HFF hires Mark Root as a managing director in its San Francisco office

Mark Root

SAN FRANCISCO, CA –– HFF announced it has expanded its debt and equity placement team with the addition of managing director Mark Root in its San Francisco office.

Mr. Root has more than 15 years of experience in commercial real estate finance and most recently worked as a managing director in Cushman & Wakefield’s Equity, Debt and Structured Finance Group covering the Western U.S. 

Charles Halladay

 He began his brokerage career at Sonnenblick-Goldman, which was acquired by Cushman & Wakefield in 2007.  

Prior to that, he spent time in the Real Estate Merchant Banking division at Wells Fargo.  Mr. Root has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.

“We are delighted to have Mark as a member of our debt and equity placement team as we continue to grow our platform in the Bay Area with best-in-class talent,” said Charles Halladay, senior managing director and co-head of HFF’s San Francisco office.

For more information, please contact:

Olivia Hennessey

 (OHennessey@hfflp.com)

AZOR BREWER RESTAURANT ADVISORS LAUNCHES IN SOUTH FLORIDA

Beth Azor and John Brewer

Weston, FL – Two of the area’s most experienced leaders in each of their respective industries have joined forces to debut an innovative and comprehensive database of second-generation restaurant locations throughout Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. 

 This proprietary database is believed to be the first of its kind in the industry, and currently includes more than 450,000 square feet of available space throughout the tri-county area.

Arden Karson

ABRA has already received accolades from key industry leaders for creating this unique service, including Senior Managing Director at CBRE South Florida, Arden Karson. “This great new database is what the restaurant industry in South Florida needs. I look forward to working with Beth and John in leveraging this fantastic resource and their expertise.”

Beth Azor, founder and principal of Azor Advisory Services with more than 30 years’ experience in the South Florida commercial real estate industry, has teamed up with John Brewer, a 30+ year veteran in restaurant operations, to launch Azor Brewer Restaurant Advisors (ABRA). The company is headquartered in Weston, Florida.

ABRA staff has been conducting intense research and good, old-fashioned grassroots canvassing for several months to develop the exclusive database, which includes a number of locations that have not been made available to the public as of this press release.  

ABRA specializes in two key areas:

1)    Site selection for restaurant entrepreneurs

2)    Second generation listing agents for commercial property owners/landlords

The ideal ABRA clients are restaurateurs with fewer than 10 locations looking to expand operations and interested in existing locations already retrofitted as restaurants also known as Second Generation space. With a quick phone call identifying the clients’ preferred geographic region, ABRA can easily identify available locations – many of which are not even on the market.

Oscar de Armas

While the numbers continue to increase as research is conducted, ABRA currently has the following inventory in its proprietary database:

Miami-Dade County

-       48 spaces; 218,499 square feet

Broward County

-       35 spaces; 142,145 square feet

Palm Beach County

-       46 spaces; 90,275 square feet

In describing its services, ABRA’s John Brewer can do so in three words: Locate, evaluate, negotiate.  He says, “Not only do we proudly maintain (and continue to update) the most extensive database of second generation restaurant locations, we provide true concierge service to our clients, many of whom rely on our expertise to not only secure a location, but who may also need help evaluating a site and negotiating a lease or to purchase.  It’s our personalized service and well-rounded expertise that makes us different.”

“We launched this division because time and again we hear of restaurateurs hitting a roadblock when looking for that perfect location,” said Beth Azor.  “Sure, anyone can look up listings that are publicly on the market – but what if none of those locations meets a client’s need? 

"That’s where we come in; we have dozens of locations in our inventory that are currently under the radar, and we can help restaurateurs find that perfect new home.”

In addition to her decades of commercial real estate experience, Azor has served on multiple committees for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC); she is a founding chair of the South Florida Independent Retailers Awards premiering this September; a sought-after speaker on the industry; and the owner of several shopping centers in Broward county. 

ABRA clients have preferential access to the database and to listings not on the market. That is especially appealing to Oscar de Armas, CEO of Zona Fresca, a popular south Florida fast-casual Mexican grill currently with 7 locations and looking to expand.

“We originally hired John to find us a location in Boca Raton after a deal fell through in Fort Lauderdale," says de Armas. "Within a week John showed us an off market site in Fort Lauderdale on 17^th street where we wanted to be. It fit our needs and requirements and we are moving towards a lease. We would not have known about this site if not for John’s market relationships.”

