NEEDHAM, MASS. — RK Centers has purchased a two-story office building, located at 50 Cabot St. in Needham. An affiliate of The Bulfinch Companies sold the 42,000-square-foot property for $9.8 million. KC Centers plans to use the property as its new corporate headquarters. Andrew Sacher of AIS Development represented the buyer in the transaction.
LOS ANGELES – Independent television station KTLA-TV has renewed its lease for 94,205 square feet at Sunset Bronson Studios in Hollywood. The studio is located on the southeast corner of the Sunset Bronson, with frontage along Sunset Boulevard. The station has been headquartered at this location for nearly 60 years. KTLA plans to renovate its space. The lease renewal will go through 2030. The station is owned by Tribune Media, which was represented by CBRE’s Todd Doney, Paul Stockerll and Adam Seltzer. The landlord, Hudson Pacific Properties, was represented by Blake Mirkin of the same firm.
When it comes to grading commercial office space, there is no doubt that location is still king — and other factors such as price, architecture, functionality and amenities all take a back seat to the property’s location. Since we assign buildings letter grades (A and B), let’s take a look at what these letter combinations mean and the relationship of quality to location. In these scenarios, the first letter describes the building’s class (A or B) and the second letter represents the desirability of its location (A or B). The A/A designation refers to Class A buildings in Class A locations. It’s no surprise that this is the first category of office space absorbed when a market heats up and leasing volume intensifies. During this stage of the cycle, rental rates to inch upward, and more importantly, lease renewal terms tighten as landlords sense a shift toward the middle. For Memphis, Tenn., the total vacancy for Class A space in the East Memphis submarket decreased from 2.9 percent during third quarter 2014 to 2 percent in fourth quarter 2014. Almost 24,000 square feet of Class A office space in the East submarket was leased during fourth quarter 2014, and this …
DALLAS AND HOUSTON — Caddis has sold its southwest medical office building portfolio to Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III Inc. The portfolio, totaling 182,528 square feet, includes two medical office buildings located in metro Houston, one medical office building in metro Dallas in addition to a hospital/medical office building complex in Durango, Colo. The Texas properties include Winding Way Medical Plaza, a two-story, 27,405-square-foot building, which was built in 2008 and is located in Friendswood. It is 92 percent occupied. Memorial Hermann is the anchor tenant; South Texas Medical Clinic, a two-story, 55,000-square-foot medical office building located in Wharton. It is fully leased to Memorial Hermann Medical Group. Services in the building include family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, neurology, radiology and a lab and pharmacy. It was built in 1987; Keller Medical Plaza, a 31,070-square-foot, retail-style building, which was completed in 2011 in Keller. It is 94 percent leased, primarily to Texas Health Resources (THR) and THR affiliates, including anchor primary care and sports medicine tenants.
PORTLAND, MAINE — North River Co., an affiliate of Waterfront Maine, has acquired Portland Square in downtown Portland for $66 million. Located at One and Two Portland Square, the two-building property features 260,000 square feet of office and retail space as well as adjacent and underground parking areas. Originally constructed in the late 1980s, the property is currently 97 percent leased to a variety of tenants, including TD Bank, Wells Fargo, Prudential and Stone Coast Fund Services. Drew Sigfridson of CBRE | The Boulos Company represented the buyer in the transaction. The seller was a REIT that had owned the property for nearly a decade.
NEW YORK CITY — Meridian Capital Group has arranged $48 million in refinancing for an office property located at 1156 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. The borrower was APF Properties. The seven-year loan, which was provided by a regional balance sheet lender, features a fixed rate, a five-year extension option and five years of interest-only payments followed by a 30-year amortization schedule. The nine-story office property offers 71,900 square feet of office space and 8,000 square feet of retail space. Tal Bar-Or of Meridian negotiated the financing on behalf of the borrower.
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — PCCP LLC has provided a $29.7 million senior loan to American Real Estate Partners and Silverpeak Real Estate Partners for the acquisition and lease-up of CenterPointe at Bridgewater in Bridgewater. The joint venture plans to implement a $2.7 million capital improvement plan for the renovation of one building and improvements and cosmetic enhancements for the remaining three buildings. The four-building campus offers 332,000 square feet of Class A office space.
ATLANTA — Parkway Properties Inc. has completed the $78 million sale of Two Ravinia, a 390,000-square-foot office building in Atlanta’s Central Perimeter submarket. Parkway had a 30 percent ownership interest in the property, which was owned by Parkway Properties Office Fund II LP. The 17-story office tower was 80.5 percent leased at the time of sale. David Meline, Stewart Calhoun, Samir Idris and Casey Masters of Cushman & Wakefield represented Parkway in the transaction. The buyer, Franklin Street Properties Corp., a publicly traded REIT, plans to invest $4.8 million over the next three to four years to upgrade the office property.
Throughout the economic recovery, real estate has been investors’ preferred asset class in the Cincinnati region and across the United States. Although the Federal Reserve is likely to raise short-term interest rates in June or September, demand for commercial real estate is expected to remain strong as long as the recovering economy continues to create new demand for commercial space. According to Real Capital Analytics, 2014 finally saw total U.S. sales volume and property prices (at the aggregate level) reach pre-recession levels. In fact, Real Capital Analytics reports that excluding portfolio sales, activity was higher in 2014 than in 2007. Investment Sales Surge Metro Cincinnati’s property and portfolio sales in 2014 totaled more than $2.3 billion across all major real estate sectors, a 53 percent increase over 2013. It was, by far, the strongest year for investment activity in recent memory, with significant increases across all property types. For the second straight year, retail sales transactions led the way locally among all property types. Retail sales volume in 2014 exceeded $600 million, $370 million of which occurred in the fourth quarter. Office property and portfolio sales in Cincinnati totaled nearly $580 million in 2014. This figure was a 162 percent …
SAN DIEGO – An 8,662-square-foot medical office building in San Diego has sold to BKC Commercial Properties for $2.4 million. The building is located at 9878 Hilbert Street. The buyer plans to relocate its dermatology clinic to the new facility, which will allow for expansion. BKC was represented by Mario Martinez of Lee & Associates – North San Diego County. The seller, Williams Charitable Remainder Trust, was represented by Colliers International.