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.
Office
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.
LOS ANGELES – A 9,252-square-foot office building in the Los Angeles submarket of Sherman Oaks has sold to a local private investor for $3.2 million. The building is located at 14101 Valleyheart Drive. The buyer will occupy about half the property for its home nursing provider business. The property was originally built in 1985. Bogun Realty represented the investor. The seller, CG Investments, was represented by Roger L. Beck and Gelena Skya-Wasserman of Charles Dunn Company.
HOUSTON — Nelson Murphree Legacy Partners LLC has begun construction on a new office project located at 1885 St. James Place, just northwest of the Galleria in Houston. The new, 15-story Class A office development is expected to be complete in early 2016. Jackson & Ryan is the project’s architect and Tellepson Builders is the general contractor. The project will include 165,146 square feet of rentable space on the top nine floors, which will sit atop six levels of parking.
AUSTIN — HFF has arranged the sale of Stonecreek I and II and Canyon at Wild Basin, a three-building, Class A office portfolio totaling 314,399 square feet in Austin. HFF marketed the properties on behalf of the seller, Intercontinental Real Estate Group. A private real estate fund advised by Crow Holdings Capital Real Estate purchased Stonecreek I and II. CapRidge Partners LLC purchased Canyon at Wild Basin. Stonecreek I and II are located at 11920 and 11921 North Mopac Expressway just north of The Domain in northwest Austin. The buildings are 98 percent leased to tenants including CoreLogic, Time Warner, Century Link, Intellimark, TSMC and Siemens. Canyon at Wild Basin is located at 115 Wild Basin Road in southwest Austin. The building is 80 percent leased to tenants including Open Symmetry, Alliance Association Management, owns & Stanford, Dynamic Computing Services, X1 Labs, Creative Solutions and Cloud 8 Sixteen.
DALLAS — KDC and Invesco Real Estate have begun construction on a 12-story, 150,000-square-foot office building in Uptown Dallas. The planned Class A office building will be located at 1920 McKinney Ave. and will feature six stories of office space on top of a six-story parking structure. The ground floor will have 8,500 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The building is scheduled for completion in early 2016.
KATY, TEXAS — Q10 | Kinghorn, Driver, Hough & Co. has arranged a $4.5 million loan for the refinancing of the Entrust Office Building in Katy, a suburb of Houston. The 32,382-square-foot building, located near the Grand Parkway and Westpark Tollway, is the result of a collaboration between The Mission Cos. and Entrust Inc. Thrivent Financial provided the 10-year loan, which includes a 25-year amortization schedule. Ray Driver III and Dave Holland of Kinghorn worked to arrange the transaction.
HOUSTON — HFF has arranged both the sale and financing for 8 West Centre, a new Class A office building on the Houston Tollway in Houston. HFF marketed the property on behalf of the seller, Core Real Estate. Azrieli Group, a real estate investment company based in Tel Aviv, purchased the asset for an undisclosed price. HFF assisted Azrieli in securing a five-year, fixed-rate acquisition loan through Aegon USA Realty Advisors LLC. Completed in 2013, 8 West Centre is a 227,045-square-foot, four-story property with a 938-space parking garage. The LEED Silver designated building is fully leased to two tenants, Cameron International Corp. and Helix Energy Solutions. The property sits on nine acres at 3505 W. Sam Houston Parkway North inside the Beltway 8 loop road. The HFF team representing the seller included Dan Miller, Rusty Tamlyn, Mark West and Trent Agnew. HFF’s debt placement team included Matt Kafka and Wally Reid.