BACKGROUND

In 2011, The Historic Metcalf Building ownership sought our team’s services to lease the 10-story Chicago style brick building built in 1923 that sits in the heart of Orlando’s Central Business District. Once a pioneering building, as one of the first trio of ‘high-rises’ in Orlando, The Historic Metcalf building had fallen to an outdated, neglected relic in need of a significant refurbishment and repositioning within the marketplace. The priority was to bring the non-performing, 20%-occupied building to an updated, high-quality asset with high occupancy rates that was income producing and competitively positioned with surrounding higher-class better-performing buildings in the Central Business District.

Amidst recovering from the Great Recession, where market vacancy was high, and spaces were commodities, a holistic, creative marketing strategy and an aggressive “whole-building” improvement plan was required for such a

Value-Add proposition. Our team assumed not only the traditional leasing agent role but also the role of space planner, construction/project manager, value engineer and tenant coordinator. This diverse yet focused approach was driven by the need to position the building to attract the technology startups that were increasingly being attracted to older, character filled buildings like The Historic Metcalf Building.

Our team was then asked in 2021 to take the stabilized building to the market and find a buyer that would appreciate the uniqueness of the property. We were able to find a premium buyer even before going fully to market and closed in 60 days at $9,750,000.

After finalizing the sale, FoxRock, the buyers, retained FCPG as leasing agents, transitioned the management to FCPG, and in early 2022 FCPG began managing and leasing FoxRock’s Florida portfolio including 2 South Orange, only one block from The Historic Metcalf Building, and their 95,000 SF West Palm Beach office building. FoxRock also closed on a 42,000 SF value-add building a block North at 2 South Orange Ave which they then brought our leasing and management team on board to usher the building through the value-add process, a direct result of the expertise, skill, and success that we demonstrated with the 100 S building.

SUCCESS POINTS

• The FCPG Team effectively rose The Historic Metcalf Building from a fledgling asset at 20% occupancy rate to 90% occupied and income producing, subsequently increasing the market value of the asset by well several million dollars.
• We secured 9 full floor leases, of 10 available spaces, at aggressive base rental rates which all had short lease periods which allowed the building move towards stabilization without tying the building to the aggressive rates for long periods, thereby providing potential new purchasers maximum flexibility to further reposition the building if they chose to, in the event where the building sold during the value-add process.
• We also aggressively managed all tenant improvement costs thereby significantly reducing the total cost of acquiring new tenants at the start of the value-add process, which allowed precious funds to be reallocated to other areas of the value-add process. Once those short-term leases were up for renewal, we were able to transition those leases to much higher market rates and for longer terms as the building had been improved from the exterior façade to the lobby, which allowed tenants to perceive more value in leasing in the building.
• Once the building was 90% occupied, for the second time, with longer leases in place and significant improvements completed the building was then deemed to be a much more attractive acquisition target which led to our team finding a buyer at top of market rates of the moment which provided our clients with a lucrative exit out of the asset.Oversaw capital projects to modernize the building whilst preserving the historic integrity totaling in excess of $1,000,000.

MORAL OF THE STORY

Stewardship Matters. To successfully accomplish a Value-Add repositioning such as The Historic Metcalf’s, it is crucial that we care for the property as though it is our own. FCPG acts as though the building is OURS and the money is OURS to bring to life the potential that a property has. The ownership mentality in concert with the experience of working alongside owners, asset manager, and property managers leads to successfully exceeding client expectations and building lasting relationship with our clients.