City National Bank of FL Leases New HQ in Coral Gables

City National Bank of Florida will open a new 145,000-square-foot headquarters in Coral Gables, marking the biggest office lease in South Florida so far this year.

The bank leased at 2701 South Le Jeune Road, a 16-story building owned by Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega’s investment firm Ponte Gadea, according to the tenant’s news release. More than 800 employees at City National Bank, led by CEO Jorge Gonzalez, will move into the new space next year.

The building, completed in 2009, was the former headquarters for Bacardi USA. It will be renamed City National Financial Center.

Eric Groffman was part of the CBRE team that represented the landlord. Matthew Goodman was part of the CBRE team that represented the tenant.

The lease comes as City National Bank, with $27 billion in assets and roughly 1,000 employees, plans to expand its workforce by 20 percent in the next year and a half, according to the release.

Staff members now working at offices in downtown Miami, Brickell and Coral Gables will move to the new headquarters.

City National’s current headquarters is at the Miami Tower at 100 Southeast Second Street in downtown Miami. In 2018, the bank made the tower its headquarters, expanding its lease to a 105,000-square-foot space. Its previous headquarters was at 25 West Flagler Street, also in downtown Miami.

Most of City National’s executives work at the current Coral Gables office in the four-story, 124,200-square-foot building at 2855 South Le Jeune Road. The bank owns the building, records show.

City National also leases at 1450 Brickell Avenue in Miami.

It’s unclear what the bank’s plans are for its existing leases and Coral Gables building following the consolidation. The new Coral Gables headquarters will house divisions for private, small business and international banking, wealth management and other business lines, as well as human resources, finance and information technology staff members.

City National Bank traces its roots to 1926 when entrepreneur Baron de Hirsch Meyer and accountant Leonard Abess partnered on making small business loans, the bank’s website says. The bank’s precursor, North Shore Bank, was established in 1946 in North Miami Beach.

The lease comes amid a slowdown in the influx of out-of-state companies, which was all the rage in South Florida’s office market from late 2020 through 2022. Much of the current demand is from longtime tenants in the tri-county region, while any new-to-market demand has been for smaller spaces, experts have told The Real Deal.

Gemini, a New York-based cryptocurrency exchange platform, will open its first South Florida office in an 8,800-square-foot space at the 545Wyn building at 545 Northwest 26th Street in Miami’s Wynwood.

Amazon, which already had a Miami presence, leased 50,300 square feet at the Wynwood Plaza mixed-use project at 95 Northwest 29th Street in Miami. Oak Row Equities, L&L Holding, Shorenstein and Marcelo Claure’s Claure Group are developing Wynwood Plaza.
Among longtime South Florida tenants leasing offices is brokerage Transwestern, which moved to a 4,500-square-foot space at The Alhambra at 2 Alhambra Plaza in Coral Gables from Miami Tower. Next year, telecommunications firm Verizon will move to a 51,500-square-foot space at 5200 Waterford District Drive in the Waterford Business District from 9700 Northwest 112th Avenue in unincorporated Miami-Dade County.