Tech company signs office lease to backfill ConnectWise space in Westshore
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 10, 2022

A suburban office building left mostly empty after ConnectWise left the space for downtown Tampa has scored a new tenant: Wipro, an information technology company.

Wipro has signed a lease for 112,000 square feet at One Independence in Tampa, the Business Journal has learned. The building's owner, North Carolina-based Highwoods Investment Properties, announced the lease on Monday but did not name the tenant behind the deal.

A spokeswoman for Cushman & Wakefield Inc. confirmed that the company represented Wipro in the lease transaction.

One Independence is 116,000 square feet; in addition to ConnectWise, Wipro's lease includes space that was left behind by the former WellCare Health Plans Inc. The deal is very large for the Tampa Bay market, where the majority of office leases are between 10,000 and 20,000 square feet.

ConnectWise left the property for a downtown headquarters; its lease at downtown Tampa's Park Tower was one of 2021's splashiest commercial real estate deals.

Wipro representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Wipro entered the Tampa market in 2016 with its $460 million acquisition of Health Plan Services.

Highwoods on Monday also announced a 71,000-square-foot lease at 5332 Avion Park Drive. The real estate investment trust did not disclose that tenant either, but the Business Journal reported on Feb. 24 that Maxim Healthcare Services Inc. had leased 71,000 square feet at 5332 Avion.

That 71,000-square-foot space was the largest contiguous vacant space in Highwood's 27.4 million-square-foot portfolio, the company said.

“I applaud our Tampa team for attracting two strong-credit customers to these properties, securing steady cash flow for the foreseeable future and eliminating our largest 2022 lease rollover risk," Ted Klinck, president and CEO of Highwoods, said in a statement. "These leases are a testament to the quality, resiliency and long-term growth potential of our portfolio.”