Banyan Street to buy Tampa City Center?

Don’t be surprised if Banyan Street Capital, of Miami, acquires the 39-story Tampa City Center later this month.

If the sale reaches fruition, it would mark the largest office transaction in at least three years.

Banyan Street is expected to pay roughly $200 million for the 750,000-square-foot asset, which has been owned for the past four years by Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based Alliance Partners HSP, which bought it for $128.1 million.

Alliance Partners retained commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield earlier this year to market the property, its lone holdings in Florida.

Neither Alliance Partners, Cushman & Wakefield nor Banyan Street officials would comment on the pending transaction.

“After implementing its value creation plan for each property, Alliance will choose to hold or sell each property on a case-by-case basis,” Alliance Capital’s website notes.

The 201 N. Franklin St. tower is occupied by PNC Bank, Cushman & Wakefield, architectural firm HOK, developer Ryan Cos. USA, accounting firm Deloitte, Merrill Lynch, the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and Iberia Bank, among others.

Built in 1981, the property had previously been known as the GTE Center, after its former anchor tenant.

The deal would also significantly expand Banyan Street’s already considerable holdings in downtown Tampa.

In August 2015, Banyan Street spent $70 million to purchase the 31-story Rivergate Tower in downtown Tampa, a deal that carried a 6.3% cap rate.

Four months later, the company teamed with Oaktree Capital Management to buy the 42-story Bank of America Plaza, at 101 E. Kennedy Blvd., for $193.5 million.

The sale of the 787,042-square-foot tower, at a 6.4% cap, marked the largest in downtown Tampa since 2012.