Business & Tech
Manatee County purchases office building in Lakewood Ranch for $23.5 million
The 11.28-acre property with 101,000-square-foot building will serve as an additional campus for Manatee County Government
Manatee County has purchased a 101,000-square-foot, partially furnished office building on 11.28 acres at 9000 Town Center Parkway in Bradenton for $23.5 million. The property, located in Lakewood Ranch, will serve as an additional campus for Manatee County Government.
“There is a lot of benefit to this,” said Manatee County Commission Chair George Kruse in a statement following the Manatee Board of County Commissioners’ (BOCC) approval of the purchase in May. "We have a unique opportunity to buy a property at a tremendous discount to purchase that is turnkey with cubicles already in place to create better efficiency for this government.”
Jag Grewal, CCIM, SIOR, and Cameron Wilson, CCIM, of Ian Black Real Estate, facilitated the sale transaction. The seller, which purchased the building in 2021, was CMHC9000 JV LLC, a joint venture between affiliates of MHCommercial Real Estate Fund LLC, a real estate investment company based in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Contrarian Capital Management, an investment manager based out of Greenwich, Conn.
Find out what's happening in Bradentonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“This property was the perfect fit for the county, which needed an additional campus to position some services closer to where much of the residential and commercial growth is occurring,” said Grewal, partner at Ian Black Real Estate. “In today’s market, purchasing an existing building was significantly more cost-effective than constructing a new facility.”
At the time of the sale, one tenant – which will be moving out by January – fully occupied the space, in a one-year lease. Steve Horn, CCIM, and Melissa Harris, SIOR, of Ian Black Real Estate has managed leasing of the property since 2022, when previous user TriNet Inc. began incrementally releasing space in response to the work-from-home shift prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Find out what's happening in Bradentonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“We were happy to work with Manatee County to complete this sale and provide them with a new campus to serve the community for many years to come,” said Jordan Paul, chief executive officer for MHCommercial Real Estate Fund. “The exciting growth in Lakewood Ranch and Manatee County made this a winning investment for our Fund, which focuses on investments in Florida’s top markets.”
Manatee County will begin moving in soon after closing, in phases to accommodate the existing tenant’s departure.
Some departments will move to the new building to better align with the county’s growth pattern. BOCC and Land Use meetings, including workshops, will still take place in the downtown Commission Chambers at 1112 Manatee Ave. W. in Bradenton.
The two-story Class A office building is located off University Parkway, in close proximity to Interstate 75, and has 615 parking spaces.
About Ian Black Real Estate
Ian Black Real Estate (IBRE) is a boutique commercial real estate brokerage firm located in Sarasota, Fla. The firm is one of the largest commercial brokerage firms in Southwest Florida and boasts a deep knowledge of the commercial real estate market in Sarasota and Manatee counties and the surrounding area. For more information, visit ian-black.com.
About MHCommercial Real Estate Funds
MHCommercial Real Estate Funds (“MHCREF”), www.mhcref.com, was formed by the principals of NAI Merin Hunter Codman who through their funds and predecessor affiliates have acquired over $530 million of investment value across a 2.4-million-square-foot portfolio. Building on this success, MHCREF launched MHCommercial Real Estate Fund I (“MHCREFI”) in 2019 followed by MHCommercial Real Estate Fund II (“MHCREFII”) in 2022. MHCREF principals’ 100+ years of operating and market expertise along with their extensive real estate relationships are the keys to MHCREF’s success, which creates maximum asset value and consistently delivers strong risk-adjusted returns for their investors.
About SIOR
SIOR is the leading global professional office and industrial real estate organization that certifies commercial real estate service providers with the exclusive SIOR designation, based on achievement, knowledge, accountability and ethical standards. Only the industry’s top professionals qualify for SIOR. Today, there are more than 3,200 members in 685 cities and 36 countries. For more information, visit www.sior.com
