Three New Tenants In The Past Five Months Brings Boca Raton Innovation Campus' Leasing To 410,000 Square Feet Since Crocker Partners Acquisition

BOCA RATON, Fla., March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- National Holdings Corporation, BCN Telecom and OOMA have recently joined the Boca Raton Innovation Campus' (BRiC) ever growing tenant roster, Crocker Partners announced. The real estate investment firm acquired BRiC, originally the home of IBM and the birthplace of the personal computer, in April of 2018 in a joint venture with Rialto Capital and Siguler Guff. Since then, in addition to the three newcomers the company has inked 410,000 square feet of leases, expanding Modernizing Medicine and bringing on new tenants such as Kroger and Canon.

"The volume of leasing we've done in the past 18 months is more than the total footprint of any other building in Boca Raton," said Angelo Bianco, Managing Partner of Crocker Partners. "Our success is a testament to repositioning the once forgotten building, which when we bought it consisted almost exclusively of back-office operations, into the vibrant Class-A office complex you see today. Moreso, it is a precursor to the tech and life sciences hub of the Southeastern United States once we complete the planned $100 million of capital investments which includes the construction of unparalleled tenant amenities on the scale of the Google campus, structured parking, and additional investments into new tenant high-tech spaces."

In addition to these three newcomers, Canon is currently under construction to take over the old post-office distribution facility (127,000 square feet total) with a scheduled move-in date of April 2020. When Crocker acquired the property, the campus was 64 percent leased. Today, the campus is 92 percent leased – and this time with the right tenant mix. Technology tenancy has increased by over 60 percent during Crocker's hold while back-office tenancy has been reduced by 40 percent.

This aggressive leasing activity has lifted the Boca North submarket entirely. Since the acquisition, there has been approximately 500,000 square feet of net absorption – with BRiC's contribution accounting for over 80 percent of it – bringing the Boca North submarket to its highest occupancy level since 2006.

"Crocker Partners has done an unbelievable job of understanding what office tenants are looking for in today's market and have created a first-of-its-kind, technologically advanced campus that has made BRiC the choice for both national and local tenants," said Jeffrey Kelly, Executive Vice President with CBRE and the broker for the campus. "BRiC has carried the Boca North submarket to record heights. If not for its leasing activity, the submarket would have had 50,000 square feet of negative net absorption at the end of 2019."

Crocker Partners is currently underway on a multi-million-dollar renovation project that will include two coffee shops, a food hall, a STEAM lab and a presentation hall that can seat up to 1,000 attendees. The first coffee shop, Marcel Brewer's – named after the iconic brutalist architecture responsible for BRiC's façade – is anticipated to open in April of this year. 

ABOUT BRiC
Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC) is the largest single facility office building in the state at 1.7 million square feet. Designed by Marcel Breuer, the campus was originally built in 1969 for IBM and is home to the invention of the first personal computer. The campus was acquired by Crocker Partners in 2018 with the vision of building off BRiC's history and evolving the campus into a science and technology hub. An ideal landing spot for companies with large footprints, BRiC is currently home to 21 national headquarters and 6 regional offices including Kroger, Modernizing Medicine and Bluegreen Vacations.

SOURCE Boca Raton Innovation Campus