By Marilyn Bowden
   Long-time Coral Gables employer Cargill Latin America has leased a full floor at 2525 Ponce De Leon Blvd., nearly doubling its space in its new Latin American headquarters.
   "Our Latin American business is growing," said Cargill Vice President John McCabe. "We are adding more people, and we wanted to be in a building that could put everybody on a single floor."
   Although one of Cargill's subsidiaries, Excel Beef, has space in Medley, he said, the company wants to keep its Latin American headquarters in Coral Gables, where it has been for nearly 15 years.
   With more than 100,000 employees in 60 countries, Minneapolis-based Cargill, an international provider of food, agricultural, pharmaceutical, financial and risk management products and services, is one of the largest privately held companies in the US. The company reported $1.036 billion in earnings from operations for the 2003 fiscal year.
   "We're thrilled to have such a large and respectable company," said Project Manager Gonzalo Cortabarria, who handles leasing in the new Hines office tower. "This is the type of tenant we love to have in our property."
   The Cargill lease brings occupancy at the 12-story, 250,000-square-foot building to about 60%, he said. The building, which opened last September, is also home to law firms Adorno & Yoss and Kozyak Tropin Throckmorton; IVC Television, which holds licenses for several cable networks in Latin America; Raymond James, and PeopleSoft.
   "We still have available the top three floors: 65,000 square feet of contiguous prime office space, which is unique in the market," Mr. Cortabarria said.
   Michael Klotz, a senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis who brokered the deal for Cargill, said the company, which was in 11,358 square feet at 75 Valencia, will spread into 21,857 square feet when it moves next fall into its space in the county's newest class A office building.
   In a market that is growing tighter, satisfying all of Cargill's requirements wasn't easy, Mr. Klotz said.
   When the search for new space got under way last September, Mr. Klotz said, there were a few options that could accommodate all of Cargill's requirements.
   "Hines stepped up and made it happen at 2525 Ponce," he said. "There was a lot of creativity on both sides of the table. With the market firming up, it was important that we secure something."