Feldman reacquires ownership stake in Wells Fargo Center in downtown Tampa
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 24, 2015

Months after selling the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Tampa, Tampa investor Larry Feldman and his partners have reacquired an ownership stake in the 22-story rose-gold office tower.

Feldman Equities LLC and Tower Realty Partners Inc. are now joint venture partners with the "institutional investor that purchased the building late last year," which Hillsborough County property records identify as Connecticut-based Greenfield Partners.

Tower Realty will manage the property; Feldman will provide "leasing oversight," though he's hired Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc. as the listing agent for the tower. Cushman brokers Jeff Lanning and Brian Breeding will spearhead those efforts.

Feldman said Tuesday he couldn't disclose terms of the partnership or the deal, but that it has been in the works since the building was sold just before Thanksgiving. He and his partners were interested in retaining a stake in the building, he said, because they still see upside potential in Tampa's urban core. "We think that we're still in about the fifth inning of the recovery in downtown," Feldman said.

Feldman has already reaped the benefits of downtown's upswing: He paid $44 million for the Wells Fargo Center in December 2012 and sold it to Greenfield for $78 million in late 2014.

The average asking rent in the Wells Fargo Center is around $25 per square foot. That's about average in top-tier space in downtown Tampa; the best views in trophy buildings rent for around $30 per square foot.

"I think over time, with the things that are going to be happening in downtown - more and more population, more restaurants, we're going to start to see rents getting to replacement cost," he said, "which for a downtown building is $35, $36 a square foot."

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.