Investors buy Gables apartments, historic office building

By Marilyn Bowden
   With interest in South Florida real estate high among investors, Coral Gables properties are fetching solid prices, brokers say.
   Two adjoining parcels at 2524-30 LeJeune Road sold recently for $6.1 million, said William H. Kerdyk Jr., president and CEO of Kerdyk Real Estate. The deal encompassed about 27,714 square feet of land and two apartment buildings.
   "That comes out to $215 a square foot, which is a very fair price in today's market, especially since the site does not have high-rise density zoning," said Mr. Kerdyk, who represented the seller, First Church of Christ Scientist-Gables Manor Inc. The buyer, represented by J.A. Rosell & Associates, was Valencia Investors LLC-Savannah Builders Inc.
   "It was sold for the land value," Mr. Kerdyk said. "It's zoned for a commercial office building of five stories. The buyers are now in the process of dealing with the city."
   A 15,289-square-foot historic office building at 2120-40 Salzedo St. housing mostly retail tenants changed hands for $4.4 million, said Martin Pinilla II, a broker for Colliers Abood Wood-Fay who handled the transaction.
   He said the property was on the market for 15 days and drew several offers.
   "It was owned jointly by several members of the same family," Mr. Pinilla said, "and as is often the case when there are several owners, they wanted to liquidate."
   The one-story building built in 1923 is fully occupied, he said, except for a 5,000-square-foot restaurant space. The new owner, Salzedo LLC, an investment group whose managing partner is Luis Machado, is in negotiations with a user for the space.
   Existing tenants include a beauty salon, a barbershop, a real estate office, a graphic design and architectural firm, a frame shop and a florist.
   Jay Perkins of Perkins Realty Advisors said he is seeing strong interest from private and institutional investors in an office building at 400 University. The asking price for the 30,000-square-foot property is $11 million.
   "The interesting thing about South Florida in general and Coral Gables in particular," he said, "is that there's a very steady increase in prices for office properties to an extent that exceeds the slight to moderate increase in rental rates. So they're showing a good, solid performance."