Wednesday, December 29, 2021

JLL Capital Markets Closes $56 Million, 177,57-SF Sale of The Offices at Pelican Bay in Naples, FL

The Offices at Pelican Bay
5801 and 5811 Pelican Bay
 Boulevard, 
Naples, FL
 

MIAMI, FL JLL Capital Markets has closed the $55.5 million sale of The Offices at Pelican Bay, a two-building, Class A office portfolio totaling 177,557 square feet in Naples, Florida.

 

The sale marks the largest office transaction on Florida’s Southwest coast this year.


Hermen Rodriguez
JLL represented the seller, a joint venture between funds managed by Apollo Global Management, Miami-based SQUARE2 Capital and Steelbridge Capital.

 

The selling partnership purchased the property for $33.6 million in 2014. This marks the partnership’s second round trip in Naples in recent years and the second time JLL has worked with the partnership in a sale.

 

 The partnership bought the SunTrust Building across the street in 2014 for $17.5 million and sold it a year later through JLL for $25.5 million.

 

The Offices at Pelican Bay comprise two, six-story buildings that are leased to a diverse, stable tenant roster.


Chris Drew

Located at 5801 and 5811 Pelican Bay Blvd., the properties sit on nearly 10 acres at the intersection of Pelican Bay Boulevard and Tamiami Trail North within the coveted Pelican Bay community.

 

The properties are within close walking distance of the retail and dining options at Waterside Shops and Artis Naples Philharmonic Cultural Center and are surrounded by a thriving residential market and a variety of high-end and extended-stay hotel options.

 

Additionally, Naples is only one-hour from Fort Myers International Airport and under three hours from both Miami and Tampa.

 

The JLL Capital Markets team representing the seller was led by Senior Managing Directors Hermen Rodriguez and Chris Drew, Managing Director Ike Ojala and Director Matthew McCormack.


 Ike Ojala 

Patrick Fraley, CCIM of Investment Properties Corporation of Naples, procured the buyer.

 

“Florida’s business friendly and tax-friendly environment continues to attract new companies and investors to the market,” McCormack said.

 

“As a result, we are finding investor interest continues to grow for well-located office properties with value-add components such as The Offices at Pelican Bay.”

 

JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers.


Matthew McCormack

The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment sales and advisory, debt advisory, equity advisory or a recapitalization.

 

The firm has more than 3,000 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

 

For more news, videos and research resources on JLL, please visit our newsroom.


About SQUARE2 Capital

SQUARE2 Capital is an investment management company based in Miami that invests and operates throughout Florida and the Southeast. 

Patrick Fraley
 SQUARE2 operates with the belief that real estate investing should be transformational, guiding the asset through a change in form and appearance, but also effectuating financial and operational improvements.

  By building on SQUARE2’s deep industry expertise and multi-cycle track record as a seasoned manager, owner and operator, the firm aggressively targets on and off market investments that allow it to implement strategies to create differentiated office experiences

 

 

CONTACT:

 

 Jenna Sharp

 JLL Associate

 Public Relations

Phone: +1 214 394 3356

Email:  Jenna.Sharp@am.jll.com

 

s2c.com.

steelbridge.com.

 jll.com.

 

NCLA Calls on Supreme Court to Reinvigorate Contracts Clause and Stop State Interference with Leases

 

Jared McClain

Washington, DC, Dec. 29, 2021 – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed a Supreme Court amicus brief today in Apartment Association of Los Angeles County, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, et al. 

 NCLA finds disturbing the recent trend, epitomized by this case, of lower courts deferring to states and cities in their flimsy justifications for substantially impairing landlord-tenant contractual obligations.

The Supreme Court’s immediate intervention is required to rescue the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution from oblivion and ensure that it serves its original purpose during the COVID-19 pandemic response and hereafter.

Philip Hamburger

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020, the City of Los Angeles imposed an eviction moratorium and gave tenants up to a year after the emergency ends to repay their back rent interest-free.

 The national emergency caused by COVID-19 has led several states and cities to interfere with residential leases.

 But the Contracts Clause was specifically designed by the Framers of the Constitution to prohibit states from altering contractual obligations or preventing parties from enforcing their contractual rights—especially during emergencies.

U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, DC

The Supreme Court has historically struck down contractual interference unless the state law has certain limiting characteristics—which were absent here—to protect the parties’ vested interests.

 During the pandemic, very few courts have applied the Contracts Clause as if it imposes any restraint on state or local laws.

