Torose Equities teamed up with Lndmrk Development and Terranova to buy a Coral Gables office building.
The joint venture acquired 255 Alhambra, a 13-story mid-rise with 220,000 square feet of office space at 255 Alhambra Circle, according to a press release. Torose, Lndmrk and Terranova declined comment about the sale price through a spokesperson. But the joint venture paid “north of $50 million” for 255 Alhambra, according to a source familiar with the deal.
The seller, a partnership between Deutsche Bank and RREEF Real Estate Investment Trust, paid $59.9 million for the 1.3-acre property in 1983, records show. The building was completed in 1972.
The new owners plan to upgrade amenities in the building, which underwent recent improvements by Deutsche Bank and RREEF, the release states. In a statement, Torose founder and principal Scott Sherman said 255 Alhambra is “positioned to generate strong returns with stable in-place cash flow.”
Miami-based Torose and its two partners anticipate strong demand for office space in Coral Gables, as leases begin to expire in more expensive submarkets such as Brickell, downtown Miami and Coconut Grove, Sherman said. In those neighborhoods, where about 1.9 million square feet of leases are set to expire in the next four years, renewals are becoming unaffordable for some existing tenants, he added.
Sherman launched Torose last year after leaving Tricera Capital, a Miami-based real estate investment firm he started with Ben Mandell in 2017. Torose recently partnered with Fort Lauderdale-based Merrimac Ventures to buy a Tampa office building for $31 million, the release states.
Led by Alex Karakhanian, Miami-based Lndmrk recently partnered with Coconut Grove-based Related Group to buy a development site in Edgewater for $12 million. Related and Lndmrk have not disclosed the joint venture’s plans for the 0.4-acre site, but the zoning of the property would allow a 36-story building with 60 residential units.
Coral Gables-based Terranova, led by CEO Stephen Bittel, is the largest commercial property owner along Coral Gables’ Miracle Mile, where the firm owns 15 properties spanning about 120,000 square feet of retail and office space. On the site of a former Navarro pharmacy at 93 Miracle Mile, Terranova is proposing a four-story retail-and-office building.