Blue Water buys PGA’s headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens

New York and Boca Raton-based firm fattened Palm Beach County portfolio with $12.2M acquisition

Blue Water's Alex Griswold with 100 Avenue of the Champions
Blue Water's Alex Griswold with 100 Avenue of the Champions (LinkedIn, Google Maps, Getty)

UPDATED, March 28, 3:25 p.m.

Blue Water Advisors scored a hole-in-one for the PGA of America in Palm Beach Gardens.

An affiliate of New York and Boca Raton-based Blue Water paid $12.2 million for the national golfing organization’s headquarters building at 100 Avenue of the Champions, according to records and Vizzda. The buyer took out a $8.6 million mortgage from City National Bank of Florida. Jason Hochman and Ron Granite with Cushman & Wakefield arranged the financing on behalf of Blue Water.

The deal breaks down to $298 per square foot for the office building spanning 40,622 square feet. In 1981, PGA of America built its headquarters on the 4.5-acre site, which is adjacent to the 339-room PGA National Resort, records show. 

In 2018, PGA of America announced its planned relocation to Frisco, Texas, where the organization is developing a 600-acre campus that includes a 510-room resort and a new headquarters that is currently under construction, according to published reports. The campus is slated to open later this year. 

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Spokespeople for Blue Water, led by Alex Griswold, did not respond to requests for comment about the firm’s plan to reposition the office building when PGA of America moves out. 

Blue Water, a private equity firm founded in 2007, is an active wheeler and dealer in Palm Beach County. Last year, a Blue Water fund paid $13 million for Horizons Office Center, a 67,185-square-foot building in West Palm Beach. Also last year, Blue Water sold an office building on Boca Raton’s Bankers Row for $35 million to CS Ventures. 

CS Ventures also bought another Bankers Row office building from Blue Water for $37.8 million in 2021. 

The Palm Beach County office market is faring well. In the fourth quarter of last year, the vacancy rate dipped to 10.7 percent, compared to 13.2 percent during the same period of 2021, according to a recent Avison Young report. Landlords pushed the average asking rate up to $42.81 a square foot, compared to $39.86 a square foot during the same period of 2021.