CRYSTAL LAKE, ILL. — Premier Commercial Realty has negotiated the sale of a 20,600-square-foot office building located at 333 Commerce Drive in Crystal Lake, about 50 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. The sales price was undisclosed. The property was 65 percent leased at the time of sale. Michael Deacon of Premier brokered the transaction. A private investor purchased the asset from 333 Commerce Drive LLC.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — General contractor Vaughn Construction is nearing completion of the initial phase of a $135 million office project in Austin for the Texas Facilities Commission, an agency that manages government buildings throughout the state. The project includes a nine-story office building, central utility plant and an 1,850-space parking garage. Approximately 1,500 employees from the Texas Health & Human Services Commission will occupy the building beginning in June. Details about subsequent phases were not disclosed.
HOUSTON — A partnership between locally based investment firm Hicks Ventures and New York City-based Taconic Capital has completed the $6 million renovation of 1177 West Loop South, a 341,947-square-foot office building in Houston. The program upgraded the 18-story building’s lobby, conference facilities, common areas, café, fitness center and outdoor patios. Transwestern provides leasing services for the property. Hicks Ventures purchased the building in the spring of 2019 and started the renovation in early 2020.
CONSHOHOCKEN, PA. — Washington, D.C.-based investment firm PRP has acquired a preferred equity investment in the 429,122-square-foot office headquarters building of drug wholesaler AmerisourceBergen in Conshohocken, a northern suburb of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the value of PRP’s stake is $340 million. Developer Keystone Property Group is nearing completion of the headquarters building, which will be located within the company’s $325 million SORA West mixed-use development and will house approximately 1,500 AmerisourceBergen associates. The company announced its plan to relocate to Conshohocken from Chesterbrook in summer 2018.
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — JLL Income Property Trust has acquired 170 Park Avenue, a 147,000-square-foot life sciences building in the Northern New Jersey city of Florham Park. The sales price was approximately $47 million. The property is net leased on a long-term basis to biotechnology firm Celularity Inc. Jeffrey Dunne, Jeremy Neuer, Steve Bardsley, David Gavin, Gene Pride, Travis Langer, Zach McHale and Tom Sullivan of CBRE represented the undisclosed institutional seller. With this acquisition, JLL Income Property Trust now owns five life sciences properties totaling more than 450,000 square feet that are valued in excess of $215 million.
NEW YORK CITY — Mass media publisher Gannett Co. has signed a 24,195-square-foot office sublease at 1675 Broadway in Manhattan. Gregg Rothkin, John Maher, Paul Myers, Mike Wellen, Alex Bennisato and Cara Chayet of CBRE represented the sublandlord in the 10-year deal. Gordon Ogden and Nick Gilman of Byrnam Wood represented Gannett, which plans to take occupancy of the space this month. Rudin Management owns the 800,000-square-foot building.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CAILF. — A joint venture between BioScience Properties and Harrison Street has acquired an office building, located at 303 Ravendale Drive in Mountain View, from 303 MVRP LLC for $40.7 million. The buyers plan to convert the 67,000-square-foot building into a speculative life science asset by upgrading the property with lab improvements suitable for biology and chemistry uses. The converted building will feature sinks, compressed air, vacuum, backup power, fume hoods and single-pass air in the laboratory areas. Built in 1978, the building offers a flexible plan suitable for a single tenant as well as divisibility options for partial building users. Erik Doyle and Alec Hanley of CBRE Capital Markets in Palo Alto represented the seller in the deal.
Vista Investment Group Enters Denver Market with $30.4M Signature Centre Office Building Acquisition
DENVER — Los Angeles-based Vista Investment Group has purchased Signature Centre, a five-story, Class A office building located at 14143 Denver West Parkway in Denver. An undisclosed seller sold the asset for $30.4 million. The 185,743-square-foot building features a 2,400-square-foot fitness center with showers and lockers; balconies; an on-site deli; three-level underground parking garage; and a surface parking lot. Built in 2007, the property is one of seven LEED Platinum Core & Shell-certified buildings in Colorado. It features passive solar design and airflow systems, hydronic heating and cooling, and 100 percent raised flooring. At the time of sale, the property was fully occupied and serves as the global headquarters of CoorsTek, a manufacturer of technical ceramics. Tim Richney, Charley Will, Mike Winn, Chad Flynn and Jenny Knowlton of CBRE’s Denver office represented the seller in the transaction.
ADDISON, TEXAS — CarOffer, an online automotive trade platform, has signed a 60,000-square-foot office sublease at 15601 Dallas Parkway in the northern suburb of Addison. CarOffer, which is subleasing the space from date center services provider Cyxtera Technologies, is relocating and expanding from a 27,000-square-foot space in Plano. Clay Vaughn and Preston Lynn of CBRE represented CarOffer in the lease negotiations. Brian Brooks and Brian Brtalik of Foundry Commercial represented Cyxtera. Chris Taylor with Cushman & Wakefield and Trey Smith with CBRE represented the undisclosed owner of the building.
By Drew Sanden, Senior Managing Director, Newmark The Inland Empire office market boasted very strong fundamentals heading into 2020. The vacancy rate across the 28.3 million-square-foot base was 9.5 percent, lease rates were reaching peak levels and developers were again exploring larger spec developments. Like many markets across the U.S., COVID-19 has greatly impacted the Inland Empire’s office market. Office usage, demand, absorption and leasing transactions are down year-over-year. Large back-office transaction volume has been the most impacted as companies struggle to manage the social distancing guidelines. With that said, the suburban nature of the Inland Empire has helped insulate the office market. The combination of affordable housing (relative to Southern California’s coastal communities) and remote work opportunities have strengthened the overall workforce. This pandemic has acted as an accelerator for the hub-and-spoke trend where companies have larger regional offices in CBDs like Los Angeles and Irvine, while maintaining smaller satellite offices in suburban markets. We’ve seen an influx of small satellite offices in Corona, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Riverside. Demand for medical office building (MOB) leasing and sales has remained strong. This trend was highlighted with the pre-sale of two medical office buildings at the Rincon in Chino Hills, …