South Florida Business Journal
By Erik Bojnansky
January 15, 2025
A large office property in Sunrise sold for nearly $21 million less than it did nearly six years ago, property records indicate.
BRI 1886 Sawgrass Lakes LLC, an affiliate of Hallandale-based Accesso, paid $36.5 million for Sawgrass Lake Center, a six-story, 239,373-square-foot office building with a five-level parking garage and a surface lot, according to property information company Vizzda. Accesso’s purchase was financed by a $21 million loan from Hallandale Beach-based Kawa Capital.
The seller is Foundry ASVRF Sawgrass, LLC, a joint venture of Orlando-based real estate investment company Foundry Commercial and Los Angeles-based American Realty Advisors. Foundry ASVRF was represented by Christian Lee, Sean Kelly, Tom Rappa, and Mathew Lee of CBRE in the sales transaction.
Back in March 2018, Foundry ASVRF paid $57.4 million for the property. The seller was CCRE SEF Sawgrass LLC, a joint venture between Foundry Commercial and Long Wharf Real Estate Partners in Boston. As the Business Journal’s Brian Bandell reported at the time, Foundry Commercial traded one joint venture partner for another, and took a larger loan.
Foundry ASVRF’s mortgage, a $43.81 million loan from Regions Bank, was satisfied on Jan. 9 of this year, the same day the Accesso affiliate closed on its acquisition of Sawgrass Lake Center, according to documents at Broward County Records’ website.
Foundry Commercial did not immediately return inquires for comment. However, CBRE’s Christian Lee stated in a release that the Sunrise office submarket “has historically been highly attractive to tenants looking to pull potential employees from South Florida’s entire population base” due to its access to I-75, I-595, and the Sawgrass Expressway.
“While there is some softness today, we are confident that a bright future is in the cards for this property and this submarket,” Lee added.
South Florida’s office market generally prospered since the pandemic as out-of-state companies sought to establish a presence in the region in an effort to attract clients and employees.
But in the past year office leasing activity has slowed as some companies sought to downsize their spaces to adapt to hybrid working patterns and slash office space. This has resulted in some office properties selling at a loss. One Town Center in Boca Raton, for example, was acquired for $99.5 million in 2021 and then sold for $82 million last summer.
But John Rivard, Accesso’s chief investment officer, said the 24-year-old Sawgrass Lake Center is a prime example of an office asset they want to acquire at a good price.The office property is near a HiltonDouble Tree hotel and the Sawgrass Mills shopping center. Its a ten-minute walk from more than 50 dining options, and has amenities such as a fitness center, a yoga studio, a tenant lounge, a conference center, and a grand-and-go cafe. Tenants include AT&T Inc., GoVine Insurance, Watches of Switzerland, and StevenDouglas. Plus, Sawgrass Lake Center is within a mile of various major developments such as Radius Sunrise, Metropica, Sunrise 18, and the Amerant Bank Campus, an Accesso release added.
“It is the dominate office property in a submarket with a fundamentally strong business climate, and offers direct proximity to a variety of retail and restaurant offerings and accessibility to main thoroughfares,” Rivard said. “…We expect to continue to capitalize on the general uncertainty in the office market by opportunistically acquiring assets that meet our investment criteria…”
Founded in 2003, Accesso has a portfolio of 31 properties and 13.5 million square feet of office, retail, and apartments under management across the country. Headquartered in Hallandale Beach, Accesso has additional offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Minneapolis.