ATLANTA — Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers LLP, a law firm with offices in Georgia and Alabama, has signed a lease for a 100,000-square-foot office space at 1420 Peachtree St. NE. in Midtown Atlanta. The firm is relocating from The Peachtree Tower at 1355 Peachtree St., where it has operated for more than 30 years. Tim McCarthy and Ryanne Pennington of JLL represented Swift Currie in the deal, and Chip Roach and Stephen Clifton of Transwestern representing the building’s owner, Franklin Street Properties Corp. Swift Currie has more than 160 lawyers total and 324 Atlanta-based employees. As the firm has grown over the years, Swift Currie said the reason for its move is to have a bigger office space. 1420 Peachtree is a 160,000-square-foot, Class-A office building. The eight-story building is currently being renovated in order to modernize common areas, improve amenities and upgrade the tenant spaces. The building features walk-out fourth floor balconies. Located at the intersection of Peachtree and West Peachtree streets, the building is situated a half-mile north of MARTA’s Art Center Station and offers immediate access to the Interstate 75/85 Connector and Ga. Highway 400, as well as Piedmont Park and the Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail.
Office
Contrary to what is often portrayed in the national media, the Orlando office market is not a monolith. It instead comprises multiple submarkets, many of which are recovering quite differently. For example, according to data from CoStar Group, Winter Park had a 4.7 percent availability rate (that’s direct and sublease space combined). The Downtown Orlando market, on the other hand, had a rate of 16.9 percent. The total Orlando MSA office availability rate was 11.5 percent, which compares to the national rate of 16 percent. All of these numbers just prove that the recovery from the pandemic is uneven, even in areas in close proximity. It’s easy to get lost in analysis, but the basic answer is that the office market in Orlando, just like in the entire country, will recover in time. Not all areas will be on the same timeline, and the office market will never look entirely the same. Between working from home and companies deciding to relocate their offices or headquarters entirely, there will be some short-term winners and losers. Texas, for instance, is having a relative boom in new tenants. Los Angeles, and indeed California in general, on the other hand, is not. Many companies …
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. — Meridian, in a joint venture with a larger institutional investment partner, has purchased Beverly Hills Medical Plaza, a medical office building located at 150 N. Robertson Blvd. in Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills Medical Plaza Properties sold the asset for $81.5 million in an off-market transaction. The 67,510-square-foot property has been family owned since it was originally built in 1989 and was 88 percent leased at the time of sale. The buyer plans to invest significant capital in building improvements. Kevin Shannon, Rob Hannan, Ken White and Steven Salas of Newmark represented the seller, while Meridian was self-represented in the transaction.
HOUSTON — A partnership between Chicago-based investment firm Harrison Street, 2ML Real Estate Interests and local developer Hines has broken ground on a 270,000-square-foot life sciences building in Houston. The building, which represents the first phase of the Levit Green mixed-use development, is located on a 53-acre site adjacent to Texas Medical Center. Additional uses at Levit Green will include retail, residential and office space. DE Harvey Builders is the general contractor for the project, which is slated for a fourth-quarter 2022 delivery. JLL is marketing the space for lease.
PLANO, TEXAS — Minneapolis-based developer Ryan Cos. will build a 400,000-square-foot office building at Legacy West, a mixed-use development located on the northern outskirts of Dallas in Plano. The 24-story building will offer amenities such as a fitness center, tenant lounge, café, multiple conference rooms and open green space. Gensler is designing the project, construction of which is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of next year and to wrap up by the first quarter of 2024. The building is already 50 percent preleased to global tax services and software provider Ryan LLC, and JLL is marketing the remaining space for lease.
IP Capital, Edge Principal Acquire 242,690 SF Fountain Square Office Property in Boca Raton, Florida
BOCA RATON, FLA. — IP Capital, in a joint venture with Edge Principal Advisors, has acquired Fountain Square, a Class A office campus totaling 242,690 square feet in Boca Raton. Bridge Investment Group’s office subsidiary Bridge Office Fund Manager and joint venture partner Ascentris sold the property for an undisclosed price. Christian Lee and José Lobón of CBRE represented the sellers in the transaction. Chris Drew, Maxx Carney, Reid Carleton and Jimmy Calvo of JLL arranged a $56.5 million, floating-rate acquisition loan through CIBC Bank USA on behalf of the borrower. Situated on roughly 15 acres at 2600–2700 N. Military Trail, Fountain Square is surrounded by 2 million square feet of retail amenities, including One Boca Place, which is home to 180,000 square feet of retail and 18 restaurants. Fountain Square is located close to Interstate 95 and the Florida Turnpike. Bridge and Ascentris purchased the property in 2017 and recently completed a $4.9 million capital improvement plan that included new lobbies, restrooms and common area corridors, conference center, outdoor pavilions and signage, along with 23,000 square feet of spec suites. Current tenants at the property include banking, legal, medical, dental, real estate and financial services firms.
ENDICOTT, N.Y. — An affiliate of Wisconsin-based Phoenix Investors has acquired the 4 million-square-foot former IBM headquarters campus in Endicott, located near the New York-Pennsylvania border. The site, which consists of 29 buildings on 130 acres and is currently known as the Huron Campus, houses industrial, office and R&D users. The campus was first converted to a multi-tenant development in the early 2000s and today serves as the workplace of more than 2,800 people, though IBM still maintains a presence on the property. The seller was not disclosed.
WATERTOWN, MASS. — Locally based developer Berkeley Investments will undertake a project to convert a building at 64 Pleasant St. in the western Boston suburb of Watertown into a 105,000-square-foot life sciences facility. The two-story building offers a conference room, rooftop deck, fitness center and outdoor gathering spaces. Berkeley will upgrade the property’s utility and mechanical systems, elevate the ceiling heights, introduce reinforced concrete floors and add lab space. SGA is the project architect. The development team hopes to complete core and shell construction by the end of next year. Newmark has been tapped to market the building for lease.
Swig Co. Receives $190M Loan to Refinance 633 Folsom Street Office Building in San Francisco
by Amy Works
SAN FRANCISCO — The Swig Co. has obtained $190 million in refinancing for 633 Folsom Street, an office building in the SOMA submarket of San Francisco. Bruce Ganong, Lillian Roos and Spencer Bergthold of JLL Capital Markets secured the seven-year, fixed-rate loan through Bank of China for the borrower. Originally developed in 1967, the building underwent significant a renovation and expansion, which was completed in 2021. The project added five new floors, all new building systems, exterior façade and an outdoor plaza. Asana, a cloud-based application for workplace management and team collaboration, fully leases the 271,000-square-foot property.
NEW YORK CITY — National law firm Lowenstein Sandler has signed a 125,700-square-foot office lease renewal and expansion at 1251 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan. The 54-story, 2.3 million-square-foot office tower is situated atop the Rockefeller Center subway hub in the borough’s Midtown area. David Falk, Peter Shimkin, Eric Cagner and Nick Berger of Newmark represented the landlord, Mitsui Fudosan America, in the lease negotiations. Michael Goldman and Philip Weiss of AttentivRE represented Lowenstein Sandler, which is extending its current lease and taking an additional 25,000 square feet on the 19th floor.