Clearwater office portfolio sells for $18 million

A five-building office portfolio in Pinellas County has sold to a Tampa private equity investor.

The portfolio at Rio Vista Drive, north of St. Pete-Clearwater Airport and near Roosevelt Boulevard, includes five flex office buildings totaling 135,221 square feet. Tenants, according to Cushman & Wakefield, which represented the seller, a joint venture between Genet Property Group and Biscayne Atlantic, are in the technology, legal, engineering and research fields.

The portfolio was 94% leased at the time of sale.

Bay Vista Gardens I and II brought $18 million. Ally Capital Group was the buyer.

The buildings are part of the 20-building Bay Vista Business Park in Clearwater.

Rick Brugge, the vice chair of Cushman & Wakefield, says “since the pandemic began, single-story office product has outperformed the market as tenants seek to control their own air quality and common areas.”

Ally Capital’s portfolio includes several well-known properties in the Tampa Bay area including the Ybor City Cigar Factory and Westshore City Center in Tampa and The Exchange Hotel in St. Petersburg.

It is also converting the former AAA headquarters on Westshore Boulevard into a 360-unit apartment building.

The company, on its LinkedIn page, says it puts money into multifamily, retail, office and mixed use projects and “has completed commercial real estate development projects as well as complex distressed opportunities, such as note acquisitions, recapitalization buyouts and bankruptcies.”