 In fact, many courts treat the Contracts Clause as a dead letter, leaving the enforceability of contracts to the vagaries of state law.

 Over the years, the Supreme Court has identified several factors that tend to show when an impairment would upset the contracting parties’ legitimate expectations.

 

Although many lower courts have ignored these indicators, the trial court below rightly recognized that Los Angeles’s new rule substantially impaired residential leases in the city. The Ninth Circuit erred on appeal by skipping this analytical step altogether.  

 Courts like the Ninth Circuit have upheld state laws that substantially impair contractual obligations because they claim they are bound to defer to a state’s opinion as to what counts as substantial.

 Faced with legal challenges to states’ emergency responses, many courts have misapplied Supreme Court precedent and declared that courts “must accord substantial deference to the State’s conclusion that its approach reasonably promotes the public purposes for which it was enacted.”

 

 But deferring in this manner to a state’s self-interested decision to impair a contract renders the protections of the Contracts Clause meaningless.

 L.A. unfairly rewrote residential leases and forced housing providers to shoulder their tenants’ costs, as well as the entire risk of default.

 The Ninth Circuit’s deference to that decision effectively wrote the Contracts Clause out of the Constitution.

 This Court should grant the petition and reverse the Ninth Circuit’s dangerous decision.

 

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, San Francisco, CA

NCLA released the following statement:

 “Throughout NCLA’s pandemic litigation, we’ve seen multiple courts be all too willing to defer to states’ decisions to rewrite private contracts, despite what the Contracts Clause says," according to Jared McClain, Litigation Counsel, NCLA

  "These lower courts think they’re taking their cues from the Supreme Court. Unless and until the Supreme Court steps in to clarify its precedent, the Contracts Clause won’t provide any constitutional protection against state interference with residential leases and other contracts in most of the country.”

Judy Pino
 

 ABOUT NCLA

 NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State.

 NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.

 

 

CONTACT:

 

Judy Pino

202-869-5218

Prominent UCCU Financial Center sells in Lehi, UT

 

UCCU Financial Center, 333 North  Digital Drive, Lehi, UT

LEHI, UT, Dec. 29, 2021 – Office experts within the Utah office of JLL have completed the sale of 333 N. Digital Drive in Lehi, Utah.

 

 Known as the UCCU Financial Center, the Class A, 7-story office building sits at a highly prominent location, fronting Interstate 15 and in the heart of the “Silicon Slopes” in north Lehi.

David Nixon
 
JLL Executive Vice President David Nixon represented the new building owner, Yama Point LLC, in the acquisition.

 

The building seller, Utah Community Credit Union (UCCU), was represented by Josh Martin of Colliers International.

 

“This is a landmark Lehi office asset with a tremendous location, quality of space and freeway-fronting branding opportunities – all advantages that support the long-term value of the property,” said Lowell Crabb, Managing Partner of Yama Point and Founding Principal of Drive Wealth Advisers, which will occupy the entire top floor of the building.

 

 “Assets with this level of visibility and recognition only become available so often. We are fortunate to have this opportunity as a building owner and tenant.”


 Lowell Crabb

Being rebranded as Drive Tower, the building is located at the junction of Interstate 15 and State Route 92/Timpanogos Highway.

 

 It totals 74,257 square feet and seven stories with Class A interiors, a distinct full-glass exterior, full-length office windows providing mountain and valley views, a shared gym and underground parking with stalls to accommodate electric vehicles.

 

 The building is walkable to regional shopping, dining and business service amenities.


Lehi-based Drive Wealth Advisers, which provides custom financial planning for founders, executives and high-net-worth families, will occupy 10,755 square feet on the building’s top floor.

 

“This asset is unique not only for its investment merits but for the brand awareness and alignment it provides to its owners and occupants,” said Nixon.


 Josh Martin
“That positions it well in a market where absorption has shifted back into positive figures and quarter-over-quarter Lehi office leasing activity during the third quarter reached pre-pandemic levels.”

 

In addition to Drive Wealth, Drive Tower is fully leased to multiple credit tenants in the real estate, solar and medical industries.


In addition to the rebranding, the building’s new ownership is planning key, ongoing upgrades such as interior design improvements and facility improvements to key elements, such as upgraded parking and electric vehicle amenities.


 

CONTACT:

 

Stacey Hershauer

Phone: +1480 600 0195                

Email: stacey@focusaz.com

www.jll.com.