Collier Company legacy office building sells for $23.26M in Naples

A pair of four-story office buildings developed and used by Barron Collier Companies as its headquarters in downtown Naples during the 1970s and ‘80s, when it was known as Collier Company, has sold for $23.26 million.

The two, 30,000-square-foot buildings are known as Collier Place I, built in 1974, and Collier Place II, built in 1984. They are located at 3001 Ninth St. N. are now owned by Collier Place Owner LLC, which purchased the complex from Collier Place Holdings LLC.

The buildings previously traded for $12.85 million in 2019, property records show, with Collier Land Holdings Ltd. selling it for $19 million in October 2006.

The current tenants, a mix of a law firm, bank, financial advisor and others, will remain in place as the new owners look to make further improvements to the complex while monetizing it for the future, said broker Alex Henderson.

Cummings & Lockwood law firm, Fifth Avenue Family Office financial advisors, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Blue Horizon Construction and Comerica Bank are five of the 15 tenants in a building that’s 97% leased.

The new owners could not be reached for comment.

LSI Companies brokered the deal, with Henderson, Max Molloy and Sawyer Gregory the involved brokers.

“It’s an iconic property,” Henderson said. “For the better part of a decade, we’ve had a good relationship with one of the sellers. We’ve done some business with them over the years, sold a handful of buildings. We stayed in touch with them. After some capital improvements they’ve put into it over a six- or seven-year period, the property was positioned better than it ever has been. They weren’t necessarily looking to sell. They were looking to refinance or sell.

“Ultimately, when we got a call that they would be interested in selling, we recognized there was a small window to bring them a buyer. We got all the information from them that we needed on the property. We called who we thought would buy it, and they bought it.”

The transaction, from contract to closing, took about four months, Henderson said.

Gordy Henke, owner of H&H Property Management and Company LLC, which owned the company that sold the building, said he was happy with the investment.

“We had our challenges,” Henke said. “But I think we made a lot of significant improvements. The new owners are going to add more to the aesthetics. We did things behind the scenes with the mechanical and electrical. The buyers were great to deal with. They’ve bought a number of properties recently down here. They were aggressive with their time frames and their price.

“It’s a win-win.”

Henderson said while the office real estate environment has been stagnant in larger cities, it’s still thriving in Southwest Florida.

“Down here, it’s a different story,” Henderson said. “That’s why it reflected the return that it did. If it were another market like Atlanta or Tampa, it probably wouldn’t have sold for the same return on the cash flow that it did.

“Office is tough as an investment asset. It’s a very niche buyer group who can stomach the risks with having an office building today. They know what it’s going to take to execute a value-add plan. They wanted it. They thought it was a great investment. It’s more than 3.5 acres in the core of Naples on 41 with significant cash flow in place.”