ST. LOUIS, MO. — HFF has arranged $13.3 million in financing for a Class A office building in downtown St. Louis. The capital is being used to acquire and fund future capital improvements on the 20-story, St. Louis Place. The 337,088-square-foot building is located at 200 N. Broadway. Working on behalf of Mariner Real Estate Management, HFF placed the five-year, floating-rate loan with a division of NBH Bank, Bank Midwest. St. Louis Place is 63 percent leased to 12 tenants including Fleishman-Hillard, General Services Administration, Peckham Guyton and Albers & Viets. Matthew Schoenfeldt and Brock Cannon of HFF arranged the financing for the undisclosed borrower.
OAKLAND, CALIF. — Kaiser Center, a 975,000-square-foot office complex in downtown Oakland, has undergone a recapitalization. The transaction terms were not disclosed. The complex is located at 300 Lakeside Drive. It includes an 845,000-square-foot office tower, in addition to two low-rise retail/office buildings that total about 130,000 square feet. BART, the University of California and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan currently occupy the property. Affiliates of Rockpoint Group and the Swig Company plan to reposition the asset. This will include major renovations to the lobbies, common corridors, landscaping and retail amenities.
WILMINGTON, DEL. — Patterson-Woods Commercial Properties/CORFAC International has completed a 65,941-square-foot office lease at 824 N. Market St. in Wilmington for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the district of Delaware. The new 10-year lease has a gross value of $20.4 million. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court premises comprise the third, fifth, sixth floors, as well as a portion of the second floor of the 196,969-square-foot office building. Bart Mackey of Patterson-Woods represented the landlord, NNN 824 North Market Street LLC, while the General Services Administration represented the tenant in the transaction.
LAS COLINAS, TEXAS — Skanska has signed a $94 million contract with the ARK Group of Charlotte, N.C., to build the Irving Music Factory in Las Colinas. Skanska will convert the existing 16.8-acre greenfield site into an entertainment destination. The new project will include an 8,000-seating capacity indoor/outdoor concert hall called the Pavilion operated by Live Nation. The venue includes seven buildings offering more than 250,000 square feet of entertainment, retail and restaurant space and an eight-screen Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Additionally, there will be a four-story, 100,000-square-foot office tower sitting atop a six-level, 1,200-space parking garage. The project also features a 50,000-square-foot plaza and four outdoors stages. The venue is designed to host a variety of events, including music performances, fashion shows, farmers markets and food festivals throughout the year. Gensler is the architect for the project. Construction for the venue is expected to commence this month and is slated for completion in June 2017.
ATLANTA — Grady Health Systems has expanded its lease by 23,970 square feet at Hurt Building, a 17-story, 436,340-square-foot office building located at 50 Hurt Plaza in downtown Atlanta. Grady’s footprint at Hurt Building totals more than 80,000 square feet. Grady Health System consists of the 953-bed Grady Hospital, six neighborhood health centers, Crestview Health & Rehabilitation Center and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding, which is operated as a Children’s affiliate. David Barry and Adam Blue of Boxer Property represented Grady in the lease transaction.
CHICAGO — MB Real Estate has arranged a 10,000-square-foot office lease for ReviewTrackers, a software company that gathers consumer-generated data for businesses. ReviewTrackers has relocated to the new space from a 3,300-square-foot building at 415 N. Aberdeen St., nearly tripling its footprint. ReviewTrackers new location is at 320 W. Ohio St. Craig McCaw of MB Real Estate represented ReviewTrackers in the transaction. Jason Schulz of The J. Rich Co. represented the sub-landlord, Red Frog Events.
NEWARK, N.J. — Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. (PMCC) exceeded $14.6 billion in total loan originations in 2015. The company provided financing driven by conventional agency loans and increasing originations in international loans. Some of the company’s 2015 achievements include lending more than $12.7 billion within the United States across multifamily, office, industrial and other sectors; international lending of $1.9 billion, including first time originations in Australia, France, Spain and re-entry into the Canadian market; nearly $3.4 billion in conventional and affordable multifamily loans across Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA; and agricultural debt and equity investments of $1 billion. PMCC is the commercial mortgage lending business of PGIM, the global investment management business of Prudential Financial Inc.
EDISON, N.J. — Mack-Cali Realty has acquired Metroview, a 10-story office building located at 333 Thornall St. in Edison for an undisclosed price. Situated on 11.5 acres, the 196,128-square-foot office building features 21,000-square-foot floor plates and was 96 percent occupied at the time sale. Major tenants include AXA Equitable, ICAP Securities, Cohn Reznick, Lincoln National, Merrill Lynch and United Healthcare. Andrew Merin, David Bernhaut, Gary Gabriel, Brian Whitmer and Frank DiTommaso of Cushman & Wakefield represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction.
WESTPORT, CONN. — Southport, Conn.-based Angel Commercial has arranged the sales of two properties in Westport owned by the Kowalsky family for a combined value of $10.8 million. In the first deal, a limited liability company controlled by Investment Capital Holdings LLC acquired a 42,624-square-foot multi-tenant office building at 1777 Post Road East for $6.8 million. In the second transaction, a limited liability company controlled by Coastal Construction Group purchased a 9,184-square-foot office building located at 1141 Post Road East for $4 million. Coastal Construction Group plans to develop a mixed-use development on the 5.4-acre site. Jon Angel and Brett Sherman of Angel Commercial represented the seller and buyers in the transactions, which both closed the last week of January.
The Stamford, Connecticut, office market has everything going for it: proximity to New York City, a good transportation system, a wonderful quality of life, a superior public school network, great recreational possibilities being on Long Island Sound and great professionals. The one negative: almost zero growth in the state for the past 25 years in terms of both population and office-using jobs. This lack of growth has led to a very soft economic climate as it relates to office space. The vacancy rate for class A office space has hovered at more than 20 percent for the last seven years or more and has dipped below that only a few times since 1990. Vacancy Rate Favors Tenants In Fairfield County, the point of equilibrium is an office vacancy rate of approximately 15 percent. In other words, when the vacancy rate is 15 percent, neither landlords nor tenants have the upper hand in the negotiation of a lease transaction. In Stamford, the current vacancy rate resides at just over 23 percent — and that gives significant negotiating leverage to tenants that are looking for space. Interestingly enough, landlords of some of the better Class A institutional buildings are willing, and able, …