Vanderbilt, Trinity land $96M refi for West Palm office tower, as South Florida financing keeps flowing

The joint venture that owns Northbridge Centre in downtown West Palm Beach, known as the “Darth Vader building,” landed a $96 million refinancing for the office tower.  

Vanderbilt Office Properties and Trinity Capital Advisors scored the refinancing for the tower at 515 North Flagler Drive from BMO, according to a news release from the landlords’ broker. Irving, Texas-based C-III Capital Partners also has an ownership stake in Northbridge Centre, records show. 

Amy Julian and Andrew Chilgren of CBRE represented the borrowers.  

The 21-story Northbridge Centre is 92 percent leased to 48 tenants, the release says. The building spans 294,500 square feet. 

Tenants include SeedTrust Escrow, Home Health Services of The Palm Beaches and law firms Meltzer & Bell; Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath; and Alexander Bruce G. 

The building gets the moniker the “Darth Vader building” from its dark windows. 

Chicago-based Vanderbilt and its partners bought the Northbridge Centre in 2019 for $98 million from Boca Raton-based CP Group, formerly called Crocker Partners, and Westport, Connecticut-based Greenfield Partners. 

At the time, the buyers assumed an existing $56.8 million loan on the tower and boosted it to $84 million, according to records. The lender was an entity in the care of Blackstone Mortgage Trust. The landlords again boosted the financing in 2022 to $88 million, with the same lender. 

This month, BMO assumed the loan, which had an outstanding principal of $85.9 million, and refinanced it to $96 million, according to records. 

Chicago-based BMO is the U.S. subsidiary of Toronto-based Bank of Montreal. 

Vanderbilt, led by CEO Casey Wold, has invested $5.3 billion in office development and purchases since its inception in 2014, its website says. Charlotte, North Carolina-based Trinity develops and invests in office, industrial and life science properties in the Southeast U.S., with its portfolio spanning 28 million square feet, according to its website. 

C-III, led by CEO Andrew L. Farkas, is an asset manager and commercial real estate services firm that is a controlled affiliate of New York-based Island Capital Group, according to C-III and Island’s websites. 

Northbridge Centre’s owners have invested more than $18 million in capital improvements, including speculative suite buildouts, elevator and lobby renovations, and an exterior facelift, the CBRE release says. 

Downtown West Palm Beach has remained one of South Florida’s most prosperous office markets, largely due to billionaire Steve Ross’ hefty investments. Ross, through his newly formed Related Ross, is the biggest office landlord in downtown West Palm. 

Since 2021, Ross has bought two buildings, half the ownership stake in a third, and completed a fourth office tower. This year, Related Ross is expected to complete construction of the 25-story One Flagler at the foot of the Royal Park Bridge, and is slated to start building 10 CityPlace and 15 CityPlace. Also in the pipeline is the 25-story 515 Fern. 

South Florida’s office market has defied a financing slowdown, despite elevated interest rates and uncertainty over the office market’s viability. In one of the biggest refinancings in the tri-county region, OKO Group and Cain International last month scored a $565 million permanent loan for the 57-story 830 Brickell office tower in Miami’s Brickell. 

This month, Loews Corporation got a $305 million refinancing for its 5-acre, 790-key Loews Miami Beach Hotel at 1601 Collins Avenue, and BDT & MSD Partners scored a $1 billion refinancing of the Boca Raton Resort & Club at  501 East Camino Real in Boca Raton.