First Central Tower to be quickly oversubscribed

Feldman Equities is the largest privately-held owner of office buildings in the Tampa Bay area, with a portfolio of own and managed properties of 2,300,000 ft.². Most of the company’s buildings are large, high-rise downtown office buildings. 

Feldman specializes in acquiring older office buildings in the best locations in Tampa Bay. Following each acquisition, every building undergoes a transformative, multi-million-dollar renovation. The company has typically partnered with institutional investors and private equity firms to acquire and upgrade its properties. 

Feldman has since made it possible for individual investors to own a portion of its properties. First Central Tower, known to locals as the BB&T building, has just opened to investments. The property is located in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg on Central Avenue, just three blocks from the bay. 

Following the acquisition of First Central Tower in 2014, Feldman Equities invested over $5 million in renovations and another $5 million in tenant improvements, for a total of $10 million in new capital investment. These renovations include a completely new lobby, a major upgrade and modernization of the elevator system, a new conference center, a new roof, a brand-new fitness center with all-new equipment, a 24/7 tenant “chill zone” and state of the art, energy-efficient cooling systems.

They have also recently implemented a range of different measures, both high-tech and low tech, to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19. Feldman is actively piloting state of the art systems to give tenants the security they need to feel safe at the office. These include both ionization systems and UV light systems that clean and purify the air to reduce Covid transmission, and kill other airborne microbes. 

“We don’t know what the future demand is going to be for office space,” said Larry Feldman, CEO of Feldman Equities. “What we do know is that by investing in new technology we can make our buildings safer places to work. And by making our buildings better than our competition, we will grow our market share.”

Feldman Equities is pleased to present the First Central Tower investment to Catalyst readers. Investors must be Accredited Investors. 

First Central Tower represents an opportunity for investors to recapitalize a 94.8% occupied Class A office building in downtown St. Pete. The fully-stabilized property features 49.4% credit-rated tenants and a four-year weighted average lease term remaining. The 17-story, 247,000-square-foot tower is 95% leased to a highly diversified roster of national and local tenants. Two of the largest tenants are Truist Bank, which resulted from the BB&T and Suntrust merger, and Regus. Both are publicly traded, multi-billion dollar companies. This trophy asset provides a durable, stable cash flow stream for investors looking for opportunities in a strong office submarket.

Following the launch of the investment opportunity, Larry Feldman announced: “Within the first 24 hours of launching our offering for First Central Tower we raised over $19 million.”

Over the last three decades, Feldman Equities has developed or acquired more than 11,000,000 square feet of office and retail properties, with an aggregate value in excess of $3 billion. Feldman Equities is the largest privately-held owner of office buildings in the greater Tampa Bay market and, as with prior projects, expects First Central Tower to be quickly oversubscribed.