Pebb Enterprises and acquisition partner Tortoise Properties Buy Jupiter Innovation Center for $31M

A long-established family-owned Boca Raton real estate investment firm bought Jupiter’s biggest leased office building for $31.45 million.

Pebb Enterprises, founded in 1972 by the Rosenberg and Weiner families, in partnership with Chicago-based Tortoise Properties LLC, a family office focused on residential and commercial properties, bought the Jupiter Innovation Center from POH Jupiter Ownership LLC on March 5.

The seller is affiliated with real estate investment and operating platform PointOne Holdings based in Aventura. The transaction breaks down to $169 a square foot.

“Jupiter Innovation Center is a great example of the type of commercial real estate assets we target for acquisitions,” PEBB Enterprises president and CEO Ian Weiner said in a news release. “The combination of the building’s location, existing tenant base and development potential were particularly enticing for us.”

The 186,238-square-foot building has a mix of offices, although it’s known for its medical, technology and research and development tenants. The one-story campus was constructed in 1990 on 16 acres, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s office.

The biggest tenant occupying 64,000 square feet is Florida Turbine Technologies, which specializes in the development of gas turbines and other aerospace machinery. It’s part of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc., which focuses on the development of technologies, platforms and products for national security and communications needs.

The investment promises a lot of upside for Pebb Enterprises and Tortoise Properties on several fronts. For one, they bought the property with entitlements in place for the development of a 50,000-square-foot, two-story medical and professional office building with a 175-space garage.

The medical office market is growing offering with tenants seeking administrative office space, offices for health care providers and clinical space apart from their practice headquarters, which allows medical professionals to have a wider geographic reach.

The property at 1701 Military Trail is near hospitals as well as life science and research centers. It’s a mile from the 327-bed Jupiter Medical Center and its new 55,000-square-foot Anderson Family Center Institute for cancer. It also is three miles from the Scripps Florida Research Facility bioscience research and educational center and Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, the only North American facility for Germany’s Max Planck Society.

The Jupiter Innovation Center also has a big vacancy after GE Medical Systems vacated 83,483 square feet in January. Pebb and Tortoise can lease it for market-rate rent.

Jupiter’s office market already is tight with a 6% vacancy rate.

This is Pebb’s and Tortoise’s second venture together after buying ADT Inc.’s headquarters property in Boca Raton for $42 million in 2017.

Jake Geleerd, CEO at Tortoise, sees significant demand for trophy properties across Palm Beach County.

“Companies want to be here, so it makes sense to identify and acquire premier commercial properties,” he said in a news release.

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