FORT MILL, S.C. — Atlanta-based tvsdesign has announced the groundbreaking of LPL Financial’s new regional headquarters in Fort Mill, a suburb of Charlotte. The architecture firm was the architect and interior designer of record for the 450,000-square-foot campus that will be located on 27.9 acres in Kingsley, a master-planned development. The new campus will house roughly 1,000 LPL Financial employees and will have elevators and stair cores separated from office areas to maximize interior space and natural daylight. Other sustainable features include reclaimed interior woodwork sourced from white oak trees on the grounds, the use of local and recycled materials, electric vehicle charging stations, tree preservation, bicycle storage and net-zero water efficiency techniques. The property’s on-site amenities will include outdoor meeting areas, a restaurant, fitness center and health clinic. The campus is slated for a late fall 2016 completion.
PLANO, TEXAS — Bob Moore Construction has completed structural work for the Legacy VI and VII office buildings. Upon completion, Legacy VI and VII will deliver 245,508 square feet of speculative office space in a 24-acre, three-building campus. Lincoln Property Co. hired Bob Moore Construction as the general contractor for Legacy VI and VII in 2014. Legacy VI will include two buildings, each spanning 60,428 square feet. Legacy VII is a 124,652-square-foot, two-story office building. All three buildings were constructed with tilt-up construction. The campus also features 1,463 parking spaces spread over 582,522 square feet of new paving.
The big story in the St. Louis office market is that available Class A space continues to become more scarce. As we watch the larger blocks of space being absorbed, and as Class A asking rates continue to increase, the probability for new development seems inevitable, leaving some property owners wondering if they should move forward and build. Although little new office construction is underway, the tightening market has undoubtedly prompted conversations. Expect projects to surface once developers land their first major tenant. The most likely submarkets for new development are in Clayton and West County, where many tenants requiring more than 25,000 contiguous square feet of office space are looking. You cannot have a full recovery for office occupancy until employment increases and the abundance of empty desks is absorbed. The local unemployment rate reached its peak of 10.9 percent in February 2010. The good news is that the unemployment rate hit a six-year low of 5.4 percent in October 2014. This significant drop can be attributed to the gain of over 11,000 jobs since January 2014 in the professional and business services sector. The St. Louis office market ended the year at a 10.5 vacancy rate, with Class …
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. – Law firm Klein and Wilson has purchased a 7,300-square-foot office building in Newport Beach for $2.9 million. The building is located at 4770 Von Karman, within the Newport Corporate Plaza. The seller, Kearny Real Estate Company, was represented by Joe Winkelmann of Voit. The building is one of five fee-simple buildings acquired by Kearny in June 2014. Klein Wilson was represented by Steve Economos of Jones Lang LaSalle.
The New Castle County office market includes roughly 16 million square feet of total inventory with nearly 3 million square feet of that vacant. Vacancy in Class A space has improved somewhat as tenants take advantage of market conditions but these moves have not had much impact on overall vacancy rate. Jackson Cross Partners reports 2014 absorption of 80,000 square feet; although positive, this indicates we have years of recovery before a healthy overall vacancy rate is reached. We are seeing a number of projects that will have some impact on reducing inventory and improving vacancy rates as marginal office space is redeveloped for various non-office uses. These projects include: • A group of local investors purchased 1001 Jefferson Street in the city of Wilmington, which contains 170,000 square feet of office space on approximately 1.4 acres in May 2014, following a failed auction process. The building was recently demolished and the site is now being improved for surface parking, at least temporarily. Although a new office project is not being ruled out down the road, the site is being marketed for other uses, including residential and retail. • 1300 Market Street, also in the City of Wilmington, containing 62,000 …
County, a 288,348 square-foot office campus in the Orange County submarket of Foothill Ranch, for an undisclosed sum. The campus is located at 27042, 27051 and 27121 Towne Centre Drive. The three-building Campus South County was built in 1999. It was renovated last year. The renovation included the addition of a state-of-the-art conference center, a tenant lounge and a Wifi-enabled, outdoor meeting area. The campus is near the Foothill Ranch Towne Center and fronts the Foothill Transportation Corridor (SR-241). The seller, MetLife, was represented by Kevin Shannon, Paul Jones, Bob Smith and Blake Bokosky of CBRE’s Institutional Properties Group.
IRVING, TEXAS — CBRE’s Capital Markets Office Investment Group has arranged the sale of Canal Centre, a Class A office property located in Irving. Canal Centre is comprised of a recently redeveloped, 10-story office building with 238,051 rentable square feet and a six-story parking garage. Libitzky Property Companies purchased the asset from LaSalle Investment Management for an undisclosed price. CBRE’s Eric Mackey, Gary Carr, John Alvarado and Robert Hill represented the seller. Canal Centre is positioned at the heart of the Urban Center within the master-planned Las Colinas community. Las Colinas is home to 8,500 businesses, including 50 Fortune 500 companies, five Fortune 500 global headquarters and roughly 100 multi-national companies.
ATLANTA — Lucror Resources LLC, an Atlanta-based developer, has closed an $11.2 million new markets tax credit transaction with Invest Atlanta and JPMorgan Chase to finance the renovation of the Atlanta Flatiron Building. Upon completion of the renovation, the 11-story office building will house the Microsoft Innovation Center and Women’s Entrepreneur Initiative. Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute will assist in the management of the building. Phase I of the renovation is slated for a summer 2015 completion. Aaron Kowan, Jason Cordon and Matt Brodnan of The Private Client Law Group represented Lucror in the negotiations. Drew Marlar of Kutak Rock represented Invest Atlanta, and Andrea Burke and Benjamin Swartzendruber of Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen represented JPMorgan Chase.
MIAMI — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the $5.1 million sale of a 30,000-square-foot office building located at 1850 S.W. 8th St. in Miami’s Calle Ocho neighborhood. Constructed in 1972, the five-story building features ground-level retail space and four stories of office suites. Alex Zylberglait of Marcus & Millichap’s Miami office represented the seller, a limited liability company based in Miami, and the buyer, a limited liability company based in North Miami. Included in the purchase was two additional lots comprising 0.3 acres that are currently being used as parking for the nearby Praxis Institute.
TACOMA, WASH. – Sound Physicians has signed an 11-year lease for space at the Umpqua Bank Building in downtown Tacoma. The building is located at 1498 Pacific Ave. The office serves as the central hub for the hospitalist and transitional care organization. The company manages hospitalist, critical care and skilled nursing care for nearly 190 hospitals and close to 100 skilled nursing facilities that work in conjunction with these hospitals in 34 states. The administrative support staff in Tacoma includes 150 colleagues.