JV Buys 80,000-SF Office in the Grove

MIAMI-A joint venture of locally based Steelbridge Capital LLC and Wilton, CT-based Commonfund Realty Inc. has acquired the 80,000-sf Office in the Grove at 2699 South Bayshore Dr. The property was acquired in an off-market deal from Germany-based Uccello Immobilien GmbH, which had owned the asset since 1985. The acquisition price was $20.2 million.

The nine-story building, located in the Coconut Grove submarket of Miami, is 100% leased to three tenants, Kaufman Rossin & Co., Katz Barron Squiterro & Faust, PA and Coffey Burlington PL. A $6-million city streetscape improvement project along the adjacent SW 27th Avenue corridor is planned to be approved within the next year, a project that will situate the building at the gateway to Coconut Grove.

“Coconut Grove is a small market of about one million sf that recently underwent a significant reduction in supply because of the ‘condominimizing’ of several large nearby office buildings,” says Commonfund managing director Timothy Shine.

The property overlooks Dinner Key Marina, Biscayne Bay and Coconut Grove Convention Center and has water views on three sides. It is in close proximity to the shops at CocoWalk and Mayfair and is located near hotels, such as the Ritz Carlton, Sonesta and Grand Bay Plaza.

“The price per sf relative to replacement cost was very attractive to us,” Steelbridge managing principal Gavin Campbell tells GlobeSt.com. “The location is prime. The combination of high land costs, rigorous zoning, height restrictions and lack of bayfront land make the possibility of another office building being built on Bayshore Drive extremely low.”

Campbell adds that the joint venture plans to make some minor cosmetic improvements to the property in the future. “The prior owner did a lot of work to building, so right now it’s just a buy and hold,” he says.