Private Equity Firm to Relocate, Expand HQ in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, FL—Directed Capital will be relocating its corporate headquarters to the Morgan Stanley Tower here this summer, taking a full floor at the 190,000-square-foot building.

The private equity firm signed a 10-year lease for 13,460 square feet of space on the 16th floor of the 17-story building at 150 Second Ave. North in Downtown St. Petersburg, Directed Capital founder and CEO Christopher Moench tells Globest.com.

The private equity firm that specializes in acquiring and originating special situation commercial mortgage debt is currently located at 333 Third Ave. North in St. Petersburg and occupies approximately 8,500 square feet.

“While the company’s business strategy has always anticipated expansion of staff as our assets under management grow, our recent acquisition of a large FDIC loan portfolio accelerated the need for more office space to accommodate the growth and added employees,” Moench says. “Our new office space in the Class A Morgan Stanley Tower not only meets our growth needs, but will aid in our recruitment and retention of staff.”

The 17-year old firm has a workforce of 36 employees at its offices in St. Petersburg, FL and San Diego and has successfully sponsored eight funds, raising more than $225 million in equity and acquiring more than $1.3 billion in underperforming commercial real estate mortgage loans.

Directed Capital reports that Goldman Sachs has increased its credit facility to $150 million, which facilitates its acquisition of an $80.2-million loan portfolio from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The FDIC portfolio consists of first lien commercial mortgages originating from a failed bank the FDIC took over in 2017. Diversified Capital officials say the firm will work diligently to successfully resolve the assets and “create value for the partnership (DCR Mortgage Partners VII, LP), while providing the borrowers flexibility to work out their debt, and in many cases help to continue their business operations.”

Mike DiBlasi, EVP for leasing and marketing and Ceci Tricoli of Feldman Equities negotiated the deal on behalf of the building ownership group that consists of affiliates of Feldman Equities and Tower Realty Partners. Feldman and Tower acquired the property three years ago and later renovated the building and brought the property to full occupancy.

DiBlasi says in a press announcement that Directed Capital will be taking over the space that will be vacated by the Edwards Group. The deal with Directed Capital retains the building’s 100% occupancy rate.

Feldman and Tower jointly own two other Downtown St. Petersburg buildings—the 242,000 square foot City Center building and the 250,000-square-foot First Central Tower. The building ownership also undertook capital improvements that brought the properties to their current more than 99% occupancy rate.