— By Scott Romick — The Western region is going through a lot of changes when it comes to the office market. Downtown San Francisco, in particular, was a large tech hub with so much infrastructure prior to the pandemic, but it’s currently become more of a ghost town. Because hybrid and remote work is common now, many of the workers who are back to the office have moved to local submarkets that offer faster commutes, more efficiency, affordability and other key factors. Southern California, on the other hand, is a growth market. Suburban areas like the San Fernando Valley’s Sherman Oaks — which has become more active than the West Valley — continues to expand its population. This helps the office market as well as existing and new retailers. Even pockets like Encino, Studio City and Burbank have become more populous, attracting a young workforce given their proximity to local restaurants, coffee shops and parks. Unfortunately, Downtown Los Angeles is still struggling to recover as a central business district, Century City is rebounding slowly and Santa Monica is shifting in its downtown area, given the nature of office structures and their footprints. Hybrid & Regionalized Real Estate The hybrid work …
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ITASCA, ILL. — Skender has completed interior construction on the new 50,000-square-foot office for AIT Worldwide Logistics at Two Pierce Place within the Hamilton Lakes Business Park in Itasca. AIT, a global supply chain solutions company, occupies floors 20, 21 and 25 within the 25-story, 494,000-square-foot office tower. The build-out included 210 workstations, 43 enclosed offices, nine conference rooms, a boardroom, 2,000-square-foot café, dedicated reception area and game room, along with several collaboration areas throughout the floors. The project team included Partners by Design as architect, RLE as owner’s represtnative and Advance Consulting Group as engineer.
NEW YORK CITY — JLL has negotiated the $27.5 million sale of flex property located at 185 Van Dyke St. in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood that was originally built in the mid-1800s. According to LoopNet Inc., the property totals 100,697 square feet and can support office, retail and light industrial uses. Michael Mazzara, Bob Knakal, Stephen Palmese, Brendan Maddigan, Hall Oster, Jonathan Hageman, Ethan Stanton, Winfield Clifford and Connor McCullough of JLL represented the seller, locally based investment firm Lande Alexander Properties, in the transaction. Dan Morici, also with JLL, represented the buyer, San Francisco-based Terreno Realty Corp.
SOUTHFIELD, MICH. — Friedman Real Estate has brokered the sale of a 62,752-square-foot office building in Southfield for an undisclosed price. The property is located at 16500 W. 12 Mile Road. Robert Moon of Friedman represented the seller, Atlas Holding Corp. The buyer, Kensington Community Church, will occupy the building.
— By Lisa Stewart, Senior Managing Director, JLL; and Nick Menghini, Puget Sound Research Manager, JLL — Real estate market participants are maintaining cautious optimism for improved conditions across the Puget Sound as signs of vitality are emerging despite persistently challenging economic forces. Viewed through the lens of prior real estate cycles, it’s clear the Seattle area has a greater critical mass of highly skilled talent and a broader, more resilient economic base than previous slowdowns. Among the promising indicators are the Puget Sound’s rebound of population in-migration, from net outflows during the pandemic to more than 53,000 new residents moving here in the first half of the year. Seattle now lays claim to being the fastest growing of the top 50 U.S. cities, according to Census data. Several leading employers are also growing again. This includes Boeing, which has more hiring underway than in years’ past. Rising star Blue Origin has had about half as many open positions as Boeing over the past 12 months. The life sciences sector is further expanding as Big Pharma firms like Pfizer, Moderna and Novartis join homegrown startups with significant Puget Sound presences. Overall, companies encouraging a return-to-office (RTO) have brought more daytime foot traffic to employment …
DALLAS — M Financial Group, an Oregon-based financial services firm, has signed a 52,000-square-foot office lease at The Quad, a 364,000-square-foot office and retail development in Uptown Dallas. Stream Realty Partners is developing The Quad and targeting a March 2024 completion. Ryan Evanich and Marissa Parkin of Stream Realty Partners represented ownership in the lease negotiations. Dean Collins, Mark Collins and Doug Deurwaarder of Cushman & Wakefield represented M Financial Group. Other office users that have committed to The Quad include Blackstone affiliate Revantage (32,000 square feet) and Chicago Title (20,000 square feet).
LIVINGSTON, N.J. — Boutique law firm A.Y. Strauss has signed a 10,728-square-foot office lease at The Eisenhower, a 384,000-square-foot campus located in the Northern New Jersey community of Livingston. Harland Hollander of Savills represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Jonathan Meisel, Dan Casey and Erin Wenzler of CBRE, along with internal agent Eric Maurer, represented the landlord, Eastman Cos.
By Mike Rensch, Investors Realty The Omaha office market is facing an increasing amount of sublease space, which is having a significant impact on what spaces tenants prefer to lease right now. This is directly affecting all aspects of the overall office market as well. As the second quarter came to a close, the direct vacancy rate was 7.4 percent, compared with 7.6 percent in the second quarter of 2022. With that said, those numbers do not paint the whole picture because they do not account for the amount of sublease space on the market. The availability rate (which includes direct space and sublease space available) was at 9.8 percent compared with 8.4 percent in the second quarter of 2022. We see this trend continuing for the time being as companies grapple with whether or not to bring their employees back to the office. At the end of the second quarter, there was 841,000 square feet of sublease space available in Omaha, up from 723,000 square feet at the end of the second quarter of 2022. This represents a 14 percent increase in sublease space over the past year. It reached its peak of 919,000 square feet of available …
Feil Organization Signs Law Firm to Two Office Leases in Metairie, Louisiana Totaling 11,158 SF
by John Nelson
METAIRIE, LA. — The Feil Organization has signed personal injury law firm Morris Bart to two leases in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie totaling 11,158 square feet. The tenant will occupy 2,248 square feet on the first floor of Oakwood Corporate Center, as well as 1,644 square feet on the first floor of Three Lakeway and another 7,266 square feet on the building’s 24th floor. Barry Spizer of SRSA Real Estate represented the tenant in both lease deals. Meghan Reed of Property One represented Feil Organization in the Oakwood Corporate Center lease, and Bruce Sossaman of Corporate Realty represented the landlord in the Three Lakeway lease. Morris Bart employs more than 100 attorneys and more than 150 legal professionals across 15 offices in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.
INDIANAPOLIS — Government Investment Partners (GIP) has acquired three office and retail buildings located near Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis for roughly $14 million. The adjacent properties are located at 2 N. Meridian St., 20 W. Washington St. and 24 W. Washington St. The primary tenant is the Indiana Department of Health, which recently signed a 10-year lease extension for the entire 161,400 square feet of office space across all three buildings for its headquarters. The ground-floor retail space is leased to Bank of America, T-Mobile and Taco Bell Cantina, which recently signed a 2,860-square-foot lease to occupy the former Sugarfire Smokhouse space. There is 12,000 square feet of available retail and restaurant space, including the former homes of Rock Bottom Brewery and Pearings Café. Alex Cantu, Alex Davenport and Rachel Patten of Colliers represented the sellers, Two North Meridian Co. and John Goodman. Goodman will have a continued role with the properties as a consultant to GIP. Founded in 2016, GIP is a real estate investment, development and management firm specializing in properties leased to federal, state and local government entities. The firm’s portfolio now totals more than 30 buildings in 18 states.