A new joint venture partnership between Boca Raton, FL-based PEBB Enterprises and Chicago, IL-based Tortoise Properties has purchased the landmark ADT headquarters property on Yamato Road in Boca Raton, Florida.

The PEBB-Tortoise joint venture purchased the property for $42,050,000. Currently home to ADT’s global headquarters, the campus-like building boasts 171,489 square feet and is situated on 10 acres of land with sweeping golf views of the Old Course at Broken Sound. The building is highly regarded as a Class-A institutional grade property and one of the elite suburban office buildings in the South Florida market. Amenities include structured parking, a full-service cafeteria, a spacious gym and ‘main street’ where employees can gather and collaborate while grabbing a coffee prepared by an on-site barista.

“We’ve been actively pursuing this deal for quite some time but were looking for the right partner which we found with Tortoise,” says PEBB President Ian Weiner. “The demographics, location and proximity to the evolving Park at Broken Sound, a 700-acre, mixed-use park, made this acquisition highly desirable for our new joint venture and we hope to find more opportunities together.”

Tortoise CEO Jake Geleerd commented on the deal, “This asset meets all of our investment criteria – great market, well located, long-term appreciation potential and most importantly a great local partner. Our strategy is to provide our experience and capital in a unique offering to local investment groups who are willing to partner and who are looking to invest in their own communities. We diligently seek to work with investors who are held in the highest regard – integrity and honesty are paramount to creating these partnerships and we are very pleased with our new relationship with PEBB.”

Weiner and Geleerd met last year through Young Presidents’ Organization, a global platform for chief executives to engage, learn and grow. With over 25,000 members, YPO is regarded as an influential and innovative group of global business leaders who regularly meet to inspire business, personal, family and community impact. Geleerd is active in the Chicago and Denver YPO chapters while Weiner is in the Palm Beach chapter – they met on a YPO Deal Network call.

During the past year, PEBB has expressed its desire to reinvest capital closer to home in South Florida and sold off a number of out-of-state assets over the last twelve months. This signature transaction signifies the beginning of that redeployment.

Jessica Delvecchio, City of Boca Raton’s Economic Development Manager remarked on the deal saying, “For this landmark property to remain in local hands with PEBB and Tortoise Properties symbolizes the strong confidence our businesses have in the overall health of the commercial market in Boca – it’s a big win for the City.”

PEBB’s diversification is wrapped around their unwavering ethos – Be opportunistic. Be nimble. “We’re ramping up a joint venture equity program which will enable PEBB to leverage our vertically integrated platform and commercial real estate investment expertise to find and create value for ourselves and for strategic partners like Tortoise. We’re aggressively sourcing new investment opportunities that offer compelling risk-adjusted returns in today’s marketplace” says Rob Truett, PEBB’s Chief Investment Officer. “And we hope this acquisition is the first of many to partner with Tortoise,” continued Truett.

The Cushman & Wakefield Capital Markets team of Scott O’Donnell, Dominic Montazemi, Mike Davis and Greg Miller negotiated the sale on behalf of Philadelphia-based RAIT Financial Trust.

Jason Hochman, of Cushman & Wakefield’s Equity, Debt & Structured Finance Group, assisted the PEBB/Tortoise team in securing an acquisition loan.

PEBB currently owns and manages approximately two million square feet of commercial real estate across the eastern half of the United States.