its downtown along Atlantic Avenue, has seen healthy deal and development activity recently, although not necessarily in its office market.

In January, James and Marta Batmasians’ Investments Limited bought a retail and office building at 411 East Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach for $18.5 million. This was followed by Investments Limited’s $6.5 million purchase of the retail-office property at 630 Atlantic Avenue, also in downtown, that same month.

In another recent Delray Beach deal, Jacksonville-based Sleiman Enterprises bought the Publix-anchored Delray Square shopping plaza at 14620 South Military Trail, as well as at 4751 and 4789 West Atlantic Avenue, for $48 million in February.