Florida sheriff funds $35,000-a-month luxury office with 'the money we take from the bad guys'

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has leased an entire floor of a luxury office tower for himself and his top staff, paying a rate double that of less prestigious office space.

His four-year lease at DiVosta Towers — two new Palm Beach Gardens’ office buildings topped by distinct pyramid structures — costs $35,000 a month. With a one year option to extend, the ultimate bill would top $2 million.

The lease works out to $41 per square foot. Less opulent space could be rented for $15 to $20 per square foot, several real estate brokers told The Palm Beach Post.

The sheriff entered into the DiVosta Towers lease in December to prep for a $42 million renovation of his existing headquarters. The work, which includes gutting 75% of the 40-year-old structure, will force more than 300 employees to work elsewhere for several years.

So Bradshaw and 15 of his top executives will be working on their own 10,000-square-foot floor at DiVosta Towers, he told 1290 WJNO radio in July. The building is home to professional service businesses such as law offices and financial firms.

Sheriff's office spokeswoman Teri Barbera later said the offices might eventually house more employees.

Longtime Palm Beach Gardens commercial broker John C. Bills said the price Bradshaw paid was average — “if they needed that high-end space and they needed the prestige.”

“If you need a fancy office in a high-rise office building, there are only a couple,” Bills said.

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Gary Brodis of Atlantic Retail Group agreed that the price seemed average. Specific qualifications, like a security guard or front receptionist, might limit the options, he added.

Absent the Class A requirement, a 10,000-square-foot space is “not hard to find,” Bills said.

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Michael Singer, managing partner of the Comiter, Singer, Baseman & Braun law firm and an early tenant of DiVosta Towers, said he and other tenants at first were taken aback by the sheriff’s presence.

“All the tenants were surprised when he came in because it didn’t seem like a natural fit,” Singer said. “This is a professional office building.”

Now that the sheriff is there, however, Singer said he feels “safe” having sheriffs’ officials in the tower.

Singer said he has seen parts of the office, which he described as “nice.” But the sheriff’s personal office is nicer, he said.

“It’s very impressive. Presidential,” Singer said. “It looks like the perfect desk to have a press conference. If you’re going to be on camera, it’s a good place. It makes you look prestigious.”

In the radio interview, Bradshaw lamented the difficulty of finding “decent office space, not dilapidated,” and said he was concerned about security.

He told The Post he selected the building because it “meets the requirements for security and safety as well as provides an open space for employees to come to work in-person and work together.”

The money for the lease comes from drug-asset forfeiture accounts, not property taxes, Bradshaw said. There's a special fund that houses “the money we take from the bad guys,” Bradshaw said in the radio interview.

Responding to The Post, part of the USA TODAY Network, Bradshaw said the space leased is "not coming out of general ad valorem funds set aside for safety services but being paid for with approved forfeiture funds.”

Under state law, the money from expensive cars and homes seized during drug arrests and other actions in state court cannot be used for sheriff’s office operating expenses.

But there's nothing that stops a sheriff from spending forfeiture funds from federal court, which specifically allows paying for rent. The sheriff's office received about $475,000 this year and the previous year in federal forfeiture money.

The lease payments did not interrupt any other office priorities, Barbera said.

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One broker who helped the sheriff look for space last year said the DiVosta Towers complex was a good choice. Jason Sundook, a principal at NAI/Merin Hunter Codman brokerage, said he was among several brokers around town who tried to help the sheriff find space that had good security and plenty of private space.

Sundook echoed others’ remarks that the sheriff also wanted a private bathroom with a shower. “They wanted nice space,” Sundook said. “It makes sense for someone in that role.”

DiVosta Towers “is a very attractive building,” Sundook said. “As a county, we can feel proud when people are coming to visit him.”

The deal was brokered for the sheriff’s office by Illustrated Properties, which lists the sheriff’s wife, Dorothy Bradshaw, as a sales associate on its website.

In his response to The Post, the sheriff said through Barbera that the “real estate broker initially chosen was not able to facilitate a location that met our safety concerns” but his wife was not involved and did not receive any fees or commissions on the deal.

The sheriff, who is seeking his fifth four-year term, declined The Post’s request for a tour and interview at the office tower. The presence of his office is not noted on the building directory.

Renovating the current HQ

In 2016, voters passed a sales tax hike of one penny on the dollar, which provided money to renovate the sheriff’s aging headquarters on Gun Club Road.

“It’s sick. It’s got mold in it and things like that,” Bradshaw said in the July radio interview.

Audrey Wolf, the county’s facilities director, said the $42 million project will tear up most of the building and add a new roof, new exterior walls, and impact resistant doors and windows.

Construction is expected to start in January and continue for up to three years, Wolf said.

While planning preceded the coronavirus pandemic, Bradshaw said in the radio interview that he was “trying to let a significant amount of people who can work from home, work from home.”

It was not clear how many that would be, and Wolf said “the relocation plan does not contemplate telecommuting.” But Bradshaw said all staff would have to leave headquarters by Oct. 1.

Most of Bradshaw’s 315 workers will move to one of two locations: across the street to surplus space at the South Florida Water Management District or into a space owned by the Oxbridge Academy Foundation at Community Drive and Military Trail just outside of West Palm Beach.

In searching for suitable space to relocate, the county also recommended an 8,000-square-foot commercial space in Palm Springs. It was not clear in county records why the Palm Springs location was not chosen for the sheriff’s executive team.

The county is paying $21 per square foot to move up to 120 employees into nearly 20,000 square feet at the Water Management District. The cost, which includes utilities and furniture, was deemed “significantly below the market rate” by county staff.

Another 125 workers would go to 31,500 square feet at Oxbridge. The cost is $16 per square foot, or $504,000 per year but the air conditioning unit and roof needed to be replaced — at the cost of the county, in exchange in part for credits on the rent.

The rent at Divosta Towers is $32 a square foot plus another roughly $10 for common area maintenance including taxes and insurance, bringing the total gross rent to about $41 a square foot, the lease says.

The sheriff’s office will pay $1.7 million over four years and another $400,000 if the lease is extended into 2024.

Follow Hannah Morse and Alexandra Clough on Twitter: @mannahhorse and @acloughpbp

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw rents luxury office space