NAI Farbman Supports Three Firms in Gifting/Trading Class-A Office Building in Southfield

NAI Farbman, the brokerage arm of Farbman Group in Farmington Hills, a Midwest full-service commercial real estate company, has announced it supported three companies in the gifting and trading of a 114,397-square-foot Class-A office building located at 28333 Telegraph Road in Southfield.
22
NAI Farbman supported three companies in the gifting and trading of a 114,397-square-foot Class-A office building located at 28333 Telegraph Road in Southfield. // Photo courtesy of CoStar Group Inc.

NAI Farbman, the brokerage arm of Farbman Group in Farmington Hills, a Midwest full-service commercial real estate company, has announced it supported three companies in the gifting and trading of a 114,397-square-foot Class-A office building located at 28333 Telegraph Road in Southfield.

The unusual transaction was between the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation, Volunteers of America, and Tamaroff Jeffrey Automotive Group.

“This was the perfect recipe of solutions to a really difficult real estate challenge in today’s office leasing and acquisition space,” says Ron Goldstone, executive vice president at NAI Farbman, who represented Volunteers of America in the transaction.

“It took a determined group of brokers to make three real estate transactions happen in just 45 days. There was no ego involved, just focus on getting the best outcome for our clients, and we did it together.”

The H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation, a California-based nonprofit that supports established organizations promoting health care, social services, and education, purchased the asset in 2012 as an investment and given the current state of the office industry opted to gift the property to another nonprofit organization.

David Haboian, senior vice president of operations at REDICO in Southfield, and Edward Wujek, executive vice president at CBRE in Southfield, represented the seller, H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation, in the transaction.

The H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation gifted the asset to Volunteers of America, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization founded in 1896 that provides affordable housing and other assistance to low-income people throughout the U.S.

Volunteers of America executed an analysis on the office building to determine if it could be converted into a multi-story thrift store, a common practice for the group, which operates dozens of thrift stores nationwide.

The thrift store conversion turned out to be too difficult to execute. The office asset then quickly traded to the Tamaroff Jeffrey Automotive Group, a longstanding local automotive dealer of new and used cars for 50-plus years in the metro Detroit market. As a result, Volunteers of America raised money for their charity by trading the asset.

“The capitulation in the office market provided the Tamaroff Jeffrey Automotive Group the unique opportunity to repurpose this Class-A office building in a prime location adjacent to our dealership,” says Howard Frehsee, director of real estate for the Tamaroff Jeffrey Automotive Group. “Thanks to the creativity of the NAI Farbman team, we seized the opportunity for our company to potentially expand our dealership.”

The transaction closed in 45 days and solved three challenges. All three brokers successfully coordinated the property conveyance from a charity to a non-profit, followed by a sale to an investor. As such, an optimal outcome was achieved for all three companies involved.

Founded in 1976, NAI Farbman / Farbman Group manages more than 30 million square feet of office, retail, multifamily, student housing, and industrial space throughout the Midwest and beyond.

For more information, visit farbman.com.