The 33-story 291,554-square-foot office Brickell City Tower, 80 SW 8th St., has been sold for $117.2 million to an affiliate of a subsidiary of New York Life Insurance Co. The transaction closed Friday. Courtesy photo

The 33-story Brickell City Tower has been traded for $117 million by a joint venture to a New York Life Insurance Co. affiliate for the third big trophy office deal this year in Miami's urban core.

New York Life subsidiary NYL Investors LLC bought the office tower at 80 SW Eighth St. through an affiliate, according to the Miami-Dade County property appraiser's office.

The seller was a joint venture among real estate investors Banyan Street Capital LLC, Crocker Partners LLC and Independencia Asset Management LLC, according to CBRE Inc., which represented the sellers in the transaction.

NYL Investors, based in New York, manages fixed-income assets for New York Life as well as third-party assets including real estate. Its real estate debt and equity investment arm is New York Life Real Estate Investors, and together they managed more than $241 billion in assets as of March 31, according to its website.

NYL Investors didn't respond to a request for comment on specifics of the purchase by deadline.

The deal, which closed Friday, is the third office tower priced at more than $100 million in the Miami central business district.

In July, a partnership between New York-based global investment company KKR and office real estate owner and operator Parkway Properties Inc. bought the Sabadell Financial Center at 1111 Brickell Ave. for $250 million from PGIM Real Estate.

In May, Crocker Partners unloaded another of its Miami office towers, selling the SunTrust International Center at 1 SE Third Ave. for $127 million to real estate finance and investment management company PCCP LLC.

Crocker's two trophy Miami asset sales this year were part of its business strategy, which is to make value-add investments, improve the buildings and then sell, said Angelo Bianco, Crocker managing partner.

“Our general investment strategy is to acquire underperforming assets, enhance them by correcting the issues that contributed to their condition, and then selling them to the market,” he said in an email. “This is the reason we sold Brickell City Tower and SunTrust International. Both assets are positioned for continued growth in the dynamic Miami market but our business plan was to sell once we added the value. Typically, our business plans call for any where between a 3 and 7 year investment period.”

The company also owns the 803,005-square-foot, 34-story Citigroup Center east of Biscayne Boulevard, according to Crocker's website.

The sale reflects a strong South Florida office market driven by limited supply and strong demand by tenants in growing industries ranging from tech and e-commerce to wealth management.

The sale of the 291,554-square-foot Brickell City Tower breaks down to $402 per square foot, less than the $478 per square foot paid for Sabadell Financial Center but more than the $288 per square foot of leasable space at SunTrust.

Brickell City Tower underwent a $6.4 million renovation, including a redesigned lobby, improvements to other common areas, elevator modernization, and the addition of a conference center and tenant lounge, according to CBRE.

On the public transit side, the building has a Metrorail stop west of the tower.

“The property's superb location — surrounded by Brickell City Centre, Mary Brickell Village and Brickell Heights — places it one city block from 37 restaurants and bars, 341 new hotel rooms, 113 retail shops, a new Equinox gym and a new SoulCycle,” said Jose Lobon, who was part of the CBRE team that worked on the deal.

The CBRE capital market team that closed the sale comprises Lobon, a senior vice president, as well as vice chairman Christian Lee and first vice president Amy Julian, all in Miami. CBRE's debt and structured finance senior financial analyst Marcos Minaya in Miami also worked on the deal.

Brickell City Tower, also called Brickell Bayview, was built in 1985 in a 30,200-square-foot site.

The tower was 87 percent occupied at the time of sale with tenants including law firms, banks, real estate firms and government offices. Both Independencia Asset Management and Banyan Street Capital list offices there.