Pebb Capital and its partners bought the Uno South Pointe office building in Miami Beach for over $70 million, The Real Deal has learned.
The deal is another sign that investors and developers are banking on South Beach’s metamorphosis as a serious office market.
Boca Raton-based Pebb Capital, through an affiliate, bought the building at 119 Washington Avenue, borrowing $69 million for the deal from AOC II Mortgage, which ties to New York-based ACORE Capital, according to records. Irvine, California-based Sabal Investment Holdings, led by Pat Jackson, and Dallas-based Paceline Equity Partners, led by Sam Loughlin, partnered on the purchase, a news release states.
The exact value of the purchase is unknown, as no deed was recorded.
Pebb Capital didn’t immediately return a request for comment. The firm is led by Todd Rosenberg.
Acore Capital provided the purchase financing, the release says.
The seller was entity Yantra 119, which for years has hidden the previous owner’s identity.
The nearly 97,500-square-foot Uno South Pointe, originally called The Atlantic Center, was completed in 2002 on a 0.5-acre lot, records show. It rises seven stories, with a 10,100-square-foot penthouse addition planned and slated for completion early next year, media reports say. It includes more than 10,000 square feet of outdoor terraces.
The trio of buyers plans to complete the penthouse addition, the release says.
Uno South Pointe is about 97 percent leased, with one vacancy, according to a source. Tenants include ONE Sotheby’s International Realty, investment adviser Thomas J. Herzfeld Advisors, New York-based hedge fund J. Goldman & Company and alternative asset manager Gates Capital Management, also based in New York.
The building was renovated last year, led by Batisela+Tom, which reinterpreted the original design by Arquitectonica. Gigi Alvarez is the designer of the penthouse expansion, Florida YIMBY reported.
Cyril Bijaoui of Longstead Real Estate at The Corcoran Group handles leasing for the building. He declined to comment.
The purchase marks Pebb’s ramped up investment this year. In January, the firm, along with Jeff Sutton and Lane Capital Partners, bought the fully leased Design 41 office and retail building in the Miami Design District for $72.5 million.
Pebb’s other South Florida assets include The Press retail and office complex, which was the Palm Beach Post’s former campus, and the Sundy Village mixed-use development in Delray Beach.
South of Fifth and the South Beach area as a whole are becoming a hub for boutique office properties, marking a shift after market stakeholders and elected officials’ yearslong push to shed the area’s anything-goes party reputation and turn it into an office center.
Also in South of Fifth, Sumaida + Khurana, led by Saif Sumaida and Amit Khurana, and Bizzi + Bilgili, a joint venture between Turkish investor Serdar Bilgili’s BLG Capital and Bizzi & Partners, recently completed The Fifth Miami Beach project. The pitch for the five-story, roughly 60,000-square-foot building has been its aesthetic, including the glass and marble materials and the rooftop. Designed by Spanish master architect Alberto Campo Baeza, it’s at 944 Fifth Street and 411 Michigan Avenue.
Italian restaurant Sant Ambroeus leased the dining space at The Fifth, and as of late May brokers had a letter of intent for a full floor office lease at $230 per square foot, gross.
Farther north, Robert Rivani completed a $40 million renovation of the six-story The Rivani building at 1691 Michigan Avenue, which he has branded as Class X. While it’s scored tenants such as Playboy’s headquarters and “Shark Tank” investor and host Daymond John, Rivani also plans a $50 million office expansion on the garage’s sixth level. Voters will decide on the expansion and lease extension at a Nov. 3 referendum.
