FORT WORTH, TEXAS — A partnership between two Chicago-based investment firms, 3L Real Estate and Syndicated Equities, has purchased The Oncor, a 314,514-square-foot office building in downtown Fort Worth. The new ownership plans to convert the building into a 330-unit multifamily community with Class A amenities, including a pool, fitness center, rooftop deck and a business center. The seller and sales price were not disclosed. A construction timeline was also not released.
ATLANTA — CBRE has negotiated a 10,000-square-foot office lease at 55 Allen Plaza, a 14-story office building located at 55 Ivan Allen Blvd. in downtown Atlanta. The tenant, global retail payment advisor CMSPI, is doubling its footprint with this lease and will continue to occupy the office building’s fifth floor. The firm has been a tenant at 55 Allen Plaza since 2018 and uses the space as its North American headquarters. Paul Holmes of CBRE represented CMSPI in the lease negotiations. The landlord is Lone Star Funds, a global private equity firm that purchased the 348,658-square-foot property in 2020. In addition to offices, 55 Allen Plaza features a 5,000-square-foot fitness center with private lockers and showers, a 100-person conference center, catering kitchen, sundry shop and covered parking. Tenants have walkability to downtown’s nearby hotels, museums, restaurants and the Civic Center MARTA station.
SHELTON, CONN. — Locally based brokerage firm Vidal/Wettenstein has arranged the sale of a 32,325-square-foot office complex in Shelton, located outside of New Haven in southern Connecticut. According to LoopNet Inc., the property was built on 3.1 acres in 1967 and renovated in 1987. Bruce Wettenstein of Vidal/Wettenstein represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. Wettenstein also procured the buyer, an affiliate of New York-based investment firm Kirchhoff, which plans to redevelop the property into a self-storage facility.
CHICAGO, ALGONQUIN AND SWANSEA, ILL. — IWG has unveiled plans to open four new flexible workspaces in Illinois. The new locations include a Spaces center and an HQ center in Chicago as well as Regus centers in Algonquin and Swansea. All four locations will offer IWG’s full suite of facilities, including private offices, coworking and collaboration spaces, meeting rooms and a host of tech services. IWG says the new Illinois locations reflect the growing demand for flexible workspaces in large cities and smaller communities alike. IWG is opening the vast majority of its new locations in partnership with commercial real estate owners, developers and franchisee investors.
CHICAGO — CBRE has negotiated the sale of a 20,000-square-foot office building in Chicago’s West Loop for an undisclosed price. Located at 1218 W. Adams St., the property served as the Chicago headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America’s Pathway to Adventure Council since 1995. Tom Svoboda and Phil DeBoer of CBRE represented the seller, the Boy Scouts of America’s Pathway to Adventure Council. The buyer, Kensington School, plans to redevelop the building. Svoboda also represented the Boy Scouts in purchasing an 8,200-square-foot office suite at 1100 W. Washington Blvd. in Chicago’s West Loop.
LINCOLN PARK, N.J. — CBRE has negotiated a 40,000-square-foot office and industrial lease renewal in the Northern New Jersey community of Lincoln Park. Thomas Mallaney and Denise Kokulak of CBRE represented the tenant, Hishi Plastics USA, a division of Mitsubishi Chemical America, in the lease negotiations. The Frassetto Cos. owns the building.
NEW YORK CITY — Alcoholic beverage provider Rémy Cointreau has signed a 29,852-square-foot office lease at 3 Times Square in Midtown Manhattan. The lease spans the entire 20th floor for 10 years. The 30-story building, which originally opened in 2001 as the North American headquarters of Reuters, is currently undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation. Ron Lo Russo of Cushman & Wakefield and internal agent Tom Keating represented the landlord, Rudin, in the lease negotiations. Peter Sabesan, Richard Selig, Nicholas Markel and Benjamin Grajzgrund of Cresa represented Rémy Cointreau, which plans to relocate from 1290 Avenue of the Americas this summer.
Talk to any commercial broker across the Raleigh-Durham market and you will hear much of the same feedback. In answer to the basic questions, one hears, “The in-office work week is now three days, primarily Tuesday through Thursday.” This trend, which was slowly becoming more evident over the last 20 years with the growth of the digital economy, was accelerated by the pandemic. And further aided by the wider availability of high-speed internet, the demands of the digital workforce are taking people out of their offices and, in some cases, around the world. Companies that value their digital workers are letting them make business decisions that affect the office building markets around the world. It is fascinating to watch. Recent data published by Kastle Systems (a keycard and security supplier for commercial buildings) shows that based on keycard swipes across the 10 largest cities in the United States, we are witnessing structural change in both the traditional work week and employee work hours, in degrees that are directly impacting the need for office space. As a result, employers are downsizing their leased footprints, opting for less square footage and/or shorter leases. Those companies with large numbers of digital workers are …
ALLEN, TEXAS — Avison Young has brokered the sale of a 115,200-square-foot office building located at 805 S. Central Expressway in Allen, a northeastern suburb of Dallas. Susan Gwin Burks, John Bowles, Bruce Butler and Philip Boren of Avison Young, along with Clint Madison and Rodney Helm of Cushman & Wakefield, represented the seller, Gladstone Commercial, in the transaction. Matt Middendorf of Middendorf Commercial Real Estate represented the buyer, Sol-Ark, which provides solar and other energy storage products. The new ownership plans to take full occupancy of the building, which was originally constructed in 1998.
CAMDEN, N.J. — Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) will invest $50 million in capital improvements to its headquarters campus in the Southern New Jersey community of Camden. The project will both enhance existing workspaces and amenity spaces as well as deliver new ones. As part of the initiative, the company will consolidate its offices in Charlotte and Norwalk, Conn., into the Camden office, yielding a regional workforce of about 1,600 employees. Campbell Soup has been headquartered in Camden since 1869, and this project represents the first renovation of the campus since 2010. Construction is set to begin in March. Employees will begin relocating from the other offices later this year.