Torose Equities and Sabal Investment Holdings flipped a formerly distressed office building in Coconut Grove for a $28 million gain.
The joint venture sold the five-story building at 3480 Main Highway for $61 million in an off-market transaction to Miami-based Azora Private Solutions, led by Juan José Zaragoza and Ignacio Gil-Casares, according to a news release.
Miami-based Torose, led by Scott Sherman, and Irvine, California-based Sabal Investment, led by Pat Jackson, bought the property a year ago in a UCC foreclosure auction by assuming a $32.5 million mortgage with New York-based Madison Realty Capital.
Azora Private paid $1,100 per square foot for the 55,000-square-foot building, a record for Coconut Grove’s office submarket, the release states.
The previous owner, an affiliate of Raoul Thomas’ unraveling CGI Merchant Group, allegedly defaulted on a $4.7 million mezzanine loan that was part of a $35.5 million financing by Madison Realty in 2021.
Torose ’s short-term hold produced a swift turnaround by renegotiating leases to market-rate rents and securing tenants at prices well above in-place rents, Sherman said in a statement.
Azora Private, a joint venture with $2.3 billion in assets between Miami-based Exan Capital and Madrid-based Advenir Azora, is establishing a foothold in Coconut Grove.
The firm paid a combined $82 million last year for two office buildings at 3225 Aviation Avenue and 3250 Mary Street. The deal broke down to $603 per square foot for 136,000 square feet of office space.
Azora Private also owns two properties in Miami Beach’s South of Fifth neighborhood. It paid $37 million for one at 429 Lenox Avenue in 2022, and $16 million for another at 1000 17th Street in 2023. Last year, the firm bought the former Flatiron Hotel in New York for $47.8 million.