PEBB, Tortoise Close on Jupiter Innovation Center

JUPITER, FL—PEBB Enterprises, a full-service private real estate investment company, and Tortoise Properties, a firm focused on acquiring residential and commercial legacy assets in select markets in the US, have completed the $31.45 million purchase of the Jupiter Innovation Center in Jupiter, Florida. The PEBB/Tortoise partnership closed on the purchase on March 5.

This is the second joint venture between PEBB and Tortoise. In June 2017, the companies teamed up to acquire the landmark ADT headquarters property in Boca Raton.

“The intriguing attributes of this well-located asset allows us to execute on the value-add potential through our lease up strategy and the entitled ground up development component on the northern side of the property,” PEBB Enterprises Chief Development Officer Eric Hochman tells GlobeSt.com. “This acquisition is aligned with our investment strategy to acquire strong cash flowing assets with good fundamentals and have the ability to execute on the upside potential.”

Located at 1701 Military Trail, Jupiter Innovation Center is the town’s largest for-lease office building with 186,238 square feet on 16 acres. The single-story campus is just one mile south of the 327-bed Jupiter Medical Center, which as of March 2020 is home to the new ground up Anderson Family Center Institute, a 55,000 square foot, state-of-the-art cancer center. Jupiter Innovation Center has a mix of medical, office and research and development tenants.

Florida Turbine Technologies, which is owned by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, is the largest tenant – with more than 64,000 square feet – and has occupied space at the building since 2005. Jupiter Medical also occupies 40,000 square feet there. The property’s proximity to Scripps Florida Research Facility, the Max Planck Florida Institute of Neuroscience and United Technologies’ brand-new $115 million technology showcase center add appeal for both life sciences and R&D prospective tenants.

“The combination of warm weather and sunshine year-round, a sense of community, economic benefits and job opportunities, no personal state income tax, strong, pro-business local government, educated, trained and diverse workforce, all play a role in the massive influx of business and industry leaders relocations to South Florida and Palm Beach County,” Tortoise Properties CEO Jake Geleerd tells GlobeSt.com.

PEBB and Tortoise said they will have significant opportunities to add value to the property through the execution of a leasing strategy, building enhancements and the future ground-up medical office component. Longtime tenant GE Medical Systems moved out in January 2020, freeing up more than 83,483 square feet of research and office space to lease at current market rents. Jupiter has a 6% office vacancy rate and no new construction east of I-95 in the pipeline, so the available space at Jupiter Innovation Center is especially desirable.

The property is also fully entitled for the ground-up development of a 50,000-square-foot, two story medical and professional office building with an accompanying two-level, 175-space structured parking garage.