In the office segment there has been plenty of news regarding Class A assets. Companies have been flocking towards upgraded space. Landlords have made significant capital expenditures to their buildings to attract and retain these tenants. We have seen parking decks being built, investments to achieve LEED certification and the addition of upgraded amenities, such as cafés, fitness facilities, day care centers, and shuttles to mass transit. In the midst of these discussions, the Class B building seems to be getting lost. Class B office buildings do not have all of the bells and whistles of their Class A counterparts. However, this has not stopped them from experiencing a resurgence over the last few years. Current vacancy of Class B office space in the Northern New Jersey market is 13.4 percent. The vacancy rate has seen a steady decline from 15 percent at the end of 2014. The asking rents in the market average around $21.50 based on a gross number. The absorption of space over the last two years has been the best we have seen in more than 10 years. According to CoStar, 1.1 million square feet of Class B office space was leased in Northern New Jersey …
BREA, CALIF. — JCR Capital has acquired Brea Corporate Plaza and Brea Park Centre, a four-building office portfolio in Brea, for $55.6 million. The properties contain a total of 290,657 square feet. The portfolio is located at 500 S. Kraemer Blvd., 2601 Saturn St., 2650 Imperial Highway and 3230 E. Imperial Highway. HFF arranged $39 million in acquisition financing. The loan features a three-year term and floating rate through Prime Finance. The financing has two 12-month extensions. HFF also marketed the property on behalf of the sellers, The PRES Companies and Mariner Real Estate Management.
PHOENIX — National Healthcare Realty and Development has announced plans to build McDowell Medical Commons, a 25,000-square-foot medical office building in Phoenix. The project will be located at 10650 W. McDowell Road. The Class A project will be situated at the northeast corner of 107th Avenue and McDowell Road. McDowell Medical Commons is slated for groundbreaking in 2017. Rachel Thompson and Michael Dupuy of Colliers International will serve as the project’s exclusive leasing agents.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Westmount Realty Capital has completed the disposition of a 13-building office portfolio located on Kramer Lane and Metric Avenue within the Braker Center in Austin. The property sold for an undisclosed sum. Originally constructed as light industrial buildings, the 546,984-square-foot complex has evolved into more than 90 percent office finish-out space. Allergan Inc., Cenpatico, Integra Life Sciences and Renewal by Anderson are current tenants at the property. Eastdil Secured represented Westmount Realty Capital in the transaction. The name of the buyer was not released.
NEW YORK CITY — Cushman & Wakefield has originated a $57.5 million loan on behalf of Chris Xu of United Construction & Development Group for the acquisition of a mixed-use development site located at 39-08 Janet Place in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens. ACORE Capital provided the loan, and Morris Betesh of Cushman & Wakefield handled the transaction. The waterfront site offers 780,446 buildable square feet of residential, retail and office space.
NEW HAVEN, CONN. — O,R&L Commercial has arranged the sale of a 150,000-square-foot office and industrial complex, located at 85 Willow St. in New Haven. Willow Street Equities LLC acquired the property, known as Marlin Business Center, from 85 Willow Street NH LLC for $4.5 million. The buyer plans to continue to operate the property as an office and industrial complex with 40 tenants in 16 separate buildings. The complex was originally built for Marlin Firearms in the 1800s and converted to a multi-tenant facility in the late 1970s. Rich Lee of O,R&L Commercial brokered the transaction.
MEMPHIS, TENN. — New York-based Angelo, Gordon & Co.’s net lease group (AG Net Lease) has purchased an office tower within International Paper Co.’s global headquarters campus in Memphis for $58.3 million. AG Net Lease’s purchase from Century Park Partners LLC includes the office building and the assumption of International Paper’s existing 10.5-year lease. Situated in the East Memphis business district, Tower III spans 214,060 square feet and is one of four office buildings on International Paper’s campus.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-based Vision Ventures plans to develop a four-story, 83,000-square-foot office building located at 2100 S. Tryon St. in Charlotte’s historic South End neighborhood. The property will be situated within walking distance of the East/West Boulevard light rail station, Camden Road and the Rail Trail, a four-mile trail that winds through downtown Charlotte. Vision Ventures has selected Tom Fitzgerald of JLL to market and lease the building, which will feature ground-level retail space. BB+M Architecture is the architect for the project.
GREENVILLE, S.C. — RealOp Investments has purchased Bank of America Plaza, a 15-story, 196,152-square-foot office tower located at 101 N. Main St. in downtown Greenville. Renovated in 2014, the office building is connected to an Aloft Hotel and two parking structures on either side of the building. The property was 80 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as Bank of America, IBM, iHeartMedia and Next on Main, a shared office space provider. The building’s ground-floor retail space is leased to Methodical Coffee, TAZ Boutique and the iStore, an Apple reseller. Ryan Clutter, Scot Humphrey, Chris Lingerfelt and Zach Drozda of HFF represented the seller, Hughes Development Corp., in the sale. Travis Anderson and Brent Bowman of HFF arranged a $17.3 million, floating-rate acquisition loan on behalf of RealOp Investments.
PALO ALTO, CALIF. — Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. (NYSE: HPP) has acquired the leasehold interest in Page Mill Hill, a five-building office campus totaling 182,676 square feet in Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, for $150 million. HPP acquired the leasehold interest from a joint venture owned by Lionstone Investments and CalSTRS. The campus is currently fully occupied by legal and accounting firms including Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Frank, Rimerman + Co.; Manatt, Phelps & Phillips; and Perkins Coie. Stanford Research Park is affiliated with Stanford University, and was founded in partnership with the city of Palo Alto in 1951. The 160-building park focuses on innovation, housing predominantly startups and research and development companies. Office tenants include Google, Tesla, Ford, Skype, Nest, Hewlett-Packard, Toyota Research Institute and Lockheed Martin. Hudson Pacific is the largest office landlord in the park. The company owned the leasehold interest in six buildings totaling more than 1 million square feet prior to the recent acquisition of Page Mill Hill. Hudson Pacific also claims to be the largest institutional leasehold owner of office space in Silicon Valley, with 22 assets totaling over 7 million square feet. Among its properties in the region are Palo Alto Square; Foothill …