Women’s Tennis Association Serves 15,000-SF Lease

TAMPA, FL—The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is moving into a new home—in the same city. The WTA is moving its headquarters to City Center from a neighboring building.

The association just inked a deal for 15,360 square feet of class A office space in Downtown St. Petersburg and is expanding its offices in an overall upgrade that gives it room to grow.

“Making a move to new offices on City Center’s 11th floor gives the WTA added space and functionality, with the office’s close proximity to the Tampa International Airport, and is a great financial decision,” Matt Cenedella, WTA’s Chief Administrative Officer, said in a statement. “The combination of location, amenities, space and pricing sealed our decision to relocate to City Center.”

John Esposito and Chris Harak of Studley represented the WTA. A joint venture between Feldman Equities, Tower Realty and Second City Capital Partners acquired City Center a year ago for $16.5 million square feet. Since then, ownership has secured more than 65,000 square feet of new office space leases, driving up occupancy from 45% to 70%.
 
“The concession package was extremely strong,” Esposito tells GlobeSt.com. “City Center is going through considerable upgrades. They made it difficult for the WTA not to move.”

According to Esposito, the floorplates in the WTA’s previous building were smaller than what City Center offers at 18,000 square feet. The WTA took down about 15,000 square feet and has another 3,000 square feet to grow into available, which Esposito said was an important factor.

“City Center’s new owners bought the building at a very good price,” Harak tells GlobeSt.com. “That allows them to be more aggressive with regard to concessions. The timing was good all the way around with the lease expiring. And the WTA is a prominent tenant.”