Dealmaker: KBS Sells Florida Office to New York Life for $72M

KBS, Newport Beach, Calif., sold Financial Center at the Gardens in West Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., to New York Life Insurance Co. for $71.8 million.

Financial Center at the Gardens is a 10-story Class A office building totaling 188,950 square feet.

Located along the PGA Boulevard micro-market, Financial Center at the Gardens is within walking distance to the 1.4 million square foot Gardens Mall and is adjacent to Downtown at the Gardens, a lifestyle center with restaurants, retail, entertainment and golf courses. A pending South Florida Regional Transportation Authority Tri-Rail station will provide access to Miami and Orlando.

KBS acquired the asset in 2015 in a joint venture with a sovereign partner and has invested more than $1 million to refresh the property including a main lobby renovation as well as upgrades to the café, restrooms, corridors and elevators.

Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Mike Davis, Managing Directors Dominic Montazemi, Executive Managing Director Rick Brugge and Executive Director Scott O’Donnell represented private equity real estate company KBS in the transaction.

“Palm Beach Gardens has proven to be a developing market with positive real estate dynamics,” said KBS Senior Vice President Allen Aldridge, the property’s asset manager. He noted the building is nearly 100 percent leased.

Palm Beach County’s office vacancy rate fell 81 basis points between first-quarter 2018 and first-quarter 2019, Cushman & Wakefield said. Overall absorption exceeded 78,000 square feet between January and March, the highest first quarter absorption recorded in nearly five years.