Crocker Sales Remaining Assets to Canada's SCH Corp

BOCA RATON-Crocker Realty Trust has arranged to dispose of its remaining assets–4.3 million sf of space spread out among 89 buildings in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee–in a deal with Canadian-owned SCH Corp. for an undisclosed sum. The transaction marks the end of Crocker’s two-year endeavor to sell off its assets following company chairman Thomas J. Crocker’s appointment as CEO of Koger Equity. SCH’s assumption of $199 million in debt is part of the deal.

While most of Crocker’s office and flex properties are in Georgia, the portfolio includes 730,000 sf of space in 14 Florida buildings, some of which are located in multi-structure business parks in south Florida. Among the office compounds are the 60,000-sf, three building Sawgrass Business Plaza in Sunrise, which Crocker purchased for $5.2 million in 1998, and the six-building Hillsboro Executive Center in Deerfield Beach. The remaining properties are West Palm Beach’s Bank of America building, Centrepark, Centurion and Northpoint buildings, and the Prudential Florida/WCI Realty Building in Plantation.

As Crocker makes its exit from the market, SCH Corp. prepares to expand its presence in the Southeast US and considers this deal a means of paving the way for further such purchases. “The properties are very well located within their respective markets,” explains John W.S. Preston, co-chairman and co-CEO of SCH parent company Sterling CentreCorp Inc. “And the opportunity exists to increase net operating income and cash flow through the lease up of vacant space, rent increases on rollover and renewals, and through certain refinancing opportunities within the portfolio.