OXNARD, CALIF. – PODS has leased 65,000 square feet in Oxnard. The lease is valued at nearly $2 million. The company will be relocating and expanding from nearby Ventura, where it was based for eight years. The new space is located at 301 S. Rose Ave. CBRE’s Paul Farry, Jim Meaney, Doug Shaw represented both PODS and the landlord, One Miracle Property, in this transaction.
Office
NEW YORK CITY — Starwood Capital Group, on behalf of a controlled affiliate, has sold the leasehold interest in an office building to an affiliate of Ross Stores Inc. Located at 1372 Broadway, the 21-story building offers 572,000 square feet of office space. The building serves as the East Coast buying office for Dublin, Calif.-based Ross Stores. Terms of the sale for were not disclosed. Starwood Capital Group, through its Starwood Distressed Opportunity Fund IX, originally purchased the leasehold interest in the property in June 2012. Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP advised Starwood Capital Group in the transaction.
HOUSTON — Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star has purchased a site near downtown Houston for its new headquarters. The site, totaling 23,505 square feet, is located at 1003 Washington Ave. An existing building on the site will be demolished to make way for the headquarters. Randy Hopper of The Weitzman Group negotiated the sale on behalf of Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star. Big Brothers Big Sisters is leaving their current headquarters in the Sharpstown area of Southwest Houston, which has already been sold.
CONCORD, N.H. — NorthMarq Capital has secured a $2.5 million loan for the refinancing of One Pillsbury Street in Concord. The property offers 27,253 square feet of office space. The commercial mortgage was structured with a seven-year term and features a 25-year amortization schedule. NorthMarq arranged the financing for the borrower through its relationship with a regional bank. Michael Chase of NorthMarq Capital’s Boston office handled the transaction.
DALLAS — Henry S. Miller Brokerage’s multifamily investment team has arranged the sale of High Point Centre, a 257,099-square-foot office building in Dallas. High Point Ricchi LLC purchased the building, which is located at 12225 Greenville Ave. Lew Wood, Andrew Doster and Darden Orand of Henry S. Miller represented the buyer. Eric Mackey and Gary Carr of CBRE represented the seller, Riversource REO 1 LLC.
While the industrial recovery in the Phoenix area has been slow, market indicators show signs of steady improvement. Average rental rates for the Phoenix metro industrial market have remained consistent, hovering around $0.52 per square foot for the past year. In the Southwest Valley, however, which constitutes almost one-third of the entire valley’s industrial space, average rental rates are much lower at $0.36 per square foot. Lease rates at Sky Harbor Airport are averaging about $0.59 per square foot, and $0.66 per square foot in the Southeast Valley. The highest average rental rates are predictably seen in the Northeast Valley, which reported an average of $0.85 per square foot. More than 2.9 million square feet was leased in the second quarter, representing 593 transactions. Leases remain steady compared to the first quarter of this year, but the rate will likely fall short of 2013 when 16.7 million square feet was leased. Vacancy rates continue to fall after the spike seen last year. The second quarter of 2014 reported a 12.6 percent vacancy, down from the high of 13.2 percent in the third quarter of 2013. While a positive indicator, vacancy rates in the industrial sector swing on such a pendulum …
NEW YORK CITY — Gyro, a global business-to-business advertising agency, is expanding its office space and relocating to Lower Manhattan. The firm has signed an 11-year lease to occupy an entire floor at 115 Broadway, a landmarked 21-story property located on the corner of Broadway and Cedar Street. The company expects to relocate to the new space, which nearly doubles its current offices, during fourth quarter 2014. Keith Ellis of Savills Studley represented gyro in the long-term transaction. Founded in 1981, gyro specializes in advertising, brand strategy, digital, direct marketing and public relations for business-to-business services.
AUSTIN — CBRE has arranged the sale of Centennial Towers on behalf of Braun Enterprise, a Houston-based real estate company. Boston-based Taurus Investment Holdings LLC purchased the asset for an undisclosed price. Centennial Towers is a six-story, 156,293-square-foot office building in the North Central Austin submarket. The tower is 95 percent leased to tenants including KBR, TRC Environmental Corp., The University of Texas and Texas A&M University. Centennial Towers is located at 505 E. Huntland Drive, within walking distance of light rail transit from the Capital MetroRail Highland Station. The property was built in 1986 and has received several updates, including new lighting in 2012 and a conference room renovation in 2014.
ALBANY, N.Y. — Eastern Consolidated has arranged the off-market sale of 677 Broadway in Albany. Shelbourne Capitol LLC purchased the 180,000-square-foot office tower for $34.5 million, in a two-part transaction that included a $1.5 million land lease and the $33 million leasehold on the property. The 12-story, Class A office property features a 900-car parking garage owned by the City of Albany Parking Authority, a redundant fiber service, a Building Management System (BMS) to monitor all building and tenant HVAC equipment, an uninterrupted power source system and an emergency generator. Gabriel Saffioti and Nicole Rabinowitsch of Eastern Consolidated represented the buyer, while Ben Tapper and Michael Coghill, also of Eastern Consolidated, represented the seller, Albany-based Columbia 667 LLC, in the transaction.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has brokered a new, direct lease for AKF Group LLC at One Liberty Plaza in Lower Manhattan. The engineering firm signed a 15-year lease for 57,018 square feet of space at the 2.3 million-square-foot commercial office building owned by Brookfield. AKF will occupy the entire 44,378-square-foot 22nd floor and a portion of the 23rd floor at the building, which is located across from the World Trade Center. The firm is consolidating its presence downtown from locations at 1501 Broadway and 330 West 42nd Street in Midtown. Paul Mas, Michael Shenot, Ruby Hwang and Roxanne Tehranian of JLL represented the tenant in the transaction. Brookfield was represented in-house by Jeremiah Larkin and Duncan McCuaig, along with David Falk, Peter Shimkin, Hal Stein and Nick Berger of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.