Rosselle Properties LLC of Atlanta sold the 4.3-acre former Miller Electric Co. headquarters property in Riverside for $7.2 million.
The sale closed May 22 to trusts in care of ProEquity Asset Management Corp. in El Dorado Hills, California.
Five Star Bank of Rancho Cordova, California, issued an almost $4 million mortgage.
Eric Maimo, Adam Lanteigne and Bob Buckmaster of Coldwell Banker Premier Properties of St. Augustine were the listing agents for Rosselle Properties and the only brokers involved in the transaction.
The team said ProEquity bought the property as an investment with leases in place.
"We own and manage properties across the US but this is our first asset in Jacksonville," Tyler Sheldon, ProEquity managing partner and chief information officer, said May 29 by email.
"We like the real estate dynamics in Jacksonville and specifically industrial at this location," Sheldon said of its proximity to Interstates 10 and 95.
Sheldon said the property is fully leased to a "solid, long term tenant."
He said the acquisition entity is CTS Milestone LLC.
The Coldwell Banker team also represented Rosselle Properties when it paid $5.85 million on May 19, 2022, for the four parcels.
Atlanta-based Rosselle Properties bought the land from MECO Rosselle REI LLC, owners of Miller Electric.
Miller Electric relocated in 2019 to a larger building in Southpoint and rented out the Riverside property to tenants.
Those leases and renewal options are still in place, according to the Coldwell Banker team.
The Coldwell Banker team said the deal was a 1031 exchange investment transaction, which provides a tax break on the swap of one real estate investment property for another that allows capital gains taxes to be deferred.
The structures on the property comprise 58,188 square feet.
The deeds show the properties that were sold:
• 2200, 2230 and 2256 Rosselle St., three buildings of office and warehouse space built between 1971 and 1997.
• 2251 Rosselle St., office building developed in 1991.
• 2310 Rosselle St., warehouse-storage built in 2009.
• 2342 Rosselle St., vacant land.
Atlanta-based investor Paul Mayberry, managing member of Rosselle Properties, said May 31, 2022, he bought the property because of its location.
Mayberry is the founder and chairman of Atlanta-based Mayberry Electric Inc.
“It was a great part of Jacksonville,” Mayberry said when asked why he decided to acquire the site. The property is at Rosselle, Copeland and Osceola streets, east of Stockton Street and bordered to the north by I-10.
The location is several blocks from Riverside Park and the Five Points area, and is about a dozen blocks from the St. Johns River.
At the time of the 2022 sale, the Riverside properties were leased. Miller Electric CEO Henry Brown said in May 2022 the company leased most of the Riverside buildings to Sciens Building Solutions. National Youth Advocate Program leases 2200 Rosselle St.
W.W. Gay Fire Protection Inc. does business as Sciens Building Solutions. It leases about 49,000 square feet of office space and the National Youth Advocate Program Inc. leases about 8,000 square feet.
Brown said in 2022 those leases were in place for several more years. He said it was a coincidence the buyer was another electrical contractor.
Jacksonville City Council rezoned the properties from Commercial Community/General-1 and Planned Unit Development to a Planned Unit Development. Council enacted the legislation and adopted a small scale land use amendment in September 2022.
The written description said the intent is “to provide flexibility in planning, design, and development; to provide an environment compatible with surrounding land use; to encourage the preservation of the natural site features.”
The PUD’s permitted uses include commercial, retail, essential services, churches and single- and multifamily residences.
It says the proposed PUD allows for the four commonly owned parcels to be consolidated into one PUD zoning district.
“The proposed PUD allows for mainly commercial business park permitted uses with a few additional industrial uses to support the existing businesses,” it says.
Brown said Miller Electric had been pursuing a rezoning to align the parcels under the same use.
“The property had been acquired in multiple transactions over the years and was not all the same zoning and land use so we were trying to clean that up,” he said.