BURLINGAME, CALIF. — A joint venture between New York Life Real Estate Investors and Harvest Properties has acquired One Bay Plaza, a 196,139-square-foot office property in Burlingame, for a reported $53.4 million. The Class A plaza is located at 1350 Bayshore Highway. The nine-story building has frontage along the San Francisco Bay with unobstructed water views. It also has an on-site café, fitness center and access to waterfront jogging trails. The property is among the newest vintage buildings in the submarket. The seller was Hudson Pacific.
In New York City, sizable tenants are renewing their office leases and expanding work space. Citywide, office space searches are being driven by new businesses that need to establish presence. These dynamics have the office market operating as powerfully and effectively as possible. New York City organizations are slated to create 80,000 new jobs this year, expanding total employment by 1.9 percent. Major companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon have recently committed to large blocks of space, which are becoming notably rare as office vacancy levels in the Big Apple continue to tighten. Vacancy will slip 10 basis points to 9.6 percent this year as firms absorb more than 3.8 million square feet. As a result of office vacancies continuing to tighten, builders have started to add to the pipeline, which New York City will see come to fruition this year with the opening of 10 Hudson Yards, Related Cos.’ long-awaited office building project in Manhattan’s West Side. Overall, developers will complete 3.6 million square feet of office space this year, with nearly half at 10 Hudson Yards. Located near Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea and the Penn Station area, the building is part of the Hudson Yards urban renewal project. Manhattan …
HACKENSACK, N.J. — NAI James E. Hanson has brokered the sale of a medical office building located at 155 Polifly Road in Hackensack. Polifly Group acquired the 45,912-square-foot property from Polifly Plaza Associates for an undisclosed sum. The three-story building was 50 percent vacant at the time of sale. Hackensack University Medical Center currently occupies the first floor, leaving 20,269 square feet available for new tenants. The third floor is currently vacant, offering 15,000 square feet of contiguous office space. Randy Horning and Darren Lizzack of NAI Hanson represented the seller, while Anthony Cassano, also of NAI Hanson, represented the buyer in the deal.
MADISON, WIS. — Walker & Dunlop has arranged an $11.6 million loan for the acquisition of High Point Office Park in Madison. The 217,814-square-foot office park includes 11 buildings, which vary from one to three stories. Amenities in the office park include a fitness center, walking paths, a pond, gazebos and picnic areas. The 10-year, fixed-rate loan features a debt-service coverage ratio of 1.67. The borrower was a Chicago-based investment firm. Justin Nelson of Walker & Dunlop placed the financing with a Midwest-based correspondent life company.
CHICAGO — VSA Partners has renewed its office lease for 51,422 square feet of space at 600 West Chicago. VSA Partners, a branding and marketing company, began occupying space at the building in 2011. Renovations at 600 West Chicago, which is located along the Chicago River, are underway and include a rooftop deck, renovated plaza, expanded river walk and water taxi service. The 1.4 million-square-foot building is currently 100 percent leased. Other tenants at the office building include Groupon, Lightbank Cos., Uptake, rEvolution, Innerworkings, Freeman Decorating and IntegraMed. 600 West Chicago was built in 1901 as the Montgomery Ward catalog building. In 2001, it was repurposed as an office building. Chicago-based Equity Commonwealth has owned the building since 2012. Jack O’Brien and Matt Pistorio of The Telos Group represented the owner in the transaction. Thomas Volini and Sven Sykes of Colliers International represented VSA Partners.
TEXAS CITY, TEXAS — Mainland Bank has selected Texas City Professional Office Building as its new headquarters and banking hub, signing a long-term lease for a property in Texas City now undergoing a major renovation. The bank has leased 5,555 square feet at 2501 Palmer Highway, a two-story office building with three covered drive-thru banking lanes. Mainland Bank’s new space and the balance of the 33,486-square-foot structure will be renovated this summer. A-K Texas Venture Capital owns the 90 percent-occupied building. Texas City Professional Office Building features 111 parking spaces, Wi-Fi and a digital lobby directory. Upgrades are planned for the common areas, lobby and elevator cabs. Mainland Bank was chartered in 1944 as First State Bank. Richard Barbles of Stream Realty Partners represented the bank in lease negotiations.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Falcon Realty Advisors, a Dallas-based commercial real estate company that represents retail, restaurant and entertainment tenants, has expanded into central Texas with the opening of an office in Austin. The Austin office will serve as an extension of Falcon’s Dallas headquarters by continuing operations within its tenant representation services and the development of its build-to-suit platform. The Austin branch will also be actively recruiting brokers and new team members. Travis Heinrichs, who joined Falcon in 2013 and most recently served as director of investments, will be heading the new branch as director. The firm’s portfolio consists of Austin-based Whole Foods Market and other retailers throughout the state including Petco, Mattress Firm, Robbins Brothers and iPic Theaters. Falcon is a member of Realty Resources, a member-owned retail real estate brokerage group that combines firms from more than 25 cities around the country into one network.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The U.S. Green Building Council has awarded Capitol Towers, a Class A office campus in Charlotte’s SouthPark submarket, LEED Gold certification. The office park is owned by Lincoln Harris, an affiliate of Lincoln Property Co. Phase I of Capitol Towers, which features the 236,250-square-foot South Office Tower, a parking deck and 25,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, was opened recently. Phase II, which will feature the 236,250-square-foot North Office Tower, is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2017. Sustainability and energy efficient features at Capitol Towers range from an on-site parking deck that provides preferred parking for low emission vehicles to an HVAC system designed to measure and filter air before entering the building.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — WinnDevelopment and GDD Properties, in a public-private partnership with New York State, have broken ground on the $200 million redevelopment of The Sibley Building, located at the intersection of East Avenue and East Main Street in downtown Rochester. The Sibley Building opened in 1868 as the city’s first department store, and earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The property will be rebranded as Sibley Square, with the name, logo and signage to be changed in the coming weeks. The phased redevelopment will begin with the $100 million construction of 96 modern apartments on the ninth through 12th floors of the building. Phase I will also include the addition of boutique retail, local artisan foodservice tenants, office space and active senior living apartments, as well as a complete rehabilitation of the façade and windows of the property. The residential components of the building will be named The Lofts at Sibley and The Residences at Sibley. Leases for active adult units at The Residences will be available by the end of this year. Redevelopment of the top floor of the building, once home to the Tea Room of the Sibley Department Store, is …
A new report from George Washington University finds that metropolitan areas in the United States are shifting toward developing more walkable areas, reversing a trend that dates back more than half a century. Christopher Leinberger and Michael Rodriguez of The George Washington University School of Business wrote the report, titled “Foot Traffic Ahead, Ranking Walkable Urbanism in America’s Largest Metros.” “The end of sprawl is in sight,” the authors write. “The nation’s largest metropolitan areas are focusing on building walkable urban development.” For what may be the first time in 60 years, the report finds that walkable urban places (WalkUPs) in all 30 of the largest metros are gaining market share over their drivable suburban competition, which is often accessible only by car. This has been coupled in recent years by substantially higher rental premiums in the office and retail sectors. The 30 metro areas measured include 46 percent of the nation’s population (145 million of 314 million) and 54 percent of the national GDP. They were measured based on the current percentage of occupied walkable urban office, retail and multifamily rental square feet in their WalkUPs. The top walkable metro areas are as follows: The study found that walkable …