Downtown Tampa office tower nears nine-figure sale
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 23, 2024

One of downtown Tampa's signature office towers is nearing a sale.

100 North Tampa, which bears the signage of Regions Bank, is on the verge of being sold, said real estate sources who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the deal. The 42-story tower is owned by an affiliate of PGIM Inc., the asset management arm of Prudential Financial. The affiliate has owned the tower since 2007.

Atlanta-based Brookdale Group is the rumored buyer of the 596,383-square-foot tower. A representative from Brookdale declined comment on Monday. A PGIM representative did not respond to a request for comment.

A Prudential affiliate acquired the tower from developer AIG in 2007 for $149 million. According to data from CBRE Group Inc., the tower is around 15% vacant. CBRE's data shows 105,000 square feet of direct availability and 15,000 square feet of sublease availability. Not all of the available space has been vacated yet.

Brookdale's current investments include office properties around the Sun Belt, from Texas to the Carolinas. 100 North Tampa is the only skyline office tower in downtown Tampa that has not traded in the last decade. Bank of America Plaza, Rivergate Tower and Truist Place sold in 2015. Tampa City Center sold in 2018; the Wells Fargo Center sold in 2022.

The tower's rumored pricing is around $150 million or $250 per square foot. If a deal comes to fruition in that price range, it will be far below the price per square foot of Heights Union, a midrise office complex in The Heights. Heights Union, which is 294,000 square feet, sold for $144.8 million or $492 per square foot in 2021 — a figure that some speculated was record office pricing for Tampa.

Office space in Tampa's central business district has lost some of its luster in the post-pandemic world. Mixed-use districts The Heights and Water Street Tampa opened their office buildings in 2021 — the first multitenant office buildings to open downtown in nearly a quarter century. With dozens of bars and restaurants steps away from their office buildings — plus Amalie Arena as an anchor of Water Street — both The Heights and Water Street offer an amenity package that the CBD does not.

100 North Tampa in particular has been pillaged by Water Street office tower Thousand and One. 100 North Tampa has lost multiple tenants to Water Street, including national law firm Bradley, Weatherford Capital and Tampa law firm Bartlett Loeb.

Regardless of that downtown dynamic, a nine-figure office transaction would be a good sign for Tampa's office market and the overall economy — at a time when commercial real estate faces significant global headwinds. Rising interest rates have challenged commercial real estate deals across asset classes. Years after the Covid-19 pandemic, hybrid and remote work remain commonplace, and many office tenants are downsizing their space as a result. If the sale of 100 North Tampa closes, it will signal the buyer's optimism and confidence in this market.