Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and his top executives are in their sixth year leasing space in a luxury office complex in Palm Beach Gardens, an arrangement costing taxpayers at least $420,000 per year.
PBSO's lease at the DiVosta Towers office complex first was disclosed by The Palm Beach Post in 2020. The Post reported the Sheriff's Office leased the space temporarily in advance of a planned renovation of the law-enforcement agency's Gun Club Road headquarters in West Palm Beach that same year.
The four-year lease, which cost $420,000 per year, or $35,000 per month, expired in 2024, real estate agents said.
But PBSO did not leave the building. For the past two years, PBSO has re-upped its lease annually at DiVosta Towers. Over six years, this
adds up to rental costs of more than $2.5 million.
A PBSO spokesperson said the DiVosta Towers office space still is needed because the Gun Club Road renovation eliminated executive offices for Bradshaw and his top leaders.
"The space originally intended for executive staff is no longer available because it was needed to accommodate agency expansion," said Teri Barbera in an email. "As a result, there is currently no suitable office space at Gun Club Road to which executive staff can return."
The sheriff's continued lease of Class A office space comes as county leaders are under mounting local and state pressure to trim their budget. The demand has placed scrutiny on PBSO's ballooning budget, slated to hit $1.2 billion next year.
Recent investigations by The Post also have revealed hefty compensation and retirement practices for top PBSO executives, costing taxpayers millions of dollars during the past several years.
Bradshaw leads the 4,300-employee sheriff's office from executive offices spanning a full floor in the DiVosta Towers complex. The 11-story twin towers, topped by pyramid-like structures, are at 3825 and 3835 PGA Boulevard, just east of Interstate 95 near The Gardens Mall.
The Class A office towers are described as luxury office space by the building's owner, Gatsy Enterprises, and by commercial real estate brokers. The towers are home to premier firms such as JP Morgan Wealth Management and Virtu Financial, a financial services firm.
Starting in December 2019, the sheriff's office leased 10,000 square feet in one of the towers in advance of a $42 million headquarters renovation. The PBSO renovation still is ongoing, Barbera said in the Sept. 22 email.
It's not clear why PBSO didn't maintain space for its top leaders at its West Palm Beach headquarters and move expanding departments to other county offices. It's also not clear when, or even if, the sheriff and his top executives will move back into county-owned property, which would mean taxpayers won't have to pay for private leased office space.
In her email, Barbera said executive staff will remain at DiVosta Towers "until the county provides additional suitable space." Suitable space would need to meet PBSO's operational and security needs, Barbera added.
County spokesperson Lisa De La Rionda said PBSO informed the county in January 2025 that the sheriff and senior executive staff "decided not to relocate to the HQ facility" from the DiVosta Towers.
De La Rionda said she did not have any information about a future PBSO move to county property.
PBSO's rent deal with DiVosta Towers
PBSO did not respond by a Sept. 23 deadline for details on the DiVosta yearly rent, which started at $41 per square foot, including taxes and maintenance, in 2020.
But real estate sources said PBSO twice has released the space annually, with rent increases. This could mean that annual lease payments could be closer to $440,000 per year, the sources said.
In addition, when the lease first began in 2020, PBSO paid $75 per month for an undisclosed number of reserved parking spaces, even though free parking was available.
Barbera said the DiVosta Towers lease includes 24-hour security and secure garage parking. "The parking is within a parking garage rather than a public parking area with limited availability," she said.
Barbera did not respond to a question asking if PBSO still paid for reserved parking spaces.
Who's paying for the upscale office space?
Barbera said the original DiVosta Towers lease was paid for by forfeiture funds for a limited period of time. She did not specify for how long. Barbera added that the rent now is part of PBSO's regular budget, which is paid for by county taxpayers.
That's different from how Bradshaw first characterized the arrangement in response to a 2020 inquiry by The Post.
"The space leased in Palm Beach Gardens is NOT coming out of general ad valorem funds set aside for safety services but being paid for with approved forfeiture funds," Bradshaw said.
DiVosta Towers is not a luxury office complex, PBSO says
In her Sept. 22 email, Barbera disagreed with the description of DiVosta Towers as luxury office space, calling the portrayal "inaccurate."
"While the exterior of the building is attractive, the interior office space is comparable to other office space built in the last 6 years," she wrote.
PBSO's full-floor space features four kitchens, a private gym and a bathroom with a shower. According to a building brochure, the towers have concierge services, 10-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, individual heating and air conditioning systems, a "lush courtyard with outdoor seating," and a corporate-style lobby with polished floors.
In a 2022 news release announcing a $90 million refinance of DiVosta Towers, the Berkadia financial services company said the luxury officer complex "offers its Class A global tenants a truly high-profile location in a state-of-the-art building that boasts panoramic views of Palm Beach Gardens.”
In her Sept. 22 email, Barbera said that the DiVosta Towers office space was less expensive than other office locations available when PBSO was looking for temporary executive space during the Gun Club Road renovations.
But in The Post's 2020 report, Bradshaw never was interested in office space comparable to that of his Gun Club Road offices, according to real estate brokers familiar with his search.
Instead, Bradshaw sought Class A office space typically used by corporations, financial firms and law firms, the brokers said. "He wanted fancy, fancy," one broker said.
The DiVosta Towers space was not discounted compared to the market for similar space, agents also said. At the time, the $41 per square feet lease was double the rate of less prestigious office space.
Longtime Palm Beach Gardens commercial broker John C. Bills said in 2020 that 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."
Meanwhile, a DiVosta Towers office tenant said in 2020 that he and other tenants 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," the attorney Michael Singer said. "This is a professional office building."
At the time, Singer said he had seen parts of the PBSO 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."
Alexandra Clough is a business writer at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. X: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Taxpayers paying for 6th year of PBSO luxury office space | Exclusive
