Monarch JV Acquires 412 KSF Office Asset in Miami

The previous owner renovated 801 Brickell last year. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

A joint venture of Monarch Alternative Capital and Tourmaline Capital Partners has acquired 801 Brickell, a 412,000-square-foot office building in Miami. Nuveen Real Estate sold the property. The transaction is valued at around $250 million, The Real Deal reported.

Nuveen acquired the Class A office building in 2002 for $80.3 million, according to CommercialEdge data. The company also renovated the asset last year.

Newmark Executive Vice Chairman Marcella Fasulo and Co-Head of U.S. Capital Markets Adam Spies, together with Cushman & Wakefield Executive Managing Director Dominic Montazemi and Executive Vice Chair Mike Davis represented the seller in the transaction, according to The Real Deal.

The building at 801 Brickell Ave. rises 28 stories and encompasses 19,904-square-foot floorplates. It features a tenant center on the fifth floor, which includes a lounge, conference center and fitness center. The building also comprises more than 32,000 square feet of retail space.

Tenants at the property include Mastercard, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Royal Bank of Canada. According to Monarch, 801 Brickell is fully stabilized by several long-term commitments.

The building is near the Brickell City Center shopping mall and the Eighth Street Light Rail Station, which provides public transit access. It is also less than a mile from Burlingame Island.

Capitalizing on market dislocation

In prepared remarks, Monarch Managing Principal & Head of Real Estate Acquisitions Joshua Acheatel, stated that this deal represents the company’s strategy of taking advantage of market dislocation and negative national office sentiment by investing in overlooked high-quality properties. Last year, the firm partnered with Tourmaline to acquire a 906,459-square-foot office complex in Phoenix, in a deal valued at $385 million.

As of August, Miami was the most expensive office market in the south, with an average listing rate of $46.14, registering a total vacancy rate of 11.6 percent, considerably below the national average of 17.5 percent, a recent CommercialEdge report shows. Year-to-date through August, sales volume in the metro totaled $408 million at a $251 average price per square foot, the same source shows.