On the flip side, ABRA has also made inroads with operators and landlords looking to engage a leasing agent to actively secure tenants.  This is the case with Ken Cordes, South Florida owner/operator of Corner Bakery Cafe, which is looking to secure a tenant for its Pembroke Pines location.

He says, “I’ve been really impressed with their industry knowledge and extensive network, and how they’re out there hustling to bring qualified operators to my space. We really appreciate John’s total dedication to our needs.”

For additional information, please contact Azor Brewer Restaurant Advisors at 561.573.7333 or john@azorbrewerrestaurantadvisors.com.

 Follow on Facebook and LinkedIn @azorbrewerrestaurantadvisors; Instagram: @southfloridasrestaurantguy; and subscribe to free educational and industry profile videos from South Florida’s Restaurant Guy™ on YouTube.    

For more information, please contact:

Julie Mullen
(juliemullen@thebuzzagency.net)

HFF announces $39.19M sale of Resource Square One and Three in Orlando, FL

  

Resource Square One and Three, Orlando, FL

MIAMI, FL – – Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF) announces the $39.19 million sale of Resource Square One and Three, a two-building, Class A office portfolio totaling 244,549 square feet in Orlando, Florida.

Hermen Rodriguez

The HFF team represented the seller, an affiliate of Banyan Street Capital and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., and procured the buyer, an affiliate of TerraCap Management, LLC.  The asset was sold free and clear of financing.

The properties are located at 13501 Ingenuity Drive and 12001 Research Parkway within Orlando’s Central Florida Research Park, the largest research park in Florida. 

Adjacent to the University of Central Florida, One and Three Resource Park have easy access to downtown Orlando, Orlando International Airport, Universal Orlando Park and Waterford Lakes Town Center, which offers more than 1.9 million square feet of retail and restaurant amenities.

Ike Ojala

  Resource Square One is a three-story building with 91,667 square feet built in 1999 and Resource Square Three has 152,882 square feet within a five-story building built in 2003.  Overall, the portfolio is 84.9 percent leased to tenants, including General Dynamics, AVNET, Cisco Systems and Raytheon.

The HFF investment advisory team representing the seller included senior managing director Hermen Rodriguez, senior director Ike Ojala and directors Tracey Goo and Anthony Frogameni.

“The exceptionally strong credit tenancy, sought-after Central Florida Research Park location and highest quality buildings in the market attracted a strong response from a variety of investors,” Rodriguez said.

Tracey Goo

“Resource Square I and III are best-in-class properties with a strong rent roll of existing tenants,” said Albert Livingston, partner and director of Asset Management at TerraCap.  “Our investors should benefit in the coming years from a tightening market due to expanding tenant presence in the CFRP and limited new construction.”

Albert Livingston

Steve Good, partner and director of Acquisitions at TerraCap, added “We are strong believers in Orlando, so we’re excited for the opportunity to add these properties to our growing southeast portfolio.”

Oaktree is a leader among global investment managers specializing in alternative investments, with $121 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2018. 

 The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented and risk-controlled approach to investments in distressed debt, corporate debt (including high yield debt and senior loans), control investing, convertible securities, real estate and listed equities.

Stephen Good

  Headquartered in Los Angeles, the firm has over 900 employees and offices in 18 cities worldwide.  For additional information, please visit Oaktree’s website athttps://www.oaktreecapital.com/.

TerraCap Management, LLC considers thematic factors such as business formation, employment growth and population growth on a market-by-market basis, as most metros and submarkets have different economic-based industries and therefore move through their economic cycles differently. 

 TerraCap makes moderate strategic overweighting or underweighting to markets, depending on the specific economic drivers influencing supply and demand.  The investment manager has been in operation since 2008 with offices located in Estero, Florida, Tampa, Florida, and the Atlanta, Georgia, metro area. 

As operators, TerraCap believes it can make decisions more efficiently while leveraging expertise from property to property.  More information about TerraCap Management is available at http://www.terracapmgmt.com.

For more information, please contact:

KRISTEN MURPHY

HFF Director, Public Relations

(617) 338-0990

krmurphy@hfflp.com