NEW YORK CITY — SVB Securities, an investment bank specializing in the healthcare and technology sectors, has signed a 68,183-square-foot office lease expansion at 1301 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan. The tenant now occupies 139,176 square feet at the 1.7 million-square-foot building, which is owned by locally based investment firm Paramount Group Inc. (NYSE: PGRE).
HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. — Heritage-Crystal Clean Inc. (HCC) has signed an 11-year office lease for 39,000 square feet at Bell Works Chicagoland in Hoffman Estates. The company is the property’s largest tenant to date. HCC plans to move its team of 180 workers from its longtime home in Elgin to Bell Works Chicagoland in August. The publicly traded environmental products and services company will occupy space on the third floor. NELSON Worldwide will design the office. Sven Sykes of Colliers represented HCC in the lease, while Steve Kling of Colliers represented ownership. Bell Works Chicagoland is the redevelopment of the former AT&T campus being undertaken by New Jersey-based Somerset Development.
MONTEREY PARK, CALIF. — BH Properties has acquired a 120,191-square-foot suburban commercial office campus in Monterey Park from Blue Shield of California in a $15 million sale/leaseback transaction. Andrew Harper, Will Poulsen, Matt McRoskey and Owen Muller of JLL marketed the property on behalf of Blue Shield. Situated on 7.9 acres, the asset features a 91,363-square-foot building and a 28,828-square-foot property, both of which serve as the headquarters of Blue Shield’s Promise Health Plan, a managed care organization. Blue Shield will continue to occupy the asset through July 2023.
SEATTLE — Barings and Schnitzer West LLC have sold Madison Centre, a 37-story office tower in downtown Seattle, for $730 million. The buyer was Boston Properties Inc. (NYSE: BXP). Completed in September 2017 and currently 93 percent leased, Madison Centre spans 760,971 rentable square feet and features 480 parking stalls. Amenities include a rooftop terrace, great room, conference center, boardroom, library and a fitness center operated by the Washington Athletic Club. Certified LEED Platinum, the building features HVAC purification systems and touchless entry. “The property is positioned to compete post-COVID with exactly what tenants are looking for and has performed extremely well throughout our hold period,” says Ben Green, managing director with Barings, which developed Madison Centre in partnership with Schnitzer West. Located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Madison Street, the office tower is located five blocks south of Seattle’s retail core, one block west of the Interstate 5 freeway and four blocks southeast of a Link light rail station. Kevin Shannon, Nick Kucha, Ken White and Mike Moll of Newmark brokered the sale. “This is the largest multi-tenant office sale in the nation year to date, and the asset garnered significant investor interest globally,” says Shannon, co-head, …
WESTMINSTER, COLO. — Certus has completed the sale of Church Ranch Corporate Center, a Class A office property located along the US-30/Denver-Boulder corridor in Westminster. Lotus Co. acquired the building for $25.4 million. Built in 2001 and renovated in 2020, the four-story, multi-tenant asset features 124,500 square feet of office space. At the time of sale, the property was 90 percent leased to 14 tenants. The building is located at 10170 Church Ranch Way. Cushman & Wakefield’s Aaron Johnson, Jon Hendrickson and Mitch Veremeychik represented the seller in the deal. Additionally, Baxter Fain, Rob Cronenberg and Sarah Dinning of Cushman & Wakefield’s Denver Equity, Debt & Structured Finance Group arranged the debt financing for the buyer. A CMBS lender provided the $16.5 million, 10-year, full-term, interest-only loan.
DALLAS — Newmark has signed a 46,338-square-foot office lease at The Link at Uptown. The move will consolidate three of the commercial real estate services firm’s regional offices into a single location at 2601 Olive St. in Dallas. John Wolf represented Newmark in the lease negotiations on an internal basis. Sarah Kennington and Bryce Jackson at Thirty-Four Commercial, along with Blake Shipley at JLL, represented the landlord, Kaizen Development Partners. Newmark plans to take occupancy in the fourth quarter. The company will continue to operate its office at Legacy Business Park.
BYRON CENTER, MICH. — Nonprofit World Renew has opened a new headquarters at 8970 Byron Commerce Drive in Byron Center, about 13 miles south of Grand Rapids. World Renew works to end global poverty through food security, economic livelihoods, peace building and health. The organization also repairs homes after natural disasters and provides shelter, food and water to those who have lost their homes. The new headquarters is situated within a 31,000-square-foot building constructed by Pinnacle Construction. World Renew previously worked out of two separate spaces. Kristen Moore of Colliers West Michigan assisted the organization in securing its new space.
MIDLAND PARK AND FAIR LAWN, N.J. — Azarian Realty Co. has signed two new office leases in Northern New Jersey. Two therapy groups have respectively leased 1,196 and 2,331 square feet in Midland Park and Fair Lawn. Kevin Pelio and James Azarian of Azarian Realty represented both parties in the first set of lease negotiations. The duo also represented the landlord in the second deal, while Nupur Darji of Sure Sell Real Estate represented the tenant.
By Jerry Holdner, Southern California Region Lead, Avison Young The Greater Los Angeles office sector is experiencing a fragmented and slow recovery post-pandemic as the fallout is being addressed in various ways by office tenants, investors and owners. The first quarter of 2022 ended with a 15.4 percent office vacancy rate, which was up from 15 percent at the end of 2021. It is also up from the previous high of 13.1 percent that was recorded in 2010. We started to see several companies require their employees to return to work at least in some capacity in the first quarter, which typically included a hybrid schedule. With gas prices soaring and an extremely competitive job market, hybrid situations have been significant bargaining chips for employers to attract and retain employees. That said, we don’t see leasing demand returning to pre-COVID levels for at least 12 to 24 months or longer. Office occupiers have and will continue to evaluate both their short- and long-term occupancy strategies. With all indicators pointing to hybrid work remaining indefinitely, office users are seeking to reduce their footprints. This typically involves a flight to quality as office rents are low and concessions are consistently on the table for new leases …
LONGVIEW, TEXAS — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of 80 West Self Storage, a 445-unit facility in Longview, located about 120 miles east of Dallas. The facility spans 76,814 net rentable square feet. Brandon Karr and Danny Cunningham of Marcus & Millichap represented the seller, a private investor, in the transaction. The duo also procured a privately held investment group as the buyer. Both parties requested anonymity.