Rivergate Tower, aka 'beer can building,' sold for $59.6 million
By Richard Mullins
Tampa Tribune
Published: Dec 12, 2014

Downtown Tampa's iconic Rivergate Tower has changed hands, again.

Lake Worth-based In-Rel Properties Inc. sold the cyclinder-shaped, 31-story tower at 400 N. Ashley Drive to New York-based Mount Kellett Capital management this week for $59.6 million.

That's up from the $22 million that In-Rel Properties paid for the tower in June 2011 amid the depths of the commercial real estate downturn. In-Rel invested heavily in the property and renovated much of the space, including a massive basement bank vault, now converted into office space with the vault door as the entrance.

Built in 1988, at a cost of $150 million, according to building managers, the 500,000 square foot structure at the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and Ashley Drive is made of Texas and French limestone, marble and bronze was meant to symbolize a lighthouse. Sometimes known as the "beer can building” because of its shape, the structure is actually a study in architectural theory, with features based on the mathematical concept of the Fibonacci Sequence of adding a number in an ascending list to the two number before it: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so on.

Those numbers form the ratio of features like window dimensions and building facade lines. The ceiling and floor of the curved lobby are laid out as a circular calendar, with markings on the floor representing alchemy patterns and the phases of the sun, moon and seasons. Major tenant Sykes Enterprises Inc. has its name atop the tower.

The new owner, Mount Kellett Capital Management, describes itself as focusing on "special situations and opportunistic investing.” Founded in 2008, the firm is led by Mark McGoldrick, who was the co-founder and head of Goldman Sachs Global Special Situations Group from 1997 to 2007. Officials with Mount Kellett have not returned messages seeking comment.

rmullins@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7919
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