SAN FRANCISCO – A global investment manager has purchased a 75,523-square-foot creative office property for $48.2 million. The transit-oriented building is located at 1019 Market Street. The space is situated within one block of the Civic Center and Power Street BART/Muni subway stations. It is within two blocks of the future Central Subway project, which will provide access to Caltrain with connections to the Peninsula and Silicon Valley. The building was originally constructed in 1909. It was completely redeveloped in 2013. The space is fully leased to cloud-based customer service firm Zendesk. There is also a small ground-floor, triple-net retail tenant that’s signed on for 10 years. The seller, a joint venture between certain affiliates of Westport Capital Partners LLC and Cannae Partners LLC, was represented by HFF’s Steven Golubchik, Nicholas Bicardo, John Simerlein, Nathan Blair and Josh DiSalle.
LOS ANGELES – Manning & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP has renewed its lease for 80,328 square feet of office space in Downtown Los Angeles. The space is located at 801 S. Figueroa Street. The law firm has used the Class A tower as its corporate headquarters since 2006. It occupied floors 12 through 16. This transaction included a restructure of the firm’s existing commitment, as well as a long-term lease extension.
The Atlanta office market’s decline in vacancies continued in the third quarter of 2014, with the quarter ending at 17.9 percent, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield. This rate is the first drop below 18 percent since the first quarter of 2009. These gains in office occupancy represent a 130 basis point decrease in vacancy from the end of 2013 and a 150 basis point decrease year-over-year. The research presented by Cushman & Wakefield showed healthy absorption totaling more than 450,000 square feet during the third quarter of 2014, giving the Atlanta market 11 consecutive quarters of net occupancy gains. This quarterly absorption brings the total year-to-date to 1.7 million square feet, an increase of 54 percent compared to the pace during the same period in 2013. “Atlanta is seeing consistent momentum in terms of tenant activity and absorption,” says Logan Menne, the research manager of Cushman & Wakefield. “As vacancy continues to tighten, the supply of existing available options is becoming more and more limited. Additionally, due to the increased demand from tenants in the Atlanta market, many landlords are beginning to increase asking rents, particularly in high-demand submarkets like Buckhead and Central Perimeter.” Several large lease …
CHICAGO — Morgan/Harbour has completed the first phase of renovations planned for Kehoe Designs in Chicago. The full-service event décor and design company will occupy space at 2555 S. Leavitt St. The firm is consolidating four locations, including its headquarters at 2108 W. Walnut St. in Chicago, and relocating to the Pilsen neighborhood warehouse. The first phase of the construction totaled 20,000 square feet and included the addition of four showrooms along with new production areas for floral, fabrics, lighting, graphics, welding, carpentry and CNC production departments. The second phase of construction, which is currently underway, will include converting 25,000 square feet of industrial space into an event space that can accommodate up to 1,000 attendees. Morgan/Harbour’s construction team includes Graeme Foster and Jerry Hawkinson. FitzGerald Associates Architects is providing the architectural services for the renovation project.
NEW YORK CITY — New York-based ABS Partners Real Estate has invested $10 million for a capital improvement campaign at 915 Broadway, a 20-story office/retail property located at the southwest corner of 21st Street and Broadway in New York City. The firm tapped GKV and Javier Delagarza Architecture to design new corridors, high-end restrooms, high-grade lighting, elliptical ductwork, and well-appointed pantries. Additionally, the upgrades include full-glass office fronts, wood floors and open ceilings. Renovations took place on the fifth floor, after which the entire floor was leased to tenants, including Path Interactive and Gradian. Now work has commenced on the tenth floor.
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. — Houlihan-Parnes Realtors has placed an acquisition loan and credit facility totaling $13.2 million on two properties in Yorktown Heights. Located at 2649-2651 Strang Blvd., the corporate park contains a total of 209,078 square feet of rentable office space, which will be managed and leased by GHP Office Realty. The interest-only loan, which was placed with a local bank, features a 3.875 percent interest rate for three years, a renewal option and a flexible pre-pay schedule. Kelly Houlihan-Buckley and James Houlihan of Houlihan-Parnes secured the financing. John Hughes and James Maloney of Great American Title arranged the title. Elizabeth Smith of Goldberg Weprin Finkel Goldstein LLP provided legal counsel to the undisclosed borrower. GHP Office Realty is the office building division of Houlihan-Parnes Realtors LLC.
SALT LAKE CITY – The 9,234-square-foot Metro Place office building in Salt Lake City has sold to a local social security disability law firm for an undisclosed sum. The building is located at 243 East 400 South. The law firm plans to occupy the space. The seller, ACRES Metro LLC, was represented by Mark Jensen, of Newmark Grubb ACRES.
MIAMI — Swire Properties Inc. has announced that Akerman LLP, a leading transactions and trial law firm, will be the lead office tenant of Brickell City Centre, a $1.05 billion, 5 million-square-foot mixed-use development underway in Miami. Akerman will occupy approximately 108,000 square feet once construction is complete in 2015. The law firm will occupy 80 percent of the Class A office space at Brickell City Centre Green, which is one of two office buildings under construction at the development. Brickell City Centre Green will be located at 98 S.E. Seventh St. Akerman’s Miami office employs 160 lawyers, making it the largest law office in Florida. The law firm has played a significant legal role in the development of Brickell City Centre as real estate and land use counsel to Swire Properties. Tere Blanca of Blanca Commercial Real Estate represented Akerman in the lease transaction. Alexander Cahlin and David Valdez of Blanca Commercial Real Estate assisted in the deal.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Trinity Capital Advisors and joint venture partner DRA Advisors LLC, has acquired a 33-story, 584,315-square-foot office building located at 400 S. Tryon St. in downtown Charlotte for an undisclosed price. The building is 92 percent leased, with Duke Energy as its anchor tenant. Rob Cochran, Bill Collins, Jud Ryan and Craig Evans of Cassidy Turley represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. Trinity Partners has been hired to lease and manage the asset.
Atlanta is the economic engine of the Southeast, which is the fastest growing region in the country. With a population of 5.5 million across the 28-county metro area, the city is the ninth-largest metro nationally and is projected to be the sixth most populated by 2020. Atlanta’s high quality of life and low cost of living make it an ideal destination for young and educated talent around the region, as well as growing companies. Atlanta is home to 16 Fortune 500 companies and the busiest airport in the world — the recipe for a business boom and hot office real estate sector. According to Georgia State University’s Economic Forecasting Center, Atlanta is projected to add 305,000 new jobs between 2010 and 2016, with a drop in the unemployment rate to 5.7 percent in the same timeframe from the current rate of 7.5. That is a 13.5 percent increase in job growth over six years. The technology, homebuilding and service sectors are returning to health, if not climbing to new heights. According to CBRE’s U.S. Tech-Twenty research report, tech employment in Atlanta rose nearly 11 percent between 2011 and 2013. CBRE Research also finds that Atlanta’s recovery is underpinned by an …