Tampa City Center tower coming to market

Don’t be surprised if Tampa City Center becomes the next high-profile downtown Tampa skyscraper to trade hands.

Owner Alliance Partners HSP LLC, which acquired the 39-story tower for $128.1 million in October 2014, has retained commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield’s Capital Markets Team to market the building.

Cushman & Wakefield, which negotiated the sale of the 750,000-square-foot building to Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based Alliance Partners HSP, is preparing to evaluate bids for the property.

The former GTE Center, completed in 1981 and once the tallest building in Florida, is today occupied by PNC Bank, Cushman & Wakefield, the University Club of Tampa, architectural firm HOK, real estate developer Ryan Cos. USA Inc., accounting firm Deloitte, Iberia Bank, investment firm Merrill Lynch and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, among others.

“We don’t comment on pending sales of property,” says Brett Hamilton, an Alliance Partners HSP principal.

Cushman & Wakefield officials also declined to comment on any potential transaction.

Executive Director Rick Brugge describes Tampa City Center as the city’s “first modern skyscraper” and one that “offers an amenity package and parking that is superior to other properties in the (central business district).”

If the 201 N. Franklin St. tower does sell, it would likely be the largest office sale in the past three years in downtown, and cap a bevy of significant activity.

Most notably this year, in Tampa’s suburban Westshore business district, Miami-based Starwood Capital Group paid $143.1 million for the twin-building Urban Centre office complex.

Alliance Partners HSP has acquired nearly eight million square feet of office, industrial and other space since 2010 in a dozen states, according to its website. Tampa City Center is its lone Florida asset, according to company data.