HOUSTON — David Z Mafrige Interests (DZMI) has acquired The Tower at 290, a 12-story, 245,846-square-foot office building located near the junction of U.S. Highway 290 and Loop 610 in northwest Houston. The new ownership plans to implement a value-add program and has tapped Stream Realty Partners as the leasing agent. A renovation of the lobby is already underway, and enhancements of various common and amenity spaces are also forthcoming. The seller and sales price were not disclosed.
TAMPA, FLA. — Suffolk plans to construct Gasworx, a mixed-use development in Tampa’s Ybor City, on behalf of the co-developers, Darryl Shaw and Kettler. The project will feature up to 5,000 residences, 500,000 square feet of office space and 140,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and service retailers. Suffolk will deliver multiple projects within the Gasworx development, including a 100-000-square-foot office building and a more than 500-space parking structure wrapped with a five-story residential building. Suffolk and the development team plan to break ground this summer.
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — MetLife Investment Management has unveiled plans to reposition its 197-acre office campus in Bedminster, about 45 miles west of New York City, into a life sciences development named Bedminster Technology Center. MetLife has retained JLL to lead the repositioning of the property. Formerly home of AT&T and long known as One AT&T Way, the property consists of four interconnected buildings totaling 939,795 square feet. The campus includes a global network operations center, heliport and 15 acres of covered and surface parking. AT&T built the campus for its own use in 1975. MetLife acquired the property, which is now fully vacant, in 2006. The Township of Bedminster has rezoned the property to accommodate up to 2 million square feet of total development targeted toward biotech research and development and advanced manufacturing uses. Additionally, about 300,000 square feet is available for a conference center, hotel and amenities that could include a fitness center, restaurants and/or retail. Dan Loughlin is leading a JLL team that will market the property for single or multi-tenant lease, sale or site redevelopment with acreage for sale. According to JLL, Bedminster Technology Center presents an opportunity to create the first life sciences development in the …
— By Taylor Stokes, Market Intelligence Analyst, Avison Young — The Los Angeles office market continues to struggle with a 24.7 percent vacancy rate at the end of the first quarter of 2024, according to Avison Young’s first-quarter Los Angeles office market report. Leasing activity picked up slightly in the first quarter of 2024 with 951 leases recorded. This equated to 3.5 million square feet, up 5.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2023 when there were 902 leases signed. To put the decline of occupancy in perspective, 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 was also up from the previous high of 13.1 percent that was recorded in 2010. There were a couple lease transactions to highlight in the first quarter of 2024. Snap picked up 400,000 square feet in Santa Monica, while Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi signed a nearly 62,000-square-foot lease in Downtown Los Angeles. Downtown continues to struggle with the highest vacancy in the market at 28.6 percent. The anticipated return to office hasn’t happened, as many users see the hybrid work schedule continuing for the long-term. They, therefore, …
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Daye North America, a manufacturer of outdoor power equipment, has signed a full-building office lease at 901 Tuck, an adaptive reuse project located at 901 Tuckaseegee Road in Charlotte’s FreeMoreWest submarket. The company will utilize 901 Tuck as its new corporate office. Chase Merkel of Trinity Partners represented the undisclosed landlord in the lease negotiations, and Warren Snowdon of Foundry Commercial represented the tenant.
DALLAS — Steelcase, a manufacturer of office furniture, has opened an 11,169-square-foot showroom in the Victory Park area of Dallas. The space is known as the WorkLife Center and is located within the 15-story, 352,000-square-foot Victory Commons One office building. Scott Hage of JLL represented Steelcase in the lease negotiations. Bill Brokaw and Karch Schreiner represented the landlord, Hillwood Urban, on an internal basis. BOKA Powell designed the WorkLife Center, and Balfour Beatty built out the showroom.
SALT LAKE CITY — VanTrust Real Estate has acquired the Salt Lake Lumber Building, located at 205 N. 400 West in downtown Salt Lake City. Terms of the transaction were not released. Originally built in 1909 as the Morrison-Merrill Lumber Co. office building, the three-story, 26,997-square-foot brick property features exposed heavy timber, brick and stone walls, maple flooring, a wood staircase, exposed wood ceilings and brick arches around the windows. VanTrust plans to convert the building into a contemporary office space and regional headquarters. Demolition and interior renovations are slated to start this summer, with delivery scheduled for early 2025.
SAN DIEGO — Dan Feder of F&F Properties has completed the sale of North Park Creative Office in San Diego to Mike Weston with Weston Legal PLLC for $2.7 million. Located at 4060 30th St., the 3,818-square-foot property was fully renovated in 2019. Renovations included high-end finishes, secured access, exposed beams, HVAC, eight private offices, a kitchen, conference room, game room, outdoor turf patios and a barbecue/fire pit. Nick Totah and Ross Sanchez of The Totah Group of Marcus & Millichap’s San Diego downtown office represented the seller and procured the buyer in the transaction.
By Brett Merz, senior vice president of asset management, KBS Texas was one of the first states to experience the return of employees to the office post-pandemic. That trend continues today. Even as work-from-home and hybrid work become further entrenched in some parts of the country, Texas still leads the nation in terms of employees coming into the office. According to Kastle’s Workplace Barometer, office properties in Dallas, Houston and Austin have occupancy rates during peak times that are 10 percent higher than the national average. Kastle’s data cuts across all building classes, but in our experience, mid-week occupancy at our Class A office properties in Texas is even stronger. Kastle’s data and our experience contrast with the negativity surrounding the office market and point to the potential for greater opportunity throughout 2024 and beyond. According to JLL’s local market office reports for major Texas cities, vacancy rate increases are slowing down. With new construction in Dallas and Austin trending down, as well as zero new construction in San Antonio and Houston, occupancy rates may begin to grow through the rest of the year. Additionally, rents for Class A buildings are either stable or have seen slight increases over the …
DUNWOODY, GA. — The Dunwoody City Council has approved the rezoning of Phase IV of Park Center, a 17-acre, transit-oriented office campus in metro Atlanta. The master developer of the project is KDC, a Dallas-based corporate development and investment firm. The amended zoning will allow KDC to change its plans from a standalone fourth office tower to a two-tower project that will comprise 175 hotel rooms, 300 residential units, 22,000 square feet of retail space and 300,000 square feet of office space. The plan includes two towers on a common podium with a 20-story apartment tower and a combined office and hotel tower, where six floors of hotel rooms will sit atop 12 levels of office space. Phase IV represents the final phase of Park Center and will occupy the last undeveloped portion of the development, which was originally conceived as a 2.2 million-square-foot East Coast hub for State Farm Insurance. The project team includes local architecture firm Cooper Carry. The current campus contains three office towers developed over the past 10 years: the 600,000-square-foot Park Center One, which is directly connected to the Dunwoody MARTA Station; the 621,000-square-foot Park Center Two with more than 39,000 square feet of retail …
