Naples office complex sells for $27M Park Shore

The recent sale of another major office building continues to raise the bar for commercial real estate transactions in Naples. 

The Trianon Centre on U.S. 41 in the Park Shore neighborhood sold for $27 million Sept. 30. The buyers paid a premium price because of the quality of the building, its location and tenants, said AJS Realty Group broker Andrew Saluan, who represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction. Saluan also will be handling the leasing and property management duties for Trianon Centre on the southwest corner of U.S. 41 and Park Shore Drive. 

The two connected three-story buildings were built in the early ’90s at 850 Park Shore Drive and 3777 Tamiami Trail N. With 46,470 square feet of leasable area, the acquisition price per square foot was $581, Saluan said. 

About a week earlier, Commerce Bank purchased the six-story FineMark Bank & Trust building for $24.1 million, about $570 per square foot. The 41,712-square-foot office building at 800 Laurel Oak Drive abuts the Waterside Shops property in the Pelican Bay area of North Naples.  

The sale of the Trianon Centre on 2.7 acres in Park Shore continues to push the envelope for office acquisitions in Naples. 

“I’m proud as a broker to get my guys to own it because it’s one of a kind for sure. There aren’t many buildings that are comparable to this with its tenant list,” Saluan said. “It’s kind of a financial epicenter of coastal Collier County with J.P. Morgan and Bessemer and Stifel and Janney and down the list. Those are all the who’s who of trust offices.” 

The tenants at 3777 Tamiami Trail N. include Key Private Bank; Bessemer Trust Co.; and Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Tenants in the adjoining 850 Park Shore Drive include Janney; Wilmington Trust; J.P. Morgan; Goldman Felcoski & Stone P.A.; and Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. 

The buyer, Farley White Interests, is a Boston-based owner of commercial real estate which has owned Collier Health Park in North Naples since 2016. The firm also owns four properties in Tampa, but the majority of its holdings are in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 

“We are thrilled. We are absolutely thrilled,” said John F. Power, who co-founded Farley White Interests in 1995. “We think this is the finest commercial property in town.” 

After spotting the classic buildings on a drive down U.S. 41, Power worked with Saluan on this specific deal for nearly a year. The property wasn’t on the market, but Saluan reached out to seller Tom Longe, who he has known for more than 30 years. 

“He and his father built that property in 1990 and 1993 and they’ve kept it in impeccable shape for that long,” Saluan said. “He wasn’t really interested in selling, but as we talked over the last year, it came to a point where we made a deal.” 

Investment opportunities attract Farley White Interests to Naples. For more than a decade, the firm has wanted to invest in Florida, Power said. 

“I started in Jacksonville and went around the entire state and looked at investment opportunities for commercial space,” he said. “I really liked Naples when I got to it, but I realized the market is small and doesn’t trade a lot.” 

Although Farley White was able to easier scale its investments in Tampa, it is always looking for opportunities in Naples to buy. Acquiring the pristine Trianon Centre is a great addition to its portfolio, Power said. 

“We are very, very fortunate. We bought from the original developer, the son of the original developer,” the new landlord said, noting that he doesn’t plan to redevelop the property or make wholesale changes to it. 

“The building is leased long-term to most of those customers,” Power said. “Our job is to try to take what the current owner has done and enhance to the extent we can. There’s not a lot we can enhance but we can run it well to service those existing customers.” 

The newsworthy framing of the recent report announcing the sale of the FineMark building is spot on for the Naples commercial market, Saluan said. 

“The Class A office market nationally may have pockets of softness, but in our market, it’s really pretty solid and there’s a healthy demand for it,” he said. “And, of course, in today’s environment you can’t rebuild these buildings for what we’re buying them for because of the construction costs and everything associated with that now.” 

Land for new development is scarce west of U.S. 41, where the Trianon Centre and FineMark building are located, so tearing down structures for redevelopment opportunities just would add to the cost, Saluan said.   

“That’s why the location is unique and will hold its value as far as we’re concerned for the foreseeable future,” he said. 

The Trianon Centre’s acquisition by a third-party investor closes the loop on local real estate valuation. “That kind of solidifies that value,” Saluan said. 

For now, Naples’ supply and demand for office space is fairly equal, Saluan said. “But I can see in the next five to 10 years that there would be a need for additional Class A office space,” he said. “Currently, it’s close to equilibrium but you can’t plan one of these things overnight, so if somebody was going to do something you’d be looking three to five years into the future anyway.”