HFF senior managing director Chris Drew, director Brian Gaswirth and associate Matthew McCormack in Miami.

An HFF team in Miami arranged a $41 million loan for Cardinal Point Management LLC's purchase of a Fort Lauderdale office building — the first South Florida buy for the Tampa-based investor.

Cardinal Point is a commercial real estate investor with holdings that until now were focused in and near Tampa, Orlando, Clearwater and St. Petersburg, according to its website.

Through an affiliate, Cardinal bought the 261,676-square-foot, 12-story Coastal Tower at 2400 E. Commercial Blvd. for $47.5 million from the California State Teachers' Retirement System, according to the Broward County property appraiser's office. That works out to $182 per square foot.

“They own and operate several million square feet of commercial properties along that (Interstate 4) corridor and have been focused on coming down to South Florida,” said HFF director Brian Gaswirth.

Cardinal's decision to go with Coastal Tower as its first asset in the region was a strategic one, Gaswirth added.

“It was a great opportunity to get into one of the submarkets in South Florida that has the highest growth: Fort Lauderdale. It sits right in between Miami and West Palm,” he said. “It gives them a strong foothold within the market.”

The Broward County office market has experienced growth so far this year. The average asking rent was $30.48 per square foot in the second quarter, up 3.6 percent from $29.43 in the same period last year, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report. The vacancy rate fell to 11.7 percent, the lowest in 10 years.

Gaswirth, HFF senior managing director Chris Drew and associate Matthew McCormack closed the loan from New York Life Insurance Co. Aug. 6. The property purchase closed the same day.

About 68 percent of the loan — $32.4 million — was applied to the purchase. Cardinal paid for the rest with equity.

Some of the remaining $8.6 million will be spent on improvements on what is considered a value-add investment for Cardinal, Gaswirth said. Cardinal plans to increase the office tower's value by modernizing and revamping parts of the building.

Floor, wall and facade upgrades with work focusing on the lobby and other common areas are planned.

“It looks like your old-school lawyers' building with wood accents. So they are bringing in more lighter colors, modern tiles,” Gaswirth said.

Cardinal also will open a business center on the ground floor next to the lobby where tenants can hold meetings and conferences.

The glass-encased building is about 70 percent occupied, and Cardinal plans to embark on an aggressive leasing campaign.

The location of Coastal Tower on the southeast corner of Commercial Boulevard and Federal Highway can help with this effort. The building is about two miles from the ocean at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and high-income households lining the waterfront, Gaswirth said.

“This is a great location for tenants like law firms, wealth managers, insurance companies that typically serve this higher demographic given the proximity to how close it is to their homes,” he said.

Already, there are some notable tenants such as Springfield, Massachusetts-based life insurance company MassMutual, New York-based investment bank Morgan Stanley and Valhalla, New York-based USI Insurance Services.

Other Cardinal properties include Cardinal Point, a 376,551-square-foot, six-building property with office, flex and warehouse space in Oldsmar; Cardinal Point at Lake Ellenor, a 132,991-square-foot, eight-story office building in Orlando; and Cardinal Point at Gateway, a 7,258-square-foot, two-story office building in St. Petersburg, according to the company's website.