Las Olas City Centre to Sell for $160M; 396 Alhambra Opens South Tower

By Georgiana Mihaila, Associate Editor

Las Olas City Centre, the prominent Fort Lauderdale office tower, is being purchased by a fund related to JP Morgan Investment Management for $160 million, or $400 per square foot. According to South Florida Business Journal, the deal represents a cap rate of 5 percent, echoing the peak of commercial trades in 2005.

Built in 2002 by Stiles Corp.—co-owner, along with San Francisco-based Shorenstein Realty Services—the 23-story mixed-use building encompasses 408,000 square feet of office and retail space. The building, remodeled in 2005, has won several awards for its craftsmanship, rich finishes, quality architecture, spacious floor plates and expansive ocean views. The office and retail complex prides itself on its dramatic, pedestrian-friendly plaza located in the center of the trendy Las Olas Boulevard Corridor.

Also making headlines this week is the completed renovation of the 396 Alhambra South Tower—now the city’s newest Class A office building. The building, one of Coral Gables’ mid-20th century architectural landmarks—and former Miami home of the Exxon Corp.—was a part of the growing trend of dramatic renovations and modernizations that replaced demolition and re-building. Work on the 87,000-square-foot building began in 2009 when its windows were replaced with hurricane-resistant impact glass; other renovation work included an overhaul of its plumbing and HVAC systems, elevator cabs and electrical components, and the addition of premium finishes throughout all of the building’s common areas. The existing three-story parking garage was replaced by a new eight-story one. 396 Alhambra’s South Tower, originally built in the 1960s, is now on track to achieve LEED Silver certification.

The South Tower paves the way for the completion of 396 Alhambra’s second phase, a newly constructed 15-story building that will add 156,000 square feet to the development. 396 Alhambra, designed by the Fullerton Group and constructed by Balfour Beatty, will also feature 30,000 square feet of prime ground-floor retail and restaurant space. Now open to tenants, the South Tower will welcome international architecture and planning firm RTKL Associates, the internet arm of Telefónica Group—Terra Networks—CitiBank N.A. and marketing and communications firm KabooKaboo.