Tampa International Business Center I & II

Tampa International Business Center (TIBC) is a six building Class “B+” suburban office park totaling 324,654 square feet and is located in the northwest portion of Tampa’s Westshore submarket.  The six buildings were built between 1980 and 1986 and extensively renovated between 2014 and 2017.

These assets were purchased in two phases in 2014 & 2015 with an average occupancy of 6.82%.  A portion of TIBC was sold at auction as bank REO asset and the balance of the park was purchased from an absentee landlord.

Our client originally hired a national firm for property and project management services.  Ownership expectations of attention to detail, responsiveness, turnaround time and tenant satisfaction were not being met and Harvard Pacific was contracted for Property and Project Management in September 2014.  Upon disposition was retained by the new owner.

Capital Improvements

Harvard Pacific had oversight of strategic rebranding and repositioning in the marketplace by increasing park uniformity, parking ratio, overall park appeal and leasing momentum.  The park was originally developed as a corporate campus and over the years has been broken into fractional ownership and multitenant. The properties had a tired and dated look, did not have a uniform paint or exterior finishes, had fallen into disrepair, no longer had a cohesive feel and needed to be rebranded to attract broker and prospective tenant interest in the market.  Rebranding included a new park name, new monument and wayfinding signage and a new leasing team.

To transform the exteriors to make them look more current the buildings were painted, contemporary entrances were added to the buildings, and a major landscape upgrade project was implemented to include sod replacement, tree trimming, retention pond de-mucking, removal of overgrown shrubs and hedge replacement.  At acquisition, one building was clad with corrugated metal and painted purple. This building was renovated to have stucco finish to match the other buildings in the Park.

Mechanical equipment and roof systems were original to the buildings and were at the end of their useful life.  To address the needs to today’s tenant HVAC chillers, cooling towers and air handlers were replaced. Major upgrades were also necessary to systems such as electric/generator backup, fire panels and elevators.

Upon completion of the exterior upgrades and rebranding efforts, the park generated significant interest from back office and call center users.  Based on the density of these operations, these users require more parking than found in traditional office buildings. To address the additional parking need, Harvard Pacific spearheaded a site redevelopment project to increase parking count by over 300 spaces and facilitate traffic flow throughout the park.  To complete the parking lot renovations, the entire parking field was re-topped and re-striped.

To make the interior common areas more inviting, the lobbies were renovated and an onsite café was built.  Vacant spaces were dark and in poor condition. These spaces were demolished and taken to white box condition to highlight the open space concept utilized today, accent the window line and bring light into the space to enhance marketability.

Total capital improvement cost of $5,000,000.

Tenant Improvements

Substantial tenant improvements were completed across all six of the TIBC buildings.  Tenant improvements ranged from minor paint and carpet of suites to completely tearing out all the old dated tenant interior finishes, walls, plumbing and mechanical components to install new finishes and mechanical systems.

Total tenant improvements were $8,000,000.

The Property is 98% leased to 12 high quality tenants with an average term remaining of 9.5 years. The largest tenant, WellCare, occupies 77% of the property and does not expire until July of 2028. WellCare’s recent rapid expansion has contributed to the property’s full stabilization.  WellCare expanded 4 times under Harvard Pacific management.

Harvard Pacific’s attention to detail of day to day property management as well as ability to manage budget, quality and completion schedules of the capital improvement projects played a significant role in attracting demand for additional space from new tenants as well as willingness of existing tenants to expand at TIBC.

The property was sold in 2017 and Harvard Pacific was retained by the new owner for property management and project management.