NEW YORK CITY — Curtis + Ginsberg Architects has signed an 11-year, 12,602-square-foot office lease at One Battery Park Plaza in Lower Manhattan. The design firm is relocating its headquarters from 55 Broad St. to the 27th floor of the 35-story, 870,000-square-foot building. Ruth Colp-Haber of Wharton Property Advisors represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Kevin Daly internally represented the landlord, Rudin, which originally developed the building in 1971.
LOS ANGELES — Hudson Pacific Properties has completed the sales of 604 Arizona and 3401 Exposition, two office buildings in Los Angeles, for aggregate gross proceeds of $72.5 million before prorations and closing costs. Combined, the two transactions will result in approximately a $22 million gain to be recognized in the third quarter. The company used the net proceeds to repay amounts outstanding on its unsecured revolving credit facility. The buyer was not disclosed. Hudson Pacific Properties is a provider of end-to-end real estate solutions for tech and media tenants.
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — Red Oak Capital Holdings has provided $8 million in financing under its opportunistic bridge loan program to a partnership between Frank Kimball and Scott D. Greenberg for an office building located at 1300 U St. in Sacramento. The borrower will use the loan to pay off outstanding debt and complete space planning and permitting on the property. The loan was structured with a fixed rate of 11 percent and a two-year term with two six-month renewal options. The interest-only loan represents 33.47 percent of the asset’s “as-stabilized” value of $23.9 million. Situated on 1.7 acres, the single-story 47,456-square-foot building is currently in shell condition and will be built out for the California Highway Patrol, which signed a long-term lease for the space. The property provides surface parking for 77 vehicles.
CHICAGO — Through a partnership with lulafit, Sterling Bay has opened The Factory, a new fitness and wellness space at its office building located at 600 W. Chicago Ave. The Factory totals 30,000 square feet. Users pay $35 per month and have access to a variety of offerings, including a yoga studio and meditation suite; recovery room with Therabody technology; spaces designed exclusively for HIIT, cardio, heavy bag workouts and group exercises; a sauna; steam room; and large turf installation. Built in 1908, the eight-story building formerly served as the Montgomery Ward catalog building until 2000. In 2021, with the building under the ownership and management of Sterling Bay, lulafit started designing a complete overhaul of the property’s fitness center. The Factory received more than 100 membership sign-ups on its first day, and almost 200 in its first two weeks. During its initial six months of operations, The Factory added 460 members. Data shows members utilize the space three to five times per week.
WILMETTE, ILL. — SVN Chicago Commercial has brokered the sale of a 7,260-square-foot commercial building in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette for $1.5 million. The Wayfarer Foundation, a Bahai-inspired organization, purchased the facility for its future headquarters. The property is located at the corner of 4th Street and Linden Avenue in Wilmette’s Linden Square commercial district, across the street from the CTA Linden Purple Line station. Wayne Caplan of SVN Chicago Commercial represented the undisclosed seller.
The Memphis office market posted 271,828 square feet of positive absorption in 2022, and that momentum has carried into the first half of 2023. Like most markets, Class A properties accounted for the majority of positive absorption, at 218,851 square feet. This trend has already carried into 2023, as Class A properties lead net absorption totals to begin the year. As a result of a strong year, the vacancy rate has fallen to 12.4 percent market-wide, an 840-basis-point decrease from the height of the pandemic. Additionally, sublease availabilities are less prevalent in Memphis than other comparable office markets. Currently there is 257,681 square feet of sublease space available in the Memphis market, which has a total net rentable area of 21.7 million square feet. The average among similarly sized Southeast markets is 422,624 square feet. There haven’t been substantial space additions to outweigh the below-average leasing activity thus far in 2023. The Memphis unemployment rate continues to trend downward to 3.2 percent in April, slightly lower than Tennessee’s 3.3 percent unemployment rate and the national rate of 3.7 percent. The tight labor market has increased demand in East Memphis, as tenants demand high-quality, highly amenitized buildings to attract and retain …
NEW YORK CITY — Short Term Capital, a locally based family office, has funded a $4.5 million acquisition loan for a 13,000-square-foot, five-story office building located at 150 W. 36th St. in Midtown Manhattan. The borrower, an undisclosed private investor, is under contract to purchase the building, which includes ground-floor retail space, from Falcon Properties for $6.5 million.
CLAYTON, MO. — U.S. Capital Development (USCD) has completed the lease-up of Forsyth Pointe, a 14-story office building totaling 226,000 square feet in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton. Emerson leased the remaining 105,000 square feet at the building as the new home for its global corporate headquarters. With the lease signing, the property will be renamed Emerson Tower. UMB Bank provided financing for the project. Amenities at Emerson Tower include a conference center and the Garden Terrace, which features one acre of green space, various seating areas, a putting green, fire pits and a 7,000-square-foot fitness center. USCD served as developer and Brentwood-Forsyth Partners 1 LLC is the owner.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Los Angeles-based investment firm CIM Group has sold Fifth + Tillery, a 182,700-square-foot office building in East Austin. Fifth + Tillery features outdoor balconies with heightened levels of natural light, as well as a landscaped courtyard with various outdoor amenities. CIM Group originally acquired the property in October 2019 shortly after construction began. According to multiple media outlets including The Austin American-Statesman, local transportation authority Capital Metro purchased the property for roughly $87 million.
HOUSTON — Colliers has arranged the sale of a 173,908-square-foot, eight-story office building that sits on a 4.4-acre site at 12941 N. Freeway in Houston. The property, which is known as The Wells Fargo Bank Building and is located on the city’s north side, was built in 1982, according to LoopNet Inc. David Carter of Colliers represented the seller, an entity doing business as North Houston LP, in the deal. Additional terms of sale were not disclosed.