Boyle Investment Co. pays $19.5 million for Cool Springs office building

A prominent local real estate shop added to its Cool Springs portfolio with the purchase of an office building the firm developed.

Boyle Investment Co. paid $19.5 million for the 3000 Meridian Building in the Meridian Cool Springs development, according to Williamson County records. The purchase of the building consolidates Boyle’s ownership of the larger development which is undergoing millions in renovations as office activity wavers.

Boyle now owns the 100,000-square-foot building, formerly known as the PICA building, which it developed in 2009. Boyle developed the space for Podiatry Insurance Company of America (PICA) to be both owned and occupied by the insurance company, according to a release.

In 2009, ProAssurance bought PICA and the company has gradually relocated its operations to Birmingham, Alabama, leading PICA to sell the building to Boyle, according to the release.

Boyle is the developer of the larger Meridian Cool Springs development which contains 60 acres and features 70,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, as well as three hotels.

“The purchase of 3000 Meridian allows us to strengthen our presence in Cool Springs, an area that continues to see tremendous growth and evolution,” Thomas McDaniel, director of office properties and partner at Boyle, said in the release. “As demand continues, we are proud to play a role in shaping the future of Williamson County’s dynamic business landscape.”

The purchase comes as Boyle is investing more than $20 million into enhancements across the development, recently finishing two public green spaces and welcoming new tenants like Little Hats Italian Market, Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream and more.

The “flight to quality” trend has become increasingly prevalent with office tenants having a strong preference for buildings with loads of amenities. Office properties that are older, even by just a decade, will have to be renovated in order to keep up.

“You have to figure out how to adapt the buildings that are 1980s buildings. It took a lot of pain … but we were able to adapt those. It does take a lot of investment from the standpoint of the owner. If you have what the user wants, it’ll get leased, people will pay for it and the rest keep going up,” McDaniel previously said on a Business Journal panel. “But if you miss it by just a little bit, you’re dead. There’s 10 of you out there, so then it’s just a race to the bottom on which of the 10 want to charge the lowest rent.”

Last year, Boyle bought another Cool Springs office building, The McEwen Building near Boyle’s other Cool Springs development, for $48.57 million.

This article originally ran in the Nashville Business Journal.