By Jane Smith
The Kanner & Pintaluga law firm finally has a new Florida home in downtown Boca Raton after a multiyear search from Boynton Beach south to Fort Lauderdale.
The personal injury firm is renovating 45,000 square feet of space in the Wells Fargo Plaza at the northwest corner of Federal Highway and Camino Real, with plans to move in June. It has an option for another 5,000 square feet.
The 10-year lease is valued at $13 million, said its broker, Jim Knight of the Knight Group in Delray Beach. He negotiated a deal in which the tenant pays to customize the space, expected to cost at least $2 million in exchange for free rent.
Jay Whelchel, whose firm Whelchel Partners was the building broker at the time, confirmed those amounts. “A 45,000-square-foot tenant who wants a 10-year lease is a big deal,” he said.
At the Wells Fargo Plaza, that amount of space ranked the deal third in new leases signed last year for the Boca Raton office market and likely in the county, according to CBRE Research in Boca Raton.
Kanner & Pintaluga, a litigating law firm, wanted a mock courtroom, which is very specialized, Whelchel said. But the owner, a German syndicate fund, was at the end of its holding period for the 12-year-old building and decided to exchange free rent for the custom work. The improvements had to be designed by an architect and then put out for bid to contractors to determine the final cost.
The asking rent for the Class A building is $24 triple net, meaning the tenant pays for its share of real estate taxes and common area maintenance charges. Knight was able to negotiate a lower rate for the law firm, Whelchel said. He added that the building is now under contract and his firm no longer represents it. His firm does leasing but not sales. Cushman & Wakefield is now the building’s broker. He did say that Wells Fargo Plaza was able to command a higher price because it is nearly fully leased and not just 50 percent occupied.
Howard Kanner, name partner in the personal injury law firm, praised Knight as being “relentless in showing us properties.”
The terms of the Boca Raton deal looked good, he said. His employees “like the downtown lifestyle they had in Delray Beach where they could walk to lunch.” He expects that the Boca Raton location will offer that convenience as well.
Another plus is the nearby Boca Raton Airport. “We have attorneys who fly all over the state each day,” he said. The firm has its own plane at that airport.
The firm employs about 35 trial lawyers in its Delray Beach and Boynton Beach locations. The move would allow the firm to double that number, Kanner said. It also employs support staff, making the total number moving about 150.
The relationship between Knight and the law firm goes back about nine years. He helped the firm buy a building in July 2006 on Seacrest Boulevard in Boynton Beach. That building has 2,999 square feet of office space.
Kanner & Pintaluga owns a 10,261-square-foot office condo in Delray Beach’s trendy Pineapple Grove area. Knight was involved in that 2011 sale when the firm paid $3 million for the space. The law firm subleases an additional 3,500 square feet from the owner upstairs, Kanner said.
Knight said he has the exclusive listings on the two buildings.
Road to Boca
went through Boynton
In August 2012, Kanner & Pintaluga tried to buy the Arts Garage space, about 10,000 square feet in the first floor of a Delray Beach garage.
“The property was on the market, submitted a full-price offer, but there was a lot of push-back from the community, even had a march to City Hall,” Knight said. “It was a political decision; they wanted to keep it a cultural place.” The firm offered $2.5 million for that space.
The next year, while that deal was fizzling in Delray Beach, Knight approached Boynton Beach’s Community Redevelopment Agency about constructing an office building there.
The firm eyed a 3-acre site owned by Davis Camalier of One Boynton LLC. He paid $9 million for the North Federal Highway site in 2005.
But at the end of 2013, Camalier turned down the deal that would have sold his property to the agency for $2.5 million, two historic homes valued at $435,000 and $1.3 million in cash. The agency then would give the land to the law firm, which also asked for 400 structured parking spaces. The parking garage would have cost the city $8.6 million.
This year, the agency is negotiating with Camalier’s broker to allow it to lease a slice of that parcel to create free parking spaces for marina tenants.
Kanner & Pintaluga’s search for new office space spanned more than two years in three south county cities:
Delray Beach: Offered $2.5 million for first floor of Arts Garage. The city turned it down in April 2013 and decided to let the Arts Garage stay. The cultural organization has 30 months to come up with the money.
Boynton Beach: Willing to invest $15 million to construct a 60,000 square-foot office building on land owned by One Boynton LLC. The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency would do a complicated swap with One Boynton for its land and offer it free to Kanner & Pintaluga. The owner did not agree in December 2013.
Boca Raton: Spending $2 million to build out the space at the Wells Fargo Plaza in exchange for free rent.
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