Moishe Mana Buys Discounted Fort Lauderdale Office Tower for $89M

Moishe Mana has ventured out of Miami and into Fort Lauderdale, nabbing a discount to buy a 30-story office building for $89 million, property records show.

Called 110 Tower, the 777,248-square-foot property was built in 1987 adjacent to Broward County’s court building at 110 Southeast Sixth Street in the city’s downtown. City National Bank of Florida supplied a $66.3 million acquisition loan. 

The purchase marks a shift for Mana, who is the largest landowner in Downtown Miami and the city’s Wynwood neighborhood, where he is known for buying properties every few months. Just this year, the mogul purchased an office tower in Downtown Miami for $110 million and the retail building housing the popular Pastis French bistro in Wynwood for nearly $25 million. 

Mana is rumored to be selling much of his Wynwood portfolio to Citadel billionaire Ken Griffin in a blockbuster deal worth as much as $1 billion. Some suspect the recent acquisition spree is part of a 1031 exchange ahead of the pending Wynwood transaction, though both Mana and Griffin have denied that a deal is in the works.

The former owner of Fort Lauderdale’s 110 Tower, Chicago-based GEM Realty Capital, purchased the 1.72-acre asset for $112.9 million in 2016, representing a 21 percent decline in value from the recent sale price. 

The Broward County office market has been slower to recover from the pandemic than Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, which have attracted well-heeled, new-to-market tech and finance companies. 

Mana and representatives for GEM Realty Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.