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Jose Lobon, Amy Julian and Christian Lee, with CBRE.[/caption] The Corporate Center in downtown Fort Lauderdale needs a revamp, lacks an adjacent garage and is about 42 percent occupied, much less than other offices in the area that boast more than 90 percent occupancy. Despite these drawbacks, CBRE Inc. closed the sale of the 24-story tower at 110 E. Broward Blvd. and an adjacent two-story retail and office building at 100 E. Broward Blvd. for $41 million. Stockbridge Capital Group, a San Francisco-based real estate investment management firm, bought the buildings in a deal that closed Jan. 4, according to CBRE. The seller was LNR Partners LLC, a Miami Beach-based real estate management services provider and a subsidiary of LNR Property LLC, which was a special servicer for the property, court records show. CBRE capital markets vice chairman Christian Lee, senior vice president Jose Lobon and vice president Amy Julian, all in Miami, worked on the deal. Capital markets financial analyst Andrew Chilgren in Miami, senior vice president Chris Gallagher in Fort Lauderdale and asset services property manager Ian Cosman in Fort Lauderdale also worked on the transaction. "This deal was very unique in that really the entire downtown Fort Lauderdale office market is incredibly buoyant ... (with) buildings featuring occupancy in excess of 90 percent, and this building is clearly an outlier at 40 percent occupancy," Lobon said. But the challenge posed by the low occupancy also is an opportunity for the buyer, he added. "It creates the opportunity to take a building from the 40 percent occupancy that it is in today to a more market standard in excess of 90 percent and simultaneously also increase the in-place rents from where they are today to a more market standard," Lobon said. Before LNR Property, several different owners held the buildings but didn't do basic maintenance such as keeping all elevators working, Lobon said. The property was repossessed, and a foreclosure auction was held May 16. Stockbridge could revamp the corridors, bathrooms, elevators and maybe the facade, Lobon said. "By improving the physical experience of the building and creating a nicer, newer building with brand new finishes, it obviously increases the desirability of the building from a leasing perspective, and they will unquestionably be able to drive to higher rents than currently," he said. Nevertheless, Corporate Center's quirks, like not having an attached parking garage, posed a challenge for CBRE in getting buyers to understand the opportunities of the asset, Lobon said. Tenants mostly park in a city garage a walking distance away. The city wants to improve the roads, sidewalks and landscaping in the area to improve the connectivity between buildings, according to Lobon. "Buyers were much more comfortable with the perceived challenge of having a nonconnected garage," he added. The Corporate Center has 342,465 square feet of space available for rental, according to CBRE. That means the sale breaks down to $119.90 per square foot. This sale was only of the buildings, not the land on which they sit. The land is owned by an insurance company, according to CBRE. Lobon declined to disclose its name. The buildings across from the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse were sold in an auction on Ten-X Commercial, which is part of online real estate search and transaction platform Ten-X.