An 18-story office tower in Tampa’s Midtown district has cleared a major real estate hurdle: its owners secured a $55.7 million loan after filling the building with tenants in less than a year. The financing is tied to the portion of Midtown East owned by Highwoods Properties and The Bromley Companies, not the entire tower.
According to CommercialSearch, Valley Bank issued the loan and JLL arranged it for 143,354 square feet of office and retail space. Midtown East, at 3600 Midtown Drive near Interstate 275, was completed in 2025 and includes 26,000-square-foot floorplates, covered balconies and ground-floor retail.
The Loan Covers The JV’s Slice Of Midtown East
Midtown East totals 432,000 square feet, but the Highwoods-Bromley joint venture owns floors 10 through 15 and the retail space. Tampa Electric and Peoples Gas, now operating as TECO’s headquarters, acquired 11 floors totaling 298,000 square feet, according to Highwoods Properties’ original announcement.
The partnership formed the project as a 50/50 joint venture in 2022, with construction scheduled to begin in 2023 and completion targeted for early 2025. The tower became the final office building in the larger Midtown Tampa campus, which spans roughly 22 acres and also includes retail, apartments, a hotel and additional office buildings.
Bromley’s project page now describes Midtown East as fully complete and 100% leased, naming TECO, TeamViewer, Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte and Crete Professionals Alliance among its tenants. The developers’ quick lease-up is notable because the building opened into an office market where tenants have generally favored newer, amenity-rich properties over older inventory.
Tampa Office Demand Is Improving Selectively
The financing arrives as Tampa’s office market shows signs of recovery, though it is hardly a clean sweep for every building. CommercialSearch’s market snapshot put metro office vacancy at 14.3% in June, with average rents at $30.10 per square foot compared with a $33.67 national average.
That gap helps explain why Midtown East’s location and tenant roster matter. The district sits near downtown Tampa, Interstate 275 and Tampa International Airport, while its retail, restaurants, parking and events give office users the kind of built-in amenities developers are increasingly using to compete for return-to-office demand.
For Highwoods and Bromley, the loan marks the next financial chapter for a project that has moved quickly from development plan to completed, fully leased workplace. For Tampa, it is another signal that high-quality office space in a connected mixed-use district can still attract both corporate occupants and lenders, even as the broader market continues sorting winners from laggards.
