Highwoods Properties and The Bromley Companies have secured a $55.7 million loan from Valley Bank covering their portion of Midtown East, the newest office tower in Tampa’s Midtown district.
The companies each own half of a joint venture that controls 143,354 square feet of office and retail space within the 18-story tower. JLL arranged the financing on behalf of the joint venture.
The venture’s office floors reached 100% occupancy less than a year after the building opened in April 2025, attracting tenants in professional services, technology, staffing, real estate and insurance, according to JLL. A ground-floor retail space is intended for a future restaurant.
The 432,000-square-foot building is the third and final office tower in the 22-acre Midtown Tampa development. Tampa Electric Co., a subsidiary of TECO Energy, separately owns 11 floors for its corporate headquarters.
For Bromley, the Valley Bank loan carries significance beyond its size. When the company acquired its first Tampa office property in 1996, local lenders would not finance the roughly $2 million deal, forcing Bromley to turn to Peter D’Arcy, a New York banker it had worked with previously who later oversaw all commercial banking for another publicly traded bank.
“We said, ‘Peter, come to Tampa and help us figure out how to do this,’” said Nicholas Haines, chief executive officer of The Bromley Companies. “He came down, and he gave us the $2 million when no one else locally would.”
Nearly three decades after Bromley needed an out-of-town banker to take a chance on its first Tampa office acquisition, Valley Bank financed the Highwoods-Bromley venture’s portion of the newest tower in a district Bromley spent more than 20 years assembling and developing.
The Midtown East loan also builds on Bromley’s broader relationship with Valley Bank, which participated as a construction lender during Midtown Tampa’s development and has provided permanent financing for other parts of the district.
The loan also reflects how dramatically Tampa’s standing among outside lenders and investors has changed, Haines said. A decade ago, conversations with New York banks about Florida largely centered on Miami. Today, he said, lenders and equity investors actively seek opportunities in Tampa.
“Capital wants to flow to Tampa now,” Haines said. “Banks want to be in Tampa. Equity wants to be in Tampa. It’s much, much different.”
That shift, combined with Midtown East’s rapid lease-up, helped make the property an attractive lending opportunity despite broader uncertainty surrounding the office market.
“Tampa’s office fundamentals remain among the strongest in the nation, particularly for modern, amenity-rich properties like Midtown East,” said Ed Coco, senior managing director at JLL.
Midtown East features floor-to-ceiling glass, covered balconies and high-speed destination elevators. The property is pursuing LEED, Fitwel and Energy Star certifications.
The broader Midtown Tampa development includes more than 200,000 square feet of retail, nearly 700 apartments, the dual-branded Aloft and Element hotel and three Class A office buildings totaling approximately 650,000 square feet. Retail tenants include Whole Foods Market, REI, Shake Shack and True Food Kitchen.
JLL’s debt advisory team included Coco, Evan Pariser, Lee Weaver and Matt Casey.