Los Angeles-based investor Joseph Michael said Monday he expects to spend time in Jacksonville now that he made his first Jacksonville purchase — One Enterprise Center.
“I am going to be there regularly,” he said.
Michael also wants to invest in more Jacksonville-area and Florida office properties.
“We are working on more properties in the market,” he said, explaining he was interested mostly in office buildings.
He said Monday afternoon his privately held group was “working on some as we speak.”
Michael, through Rosencrans 2004 LLC, paid $15.2 million for the 22-story Downtown building that is about half-leased. The tower is at 225 Water St.
“We think it’s a fantastic place to own real estate,” he said. Broker Transwestern advertised the property “and we ended up buying it.”
He said his group will handle leasing for the building and opened an office there that is led by Leonard Cannarozzo and Karly McGraw, directors of operations and leasing.
“We’re ready to go and we’ve got the door open,” said Cannarozzo on Monday afternoon. He and McGraw are in Suite 1575.
Cannarozzo said more than 100,000 square feet of contiguous space is available and building signage rights are negotiable.
He said the former 4,800-square-foot bank space on the first floor also is available.
“We are going to hopefully get a lot of great tenants to fill up the vacancy that we currently have,” Michael said.
Michael said CBRE Inc., which had been leasing and managing the property, is no longer handling that. CBRE is a tenant in the building.
One Enterprise Center is more than 30 years old. “We just took over so we are starting to look at everything,” he said when asked about renovations.
Transwestern, which represented the seller, said in a news release Monday that it received 35 competitive offers from domestic and foreign capital sources.
Transwestern Managing Director John Bell negotiated the sale of the building, a 317,571-square-foot tower on 1.15 acres.
Property records show it was built in 1986. It was developed to house the headquarters of Florida National Banks of Florida, which later merged into First Union, then Wachovia and then Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo moved to what is now Wells Fargo Center, vacating One Enterprise as the anchor tenant.
Bell said the building is 51 percent leased and “positioned to experience an expedited lease-up with new, long-term ownership.”
“This listing was a rare opportunity to acquire a trophy building with compelling value-add potential,” Bell said in the release.
The release said One Enterprise Center “was the most sought-after office investment to-date this year” because of its location, views and “value-add potential.”
It features a glass-panel exterior, marble lobby and a glass atrium dome. It is connected to the 354-room Omni Hotel and the two structures share a parking garage, providing One Enterprise Center with a parking ratio for tenants of 2.26 spaces per 1,000 square feet.
Bell said Transwestern received 35 competitive offers from domestic and foreign capital sources.
One Enterprise tenants include Smith Hulsey & Busey, First Tennessee Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Gresham Smith and Partners, U.S. Legal Support, Gunster, International Décor Outlet and Coastal Conference Center.
Property records show its market value at almost $16.5 million.
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