PALM BEACH—Chatham Lodging Trust and Island Hospitality are relocating their corporate headquarters to Downtown West Palm Beach's Esperanté Tower. The companies inked a 27,516 square-foot lease, 10-year lease.

Mark Pateman, Danielle Vennett, and Jon Blunk of Cushman & Wakefield, negotiated the lease for the building's ownership. Crocker Partners and Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors acquired Esperanté, one of South Florida's landmark office buildings, from CBRE Global Investors in Dec. 2013. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal brings Esperanté to 87% occupancy. The office building is 81% percent leased. Tenants include Proskauer Rose, Regus, and Raymond James when the JV acquired it last fall.

According to Pateman, the decision-makers cited Esperanté's class A environment, location, and amenities as a strong draw for recruiting and retaining top employees.

“The class A office market in Downtown West Palm Beach is on fire,” he says. “Quality tenants are looking to stake a claim, with little space available.”

Chatham is a hotel real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on investing in upscale extended-stay hotels and premium branded select-service hotels. The company owns interests in 130 hotels in 15 states and the District of Columbia totaling 17,858 rooms, including 34 hotels it wholly owns.

“A corporate headquarters is an ideal fit with Esperanté's high quality tenant mix,” says Angelo Bianco, partner with Crocker, which manages the building. “We're pleased Chatham Lodging Trust took advantage of this opportunity to consolidate operations from locations around the Town of Palm Beach. It's good news for Downtown West Palm Beach, as well as for Esperanté.”

Island is a third-party, independent management company. It operates over 140 hotels under 18 different brands, primarily premium select-service hotels, upscale, extended-stay properties, and upscale hotels, in 29 states and the District of Columbia.