New York City is booming. The local economy is the strongest it has ever been, with total employment numbers reaching all-time highs totaling over 4.2 million jobs through May 2015. This has led to a strong office market performance during the first six months of 2015, as office-using employment continues to grow, up 2.5 percent over the past 12 months. Demand for space continues to keep availability below 10 percent, and at 9.6 percent, Manhattan availability is down 50 basis points from last year. Despite minimal increases in Manhattan overall asking rents, up only 2.9 percent year-over-year through June, some submarkets are exceeding previous record-high asking rents from 2008. The demand from creative and tech tenants looking for space in Midtown South over the past few years has pushed asking rents up 19.1 percent above all-time highs. Downtown overall average asking rents have reached historical highs this year as well, and at $57.78 per square foot, rents are 10.3 percent higher than the previous highs in 2008. Most of this increase can be attributed to new construction at the World Trade Center site. Despite this, Midtown overall asking rents are still 5.3 percent off historical highs from 2008. Throughout Midtown, …
SOUTHFIELD, MICH. — Friedman Integrated Real Estate Solutions has brokered the sale of a 142,295-square-foot office building in Southfield, a northwestern suburb of Detroit, for an undisclosed price. Wulin Realty purchased the building known as Nine Mile Crossing from an undisclosed seller. Located at 17515 W. Nine Mile Road, the property consists of a 12-story, Class B office building and a two-story parking structure. Nine Mile Crossing was built in 1969 and was renovated in 2012. Features of the building include an on-site sundry shop, vending machines and a hair salon. The property is situated on 5.7 acres. Rich Deptula of Friedman represented both parties in the transaction. Friedman will continue to lease and manage the building for the new owners.
BUFFALO GROVE, ILL. — Avison Young has arranged a 141,000-square-foot lease for a business building in Buffalo Grove, a Chicago suburb. Plexus Corp. has signed a long-term lease renewal for the property located at 2400 Millbrook Drive. Plexus occupies the entire building. The building is located in the Millbrook Business Center, a 70-acre development. Amenities of the Millbrook Business Center include on-site management, ponds, a walking and jogging path and volleyball courts. Brett Kroner, Keith Puritz, Eric Fischer and Michael Scadron of Avison Yong represented the tenant. Bruce Hecktman of Avison Young represented the landlord, Millbrook Properties.
SAN DIEGO — The Casey Brown Co. has purchased the San Diego Union-Tribune property for $52 million. The asset is located at 350 Camino de la Reina in the San Diego submarket of Mission Valley. The property contains a 170,000-square-foot office building and a 190,000-square-foot industrial building that formerly served as the newspaper’s printing facility. Casey Brown plans to upgrade the existing office building into an amenity-rich, Class A corporate campus. The industrial building is currently being evaluated for alternative uses. The site was also recently entitled for 200 apartment units. The seller, Doug Manchester, was the former publisher of the Union-Tribune. CBRE will handle leasing the property.
TUCSON, ARIZ. — Harsch Investment Properties has purchased an office and flex industrial portfolio in Tucson for an undisclosed sum. The portfolio includes two buildings that total 190,000 square feet. The acquisition consists of the 60,000-square-foot Butterfield Corporate Plaza office/R&D flex property and the Tucson Airport Center, a 130,000-square-foot project with office and industrial tenants. Both properties are situated near Tucson International Airport and Interstate 10. CBRE’s Bill DiVito and Jesse Blum acted as the leasing agents for both properties. The seller was not named.
IRVING, TEXAS — Henry S. Miller’s Bill Bledsoe has arranged the sale of a single-tenant office building in Irving, The 3,900-square-foot building sits on .81 acres and is located at 727 W. Airport Freeway. The site was purchased by a local business for expansion and renovations are underway. Bledsoe represented the seller, Hargrove Interests LLC, while Luis Pina of Accent Commercial represented the unnamed buyer.
HAZELWOOD, MO. — In separate transactions, Savoy Properties has arranged one property sale and one lease in Hazelwood, a northwestern suburb of St. Louis. In the first transaction, Bommarito Ford Realty LLC purchased a 21,016-square-foot retail building from Robert Chandler and Marilyn Chandler. The property is located at 6311 N. Lindbergh Blvd. in Hazelwood. John McDonald of Savoy represented the buyer, Bommarito Ford Realty. In the second transaction, Kingsbrook Properties LLC has leased 12,712 square feet of office space to Center for Life Solutions. The property is located at 9144 Pershall Road in Hazelwood. Ryan Pennington and John Pennington of Savoy represented the landlord, Kingsbrook. Eric Galanti of CBIZ represented the tenant.
BELLEVUE, WASH. — Kemper Development Company has received $220 million to refinance the Eddie Bauer Building in Bellevue. The 538,705-square-foot office building is situated within the Bellevue Collection on the corner of NE 8th and Bellevue Way NE. The Class A building is fully leased to Eddie Bauer and Microsoft Corp. The Bellevue Collection contains retail, office, hotel and residential properties. It features more than 250 retail brands, dozens of restaurants, more than 1 million square feet of Class A office space and more than 1,000 hotel rooms. TIAA-CREF provided the financing. Dave Karson, Alex Hernandez and Chris Moyer of Cushman & Wakefield Equity represented Kemper Development.
NORTHBROOK, ILL. — Prime Finance has provided the owners of a 195,000-square-foot office building, located at 400 Skokie Blvd. in Northbrook, with a $19.5 million refinance loan arranged by Draper and Kramer. The ownership group, a partnership between Romanek Properties, Bachmann Associates and Syndicated Equities, will use $2.5 million of the loan proceeds to make building improvements. Upgrades will include a conference center, expanded fitness center and improvements to all common areas. The Class A office building is leased and managed by CBRE. Dan Graham and Peter Clifton of CBRE lead leasing efforts at the building. Bill Barry and Bill Stewart of Draper and Kramer arranged the financing for the owners.
BOSTON — The Davis Companies (TDC) has completed the disposition of Tower Point, a brick-and-beam office building located at 27-43 Woodworm St. in Boston’s Seaport District. Rockpoint Group purchased the 155,170-square-foot property for $62.1 million. TDC originally acquired the property in 2013 and invested significant capital with the goal of increasing the building’s appeal to creative and tech sectors. The company upgraded the property with modern finishes, renovated the building’s fitness center and locker rooms and added a 7,500-square-foot outdoor courtyard. As a result of the repositioning, the building’s occupancy increased from 74.3 percent to 95 percent at the time of sale. Current tenants include Rethink Robotics, Healthways, NPR, Zerto and Owner IQ. Edward Maher Jr. of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented TDC in the transaction.