Foundry Commercial sold an office building in Sunrise for $20.9 million less than it had paid seven years ago, as suburban properties continued to trade at a discount in South Florida.
Accesso Partners bought the six-story Sawgrass Lake Center at 13450 West Sunrise Boulevard for $36.5 million from Orlando-based Foundry, according to records. The buyer took out a $21 million loan from Hallandale Beach-based Kawa Capital.
Christian Lee and Sean Kelly were part of the CBRE team that represented the seller.
The 240,000-square-foot building was completed in 2000 on a nearly 7-acre site, records and LoopNet show. Sawgrass Lake Center has about 69,600 square feet of available space for lease, according to its website.
Tenants include AT&T, GoVine Insurance, Watches of Switzerland and StevenDouglas.
Foundry had paid $57.4 million for the building in 2018, meaning the recent deal was at a 36.4 percent discount from the previous price. The firm had taken out a $43.8 million loan at the time of its purchase with Regions Bank, which was repaid following the recent sale, records show.
Foundry, led by CEO Paul Ellis, is a real estate investment, development and brokerage firm with offices throughout the U.S. Last year, it launched its South Florida investment sales, financing and leasing brokerage arm, poaching former CBRE broker David Bateman to helm the division.
Accesso, based in Hallandale Beach, is seizing on South Florida’s suburban office discounts at a time when the firm faces its own share of debt woes in Chicago. In what was perhaps the final blow to Accesso’s Windy City office portfolio, the firm this month turned over the 36-story 20 North Clark Street tower to lender One WIlliam Street Capital Management in a deed-in-lieu a foreclosure. Accesso told The Real Deal it had already sold its stake in the property to a group of investors, though company co-founder Moises Benzaquen signed the deed. Accesso retained a minority equity in the tower.
Accesso, also led by co-founders Ariel Bentata and Claudio Dombey, faces a $75 million foreclosure on the 200 West Monroe Street property in the Loop. In 2023, Accesso sold the adjacent 230 West Monroe Street tower for $45 million, a steep discount from the $122 million the firm had paid in 2014.
Across South Florida’s suburbs, discounted office deals have popped up over the past year, amid elevated interest rates and skyrocketing insurance. Construction costs also have risen, putting an additional dent in the budgets of landlords working on tenant improvements. In September, C-III Capital Partners bought the One Park Square office campus at 3470 Northwest 82nd Avenue in Doral for $71 million, or $25 million less than its 2017 purchase price. This month, Valoro Capital bought the office building at 1680 Meridian Avenue in Miami Beach for $22.7 million, a slight discount from its 2015 price.