COLUMBIA, MD. — Finmarc Management Inc. has acquired a four-building flex portfolio comprising 135,000 square feet in Columbia for $15.8 million. Finmarc purchased the portfolio, which was near full occupancy at the time of sale, from First Potomac Realty Trust. Built in 1980, the all-brick, single-story flex portfolio is located at 9150 and 9180 Rumsey Road, near I-95 and Maryland Routes 100 and 29. Mark Glagola and Joe Friedman of Transwestern represented the seller in the transaction.
NEW YORK CITY — Meridian Capital Group has arranged a $95 million mortgage for the refinancing of an office property located on lower Broadway in Manhattan’s Financial District. The 12-year loan, provided by a life insurance company, features a 3.78 percent fixed rate and six years of interest-only payments followed by a 30-year amortization schedule. Constructed in 1983, the 32-story property offers 403,800 square feet of Class A office space. Abe Hirsch and Daniel Jacob Meridian negotiated the financing for the undisclosed borrower.
NEW YORK CITY — Cushman & Wakefield has brokered the sale of a mixed-use property located at 23 E. 17th St. in Manhattan’s Ladies’ Mile Historic District. The 10,998-square-foot property sold for $13.2 million, or $1,205 per square foot. Built in 1902, the six-story property consists of two ground-floor retail spaces, one second-floor commercial space and apartment units on the upper floors. Thomas Gammino Jr., John Ciraulo and Craig Waggner of Cushman & Wakefield brokered the transaction. The names of the buyer and seller were not released.
CHICAGO — Bradford Allen has arranged six lease transactions at 520 W. Erie St., a 45,000-square-foot brick and timber loft building in Chicago’s River North submarket. Owner Gamla Cedron Group hired Bradford Allen as the leasing agent for the property in late 2014. Since then the brokerage firm has secured 17,959 square feet of leases, bringing the building’s occupancy to 87 percent. Tenants of the River North property include SFP Commercial Real Estate, Stepbrand Enterprises, J.S. Graphics Inc. and Doors for Builders. The building features high ceilings, large windows and customizable suites and is located across from a park. Several shops, restaurants and public transportation options are nearby. Two suites, one totaling 2,968 square feet and the other 2,800 square feet, remain available. Craig Nadborne and John Skalla are the leasing agents on behalf of Bradford Allen.
ALLEN, TEXAS — JaRyCo Development plans to begin construction on the first of three office/flex buildings known as Tech Center One at the company’s Tech Center on Greenville project in Allen. Construction will begin in September on the 94,000-square-foot project. JaRyCo Development is based in Allen, and the 38,000-square-foot Tech Center One is the 10th development project for the company in the city. Plans call for the project to be developed in phases unless tenant demand requires otherwise. Tech Center One will be built on the south end of the master-planned campus. A landscaped setback along Greenville Avenue with screened loading areas and a parking ratio in excess of code requirements will provide a new home for a variety of companies. An interior clear height of 18 feet, loading doors and a dock-high loading area will allow for product storage. The Tech Center on Greenville is located just north of the intersection of Bethany Drive and Greenville Avenues.
LAGUNA HILLS, CALIF. — Cruzan has purchased Lakehills Corporate Park, a 223,467-square-foot office campus in Laguna Hills, for $40 million. The park is located at 23332-23422 Mill Creek Drive and 24411-24461 Ridge Route Drive. This is Cruzan’s first Orange County purchase. The company will redevelop Lakehills into a modern office campus. CBRE’s Kevin Shannon, Paul Jones, Bob Smith and Blake Bokosky represented the seller, AEW Capital Management. AEW sold the property on behalf of one of its separate account clients.
GAITHERSBURG, MD. — HFF has arranged the $29.4 million sale of three office buildings located at 25, 35 and 45 W. Watkins Mill Road in Gaithersburg, a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. The three office/lab buildings span 139,938 square feet and were cumulatively 95 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as MedImmune and Amplimmune, which are both wholly owned subsidiaries of AstraZeneca. Jim Meisel, Dek Potts, Andrew Weir, Stephen Conley and Matthew Nicholson of HFF represented the seller, an affiliate of Equus Capital Partners Ltd., in the transaction. In addition, HFF arranged $19.2 million in acquisition financing on behalf of the buyer, Tritower Financial Group. Cary Abod led HFF’s debt placement team to arrange the 10-year, fixed-rate loan through an unnamed life insurance company.
TYSONS CORNER, VA. — A joint venture between Rubenstein Partners LP and Griffith Properties has purchased The Rappahannock Building, a six-story, Class A office building located at 1550 Westbranch Drive in Tysons Corner. The joint venture purchased the 152,000-square-foot office building from Corporate Office Properties Trust for $27.8 million. Built in 2001, the property has been fully leased to The MITRE Corp. since it was built, but the company plans to move to another office campus in Tysons Corner in 2016. Once vacated, Rubenstein and Griffith plan to renovate the office building to attract new tenants. Malcolm Schweiker of CBRE represented the joint venture in the transaction. Schweiker will also handle leasing the office building.
NEW YORK CITY — KZA Realty Group has brokered two sales transactions totaling $4.7 million in the Bronx. In the first purchase, The Transit Worker’s Union acquired a three-story, 34,456-square-foot building located at 2475 Westchester Ave. for $3 million. The buyer will use the property to provide counseling on affordable housing, healthcare services, representation and related service to Transit Worker’s Union members. Michael Gilbert of Gilco Realty represented the seller, 437 East 165th Street Realty Corp., in the transaction. In the second deal, Azimuth Development Group purchased a 6,691-square-foot licensed parking lot for $1.7 million. The buyer plans to use the lot as a development site. David Simone of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, 1164 Wheeler Avenue LLC, in the transaction. Kathy Zamechansky of KZA Realty Group represented the buyers in both deals.
Large blocks of space in the Connecticut office market have typically been associated with financial services firms and the wide open trading floors found in investment bank offices. However, for a new breed of tenant looking for sprawling, open and contiguous office space, the state of Connecticut currently offers a myriad of choices across multiple submarkets — from Trumbull to Norwalk to Stamford. And recent leasing figures suggest that prospective tenants are taking note. TAMI — or technology, advertising, media and information — tenants are no longer a Manhattan-only phenomenon. CBRE’s Westchester/Fairfield Counties office is increasingly seeing these tenants joining financial services tenants in cherry picking from an abundant group of large spaces. These TAMI tenants often favor the open spaces and giant floorplates that have become known for increasing collaboration and productivity among their employees. They can also offer consolidation and cost savings for companies. One of the most notable recent examples was 2014’s largest lease transaction for Fairfield County, which saw information technology firm Datto lease 100,398 square feet of space at Norwalk’s Merritt 7 Corporate Park. CBRE’s Paul Jacobs, Colin Reilly and Barbara Segalini represented Datto in the lease at the 22-acre campus, which Datto said it …