BEVERLY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brookwood Financial Partners, LLC, a nationally-recognized real estate private equity firm, today announced that it has sold Plaza 100, a 166,098 square foot Class-A office building located in downtown Fort Lauderdale, for $46,225,000 or $278 per square foot, earning a gain of $13,725,000 in just over two years. Brookwood acquired the property in April of 2014 through its Brookwood U.S. Real Estate Fund for $32,500,000 or $200 per square foot.
Brookwood’s original business plan was to make targeted capital and cosmetic improvements to the property, including completely upgrading the plaza and building entrance, upgrading the parking garage and making improvements to the mechanical and vertical building systems, in order to improve the quality and image of the building and, once accomplished, to increase the property’s occupancy and rents. In its approximately two and one half year holding period, Brookwood was able to increase the property’s occupancy from 81.7% to 93.9% by executing new leases totaling 37,014 square feet and successfully renewing 29,409 square feet of existing tenant leases.
“We acquired the property at a time when the fundamentals of the Ft. Lauderdale office market were just starting to stabilize, and we believed that by investing targeted capital dollars in the building, we could increase both the property’s occupancy and rents,” stated Thomas W. Brown, Brookwood’s President and Director of Real Estate Acquisitions. “By executing quickly on our business plan and capitalizing on the continued improving market fundamentals, we were able lease the vacant space and renew existing tenants at rental rates approaching $23 per square foot, far in excess of the $15 - $16 per square foot rents we originally underwrote.”
Since re-entering the market in 2011, Brookwood and its affiliates have acquired 79 “value-add” office buildings for over $800,000,000 in suburban San Diego, Dallas, Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey and South Florida. “We have had tremendous success acquiring suburban office buildings at substantial discounts to replacement cost and repositioning them to increase both occupancies and rents,” stated Mr. Brown. “We expect to sell a large part of our portfolio over the next 12 to 18 months as we continue to complete respective property business plans.”
Brookwood was represented by Christian Lee at CBRE in Miami.
About Brookwood Financial Partners, LLC – Brookwood is a nationally-recognized private equity investment firm that specializes in acquiring and managing value-add commercial real estate and related operating businesses on behalf of a select group of institutional investors, family offices and high net worth individuals. Since its founding in 1993, Brookwood has invested over $840 million of equity to acquire a portfolio of 220 commercial real estate and convenience store properties, with a realized and unrealized value in excess of $2.2 billion. The portfolio has spanned multiple asset classes, geographical markets and industries across the United States. www.brookwoodfinancial.com
About the Brookwood U.S. Real Estate Fund – The Brookwood U.S. Real Estate Fund was established in 2013 to take advantage of the historic opportunity to acquire value-add suburban office real estate at deep discounts to replacement cost and far below previous peak pricing in select U.S. markets. The Brookwood U.S. Real Estate Fund is fully-invested with approximately $280 million of direct and co-investment equity raised and has acquired interests in 62 buildings, representing over 4.8 million square feet of space and over $690 million in total purchase price.
