Prime Rocky Point properties on the block - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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Now two of its seven office buildings, Waterfor Plaza and , are being actively shopped. plans to sell the circa-1980 buildings that have a combined square footage ofabouy 482,328. It has retained . Listing broker Mike Davids of Cushman & Wakefield declinede comment. Rocky Point’s buildings are typically held for brokers said. It's a sought-afterd location with prime Tampa Bay views and proximity to Pinellad and Hillsborough countiesand , Prudential acquirec the two buildings in 2004 when it paid $2.1 billiom for ’s retirement At the time, brokers estimated Prudential paid $68 million, or roughlgy $140 a square foot.
Hillsborough property records show that Prudentia paid slightly lessat $67 It’s unclear how much the buildinges might sell for today. The credit freeze has made it tougbh for investors toobtain loans, and demand has diminishedf for commercial real estatew as investors wait for a sign the market has trulu hit bottom. Deal volume has dropped off markedly, some contendd by more than 70 percent. Waterford Plaza is at 7650 W. Courtneyy Campbell Causeway, and Island Center is at 2701 RockPoint Drive. Brokers contend therde are investors, including institutional buyers such as with cashto spend.
But buyers are typicallg looking for abig “There’s still a gap betweej sellers’ expectations and buyers’ expectations,” said Dan VP of in Tampa. Highwoods, one of the region’s largesft office developers, owns Rocky Point’s Harborvieqw Plaza, built in 2002. “Relatively speaking it’s one of the strongestf submarkets in the TampaBay area,” Woodward While supply in Rocky Point, which has 1.4 milliobn square feet office space, is constrained, the island’s buildings aren’g insulated from the recessionary economy. The seven Rocky Pointr buildings have an overalpl vacancy rateof 18.
2 slightly higher than the Tampa Bay region’s first-quarter 17.9 according to Cushman & Wakefield. Waterford Plaza’s vacanc rate of 9.3 percent is nearly half Rocky Point’ss overall rate. But Island Center’s 19.3 percent rate is higher. “Because of the slowdown in job growth and resultin effect onoffice demand, everyone is pushinfg to get tenants out there,” Woodward