GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Former 300,000-SF Burger King HQ Goes Office Condo

MIAMI-Palmetto Bay Village Center, the three-building former Burger King headquarters on 80 acres 17777 Old Cutler Rd. is being converted to office condos. The campus consists of 220,000-sf Building A, 44,000-sf Building B and 32,000-sf Building C.

The main, largest building is currently 75% leased and has just undergone a $13-million renovation, according to Mia Stierheim, senior commercial associate with Coral Gables-based Colliers Abood Wood-Fay. She and Carol Ellis-Cutler of the same office are marketing the property. “Demand for condo-conversion actually came from the tenants, which are mostly local market people,” Stierheim tells GlobeSt.com. “Response to conversion has been tremendous, and approximately 90% of our existing tenants want to buy.”

Selling prices in the buildings range from $200 per sf to $425 per sf. Available space in Building A ranges from 200 sf to 13,000 sf and “includes executive suites that share common amenities,” she says. “We also lease for those who wish to rent, and the rental rates range from $19 per sf to $25 per sf.”

Buildings B and C are currently vacant, and the owner is renovating the two-story Building B, which was the Burger King test kitchen and lab. “It can be sold complete or divided only into blocks of 8,000 sf, 12,000 sf and 22,000 sf,” Stierheim says. “We have interest in leasing a full, 22,000-sf floor from a tenant/user.” Without putting a dollar figure on the renovation investment, she says the common area is being converted into a new lobby with a new elevator that replaces the original large service elevator. “Building C is very open and doesn’t really lend itself to being separated into units,” she says. It is being marketed to a single buyer.

Through his locally based real estate investment company, Grouper Financial, Scott Silver acquired the property for $18.5 million in October 2003, following the fast food company’s 2002 relocation to a new site. The renovations to Building A include the addition of a 9,500-sf Palm Room banquet facility. Gardner’s Market, a gourmet grocery, now leases 21,000 sf and operates a cafeteria on the property, and Healis Rehabilitation Center, another current tenant, operates a fitness center.