Bridge Office, Ascentris Purchase Fountain Square in Boca Raton’s Premier Boca-Glades Corridor
Boca Raton, FL (January 3, 2018) – Bridge Office Fund Manager LLC (Bridge Office), an affiliate of Bridge Investment Group LLC (Bridge), today announced that one of its funds has purchased Fountain Square, a three-building, 241,759-square-foot office park in Boca Raton, Florida, and plans to invest more than $6.1 million as part of a repositioning initiative that includes capital and tenant improvements. Bridge Office partnered with Ascentris, a Denver-based real estate private equity firm, to purchase the property for an undisclosed price.
Bridge Office’s comprehensive capital improvement program plans to modernize the lobbies, improve vacancies, expand common areas, construct outdoor collaborative space and create new spec suites. Three premier retail destinations including Town Center at Boca and Boca Center are within two miles of Fountain Square, providing an abundance of amenities for tenants and visitors.
“Boca Raton, a submarket of Greater Palm Beach County, has a strong, consistent demand for space. With office-using employment growth and no new construction, the timing is great to increase occupancy and add additional value to the asset under a new well capitalized ownership,” said Kelly Kuykendall, Director of Acquisitions with Bridge Office.
“We continue to target well-located, high-quality suburban office properties located in growth markets that are in need of capital improvements and an aggressive leasing strategy. We are very excited to work with Bridge, who has vast experience in renovating and leasing office properties, particularly in the Southeast,” said Ascentris Managing Director Tricia Noble.
The Fountain Square office park is comprised of three buildings, each of which offers four stories of Class A office space with easy access to I-95. The buildings feature a highly diversified tenant base and is currently 82.5% leased.
The Palm Beach County office market spans nine regional clusters and includes 13 submarkets comprising of 55 million square feet of Class A, B and C office space. The Boca Glades Corridor contains 4.5 million SF of inventory and leads the market in rental rate growth.
John Criddle and Joe Freitas with Cushman & Wakefield will market the property for lease under the direction of Bridge Commercial Real Estate who will property and asset manage the asset.
About Bridge Office Fund Manager
Bridge Office Manager’s senior management team averages 25 years of experience in the office sector and has been instrumental in the financing, acquisition, leasing and management of 274 properties in the US, completing ~$3 billion of office transactions in prior ventures. The investment team has substantial access to off-market deal flow and in three predecessor funds acquired assets at a 53% average discount to replacement cost. The majority of these transactions were sourced through Bridge’s longstanding industry relationships with asset owners and the brokerage community.
About Bridge Investment Group
Bridge Investment Group is a privately held real estate investment management firm with $8.85 billion in assets under management. Bridge combines its 1,000-person, nationwide operating platform with specialized teams of investment professionals focused on select US real estate verticals, which Bridge believes offer above-market opportunity: Multifamily, Office, Seniors Housing, Affordable Housing and Debt Strategies.
Bridge principals are owners and operators who are deeply rooted in their assets. In-depth knowledge of local markets, as well as extensive real asset and capital markets expertise, enable Bridge to develop prolific deal flow and to deploy active asset management and monitoring across its business lines.