STAMFORD, CONN. — The Landis Group’s Class A office tower, located at 400 Atlantic St. in Stamford, has achieved LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for Existing Buildings. In 2012, the management at 400 Atlantic assembled an in-house team to incorporate a variety of sustainable initiatives and cost-cutting strategies, including changes in electrical usage, fuel/gas consumption and hardscape management.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Atlanta-based Cousins Properties Inc. has broken ground on Colorado Tower, a 371,000-square-foot, Class A office tower in downtown Austin's Warehouse District. Dude/Paine Architects designed the 29-story building under the Austin Energy Green Building 2 star program. Colorado Tower will feature a fitness facility and conference center. Two firms, DuBois, Bryant & Campbell LLP and Scott, Douglass & McConnico LLP, have pre-leased space in the tower. Colorado Tower is expected to be substantially complete by December 2014.
CHICAGO — Cole Real Estate Investments, on behalf of Cole Corporate Income Trust Inc., has acquired the Hillshire Brands Co. headquarters in Chicago’s West Loop for $97.5 million. Sterling Bay Cos. reportedly purchased the empty 233,869-square-foot building in 2012 for $10 million, and spent about $50 million to build-out the property for Hillshire. All of the infrastructure and building components were redone, and windows were added on all four exposures, expanding the amount of natural light. “One of the key factors was the long-term lease — nearly 15 years — with an investment-grade tenant,” says Boyd Messmann, senior vice president of office and industrial acquisitions.
HOUSTON — Houston-based Boxer Property has acquired Northwest Central Plaza, a 75,289-square-foot office building located at 5500 N.W. Central Drive in Houston. The two-story property is currently vacant. Boxer Property also owns the adjacent property, 5600 N.W. Central Drive.
NEW YORK CITY — Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates Inc. (KDA) has arranged the sale of an 8,800-square-foot property at 16-13 Stephen St. in the Ridgewood section of Queens for $1.3 million. Howard Darsi of KDA represented the buyer, Jack Pierson Studio, while Jean Cook, also of KDA, represented the seller, Stephen Street Realty LLC, in the transaction. Jack Pierson relocated to 16-13 Stephen Street from 70 Greenwich Ave. in Manhattan, and will use the location as a studio. Located between Cypress and Wyckoff avenues, the property provides easy access to Manhattan and Brooklyn via the L subway line.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Nebraska-based Tenaska Inc. has renewed its 32,102-square-foot lease at the Offices at Brookhollow in Arlington. The Offices at Brookhollow is an 80,104-square-foot office development at 1701 E. Lamar Blvd. Karen Simon and Brian Scott of Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services represented the landlord, 1031 Arlington LLC, in the five-year lease renewal. Renee Efimoff of SCM Real Estate Services Inc. represented the tenant.
LONE TREE, COLO. – A new 467,000-square foot Charles Schwab campus has broken ground in Lone Tree. The $200-million campus will be situated on more than 40 acres in the RidgeGate community just southeast of Denver. It will allow the brokerage and banking company to consolidate three of its Denver service center facilities. The campus will contain a two-story retail branch building, two additional five-story office buildings and a 15,000-square-foot employee dining facility. It is striving for LEED-Gold certification. The project is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2014. It will be built by Mortenson Construction and designed by Fentress Architects.
DULUTH, GA. — Financial services and marketing firm Primerica Inc. has opened its new global headquarters in Duluth. The 365,000-square-foot facility will house 1,600 of the company's 1,700 Gwinnett County-based employees, and has the capacity for an additional 200 people. The three-story building includes 58 conference rooms, a theater and adjoining TV studio, a 248-seat cafe and an interactive tour named “Imagine,” designed to showcase the new headquarters to current and prospective representatives and employees. Duke Realty was the project developer.
CHICAGO — South Korean-based investor Mirae Asset Global Investments has purchased 225 W. Wacker in Chicago from 225 West Wacker Acquisition Co. for $218 million. Mirae also borrowed $115 million in acquisition financing through Principal Real Estate Investors and Allianz Real Estate of America, which provided the five-year loan. The 650,812-square-foot property is currently 91 percent leased to tenants including Edwards Wildman Palmer, PPM America, Merrill Lynch, CBIZ, Booz & Co., True Partners Consulting and Apple. Bruce Miller, Jim Postweiler and Nooshin Felsenthal of Jones Lang LaSalle led the sales team, while Keith Largay, Dave Hendrickson and Ian Russell, also of Jones Lang LaSalle, led the financing efforts in the transaction.
LOMBARD, ILL. — The Alter Group has sold 1800 Springer Drive, a 60,838-square-foot office/data center building in Lombard, to CyrusOne. The data company occupies 96 percent of the space. The 427,000-square-foot property is located in the Oak Creek Center business park, an 11-building, 70-acre office complex originally developed by The Alter Group. Scott Latter of EnTrust Realty Advisors LLC and Jeffrey Ludwig of Alter360 represented the owner in the transaction. CyrusOne provides mission-critical data center facilities that protect and ensure the continued operation of IT infrastructure for more than 500 customers.