| cponline.com
June 13, 2006
Taurus Buys 700,000SF of Jacksonville Office Parks
By: Hortense Leon, Southeast Correspondent
HIGHLIGHT: Winter Park, Fla.-based Taurus Southern Investments L.L.C. made its first large acquisition in Jacksonville, Fla.--four office parks with a total of 698,501 square feet--which it has purchased for $70 million.
Winter Park, Fla.-based Taurus Southern Investments L.L.C. made its first large acquisition in Jacksonville, Fla.--four office parks with a total of 698,501 square feet--which it has purchased for $70 million. The average price per square foot for the parks, which have occupancy rates in the 65 to 68 percent range, was $100.
"If they were fully-leased properties we wouldn't have bought them," said Jeff K. McFadden, managing partner with Taurus Southern, who is based in Orlando. He expects to spend about $18 million on upgrades, mostly cosmetic improvements, at the parks. "We are a value-added developer," said McFadden. "We want to get the buildings leased up with occupancies in the 85 percent to 90 percent range in 18 to 24 months," he said. "At the low end, we will charge $10 per square foot triple net and at the high end, $15 per square foot triple net."
The parks Taurus Southern purchased in Jacksonville are the 212,240-square foot Greystone Park, the 200,931-square-foot The Meridian at Deerwood, the 217,698-square-foot Central Park and the 67,362-square-foot Central Park East. Major tenants in the parks include Cisco Systems, Gulf Atlantic Financial, Magellan Academy, a private grade school, and Paychex, a payroll outsourcing firm.
Taurus Southern entered the Jacksonville market last fall with the acquisition of the 72,000 square foot Greenleaf-Crosby building, an historic property built in 1927 in downtown Jacksonville. The building was renovated and is being sold as office condominiums.
Taurus Southern's portfolio currently includes 25 projects with more than 2.3 million square feet of commercial space, virtually all office space, and all in the state of Florida, with a focus on Orlando, Jacksonville and Tampa.
In the Central Florida Research Park in Orlando, Taurus Southern owns 650,000 square feet of office space and more than 150 acres it plans to develop in the future. The company leases another 400,000 square feet of mostly single story office space at the park.
|
