MHCommercial Real Estate Fund and Waterfall Asset Management Purchase LEED® Gold Certified 100,525 SF Office Building in West Palm Beach, Florida for $32.5 Million

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April 04, 2022
  Press Release
   
For immediate release:
April 4, 2022		 Melissa Beier
NAI/Merin Hunter Codman
Phone: 561-471-8000
mbeier@mhcreal.com 
 
 
 
 
MHCommercial Real Estate Fund and Waterfall Asset Management
Purchase LEED® Gold Certified 100,525 SF Office Building
 in West Palm Beach, Florida for $32.5 Million
 
West Palm Beach, FL – A joint venture between affiliates of West Palm Beach based MHCommercial Real Estate Fund II (“MHCREF”), a discretionary real estate private equity fund formed by NAI/Merin Hunter Codman principals Dung Lam, Neil E. Merin and Jordan Paul and Waterfall Asset Management (“Waterfall”), a New York based SEC-registered institutional asset manager with approximately $9.8 billion in assets including committed capital under management, has closed on the $32.5 million purchase of the fee simple interest in EcoPlex®, a 100,525-square-foot office building located at 1641 Worthington Road in West Palm Beach, Florida.
 
Built in 2008, EcoPlex® is 87 percent leased to a diversified tenant roster with five or more years of weighted average lease term. EcoPlex® was the first speculative office building in West Palm Beach and only the second in South Florida to achieve the LEED® Gold Certification. It is designed to withstand winds of a Category 4 hurricane and is equipped with three generators with integrated, above ground diesel fuel tanks, and rainwater recycling system. The four-story property also features a fitness center with showers and lockers, a lush outdoor plaza, an attached five-story parking structure, and fiber optic service. EcoPlex® rewards businesses with a healthier workplace, maximum energy efficiency, minimal environmental impact, significant cost savings, and increased productivity.
 
EcoPlex® is located in the Centrepark Office District, a 69-acre mixed-use project strategically located just off Australian Avenue across from Drive Shack and directly adjacent to the Hampton Inn and Garden Inn hotels. EcoPlex® offers convenient access to downtown West Palm Beach’s amenity base including high-profile restaurants and business destinations including Rosemary Square and the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
 
Additionally, the property’s location offers strategic access onto the region’s major transportation infrastructure, including Interstate 95 (less than 1 mile away), Palm Beach County International Airport (1 mile away), Tri-Rail, Brightline Florida Trains (2 miles away), and the Florida Turnpike (4.6 miles away).
 
The acquisition represents the second Palm Beach County joint venture between MHCREF and Waterfall following their successful acquisition of the Golden Bear Plaza in Palm Beach Gardens in May 2020. The project also represents the first purchase for MHCREF’s new fund which is projected to acquire between $200 and $250 million of commercial property throughout the Southeastern United States over the next 18-24 months, following the successful acquisition of approximately $115 million of property in its initial fund which was fully invested in December 2021. 
 
MHCREF principals Neil E. Merin, Dung Lam and Jordan Paul stated, “We are very pleased to kick off our second fund by purchasing one of the premier office buildings in our hometown of West Palm Beach.  West Palm Beach has emerged as one of the premier office locations in the United States and EcoPlex® provides its tenants with outstanding access to all the area has to offer. As the only LEED® Gold Certified building in the city with a full backup generator system and construction engineered to withstand a category 4 hurricane, EcoPlex® offers its tenants a unique value proposition in the highly sought-after West Palm Beach market.”  
 
Patti Unti, Managing Director at Waterfall stated, “We are excited to be partnering with MHCREF on our second transaction in southeast Florida. The MHCREF team brings a deep bench of talent to our partnership along with a long history of operating within the West Palm Beach market. The EcoPlex® project offers a differentiated office approach to a sub-market we believe is well-positioned for future growth.” 
 
Corey Winsett, Director of Acquisitions for MHCREF oversaw the acquisition and due diligence process on behalf of the MHCRF/Waterfall JV. Financing for the transaction was provided by LoanCore Capital a leading institutional lender that has financed over $25 billion in commercial real estate loans since 2008. Steve Kay, Managing Director and JP Kost, Vice President structured the financing transaction on behalf of LoanCore Capital.
 
Elizabeth Jones and John Strickroot of the Shutts & Bowen law firm represented the purchaser on the transaction. NAI/Merin Hunter Codman will manage and lease the property with the team of Managing Directors Lesley Sheinberg and Barbara LeBrun, SIOR.
 
 
About NAI/Merin Hunter Codman
NAI/Merin Hunter Codman, www.mhcreal.com, is one of South Florida’s leading commercial real estate firms with over three decades of experience advising clients on strategic acquisitions and dispositions and providing landlord representation, tenant representation, property management and construction management services. The firm has expertise in all commercial property sectors including office, retail, industrial, multifamily, hotels and land. NAI/Merin Hunter Codman’s client base includes some of the nation’s most prestigious institutional and private equity investors. Operating as part of the NAI Global network, NAI/Merin Hunter Codman can facilitate property transactions around the nation and the world, serving as a single point of contact for its clients’ counsel and execution. NAI/Merin Hunter Codman is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida with regional offices in Boca Raton, Palm Beach Gardens and Wellington.   
 
About Waterfall Asset Management
Waterfall Asset Management, LLC (www.waterfallam.com) is an SEC-registered institutional asset manager focused on structured credit (asset-backed securities and loans) and private equity investments. Waterfall was founded in 2005 by Tom Capasse and Jack Ross, two individuals who were early leaders of the ABS industry, and who together have over 60 years of proven ABS/Loan credit analysis, trading, banking and servicing experience. Capasse and Ross started the ABS Group at Merrill Lynch in the 1980s and conducted the first ABS issuances for many of the more than 40 ABS sectors in which Waterfall invests. Waterfall has approximately $9.8 billion* in assets under management. Waterfall utilizes a relative value approach to investing in structured credit and loan products. Leveraging the extensive experience of its founding partners and talented portfolio managers, the firm sources, analyzes, and purchases ABS and loan investments across multiple sectors globally in an effort to seek an attractive risk/return profile. This multi-sector specialization in both ABS and loans enables Waterfall to seek to provide its clients with attractive, competitive returns that are generally uncorrelated to most traditional investment sectors. Waterfall Asset Management’s headquarter offices are located in New York City.      
                         
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Contact:
Melissa Beier, Director of Marketing
mbeier@mhcreal.com, (561) 471-8000