NEW YORK CITY — Helmsley Spear LLC has negotiated an 8,266-square-foot office lease renewal and expansion for boutique corporate and real estate law firm Burgher Gray LLP in Manhattan. The law firm, which moved into its office space at 1350 Broadway in October 2016, renewed its lease for 10 years. The company also expanded its office space by 3,460 square feet to a total of 8,266 square feet. Often called the Herald Square Building, the 25-story tower spans 400,000 square feet. Rene Hamilton and Shanae Ursini represented the landlord, Empire State Realty Trust, in the lease negotiations.
RALEIGH, N.C. — JLL and Raleigh-based Capital Associates have co-brokered the $17.7 million sale of the Biomedical Partnership Center, a 44,835-square-foot flex/lab building in Raleigh. The newly built property is located at 1001 William Moore Drive on the North Carolina State University’s Centennial Biomedical Campus. Located on 2.6 acres at the corner of Blue Ridge Road and Hillsborough Street, the two-story property has nearby access to Interstates 40 and 440, N.C. Highway 54 and Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The Biomedical Partnership Center was 95 percent leased at the time of sale to multiple tenants. JLL and Capital Associates represented the seller, CBC Flex Lab LLC, and procured the purchaser, Flex III Subsidiary LLC, a Tennessee-based entity that purchased the facility in a 1031 exchange. Ryan Clutter, Scot Humphrey, Christopher Lingerfelt and Zack Drozda of JLL and Tom Huff of Capital Associates represented the seller.
HOUSTON — JLL has brokered the sale of The River Oaks Bank Building, a 170,233-square-foot office building located at 2001 Kirby Drive in Houston’s River Oaks District. A client of L&B Realty Advisors LLP sold the 14-story building to a joint venture between Houston-based Fuller Realty Partners and Independencia Asset Management for an undisclosed price. The recently renovated property features 185 surface parking spaces and an attached garage holding 323 spaces. Kevin McConn, Rudy Hubbard and Rick Goings of JLL represented the seller in the transaction. John Ream, Wally Reid and Cameron Cureton of JLL arranged acquisition financing on behalf of the joint venture.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The University of Rochester (UR) plans to develop The UR Medicine Orthopaedics & Physical Performance Center at The Marketplace Mall in Rochester. The 330,000-square-foot facility would be the largest off-site building in UR history. Wilmorite, owner of The Marketplace Mall, plans to sell the former Sears department store and surrounding mall property to UR. Plans call for repurposing the vacant Sears building as the shell for the new ambulatory surgery center, with new operating rooms and procedure rooms. New construction would create a multi-story tower above the surgery center, housing services such as diagnosis and treatment of bone, spine, muscle and joint conditions as well as sports medicine, injury prevention and other wellness services. The Orthopaedics & Physical Performance Center could cost up to $240 million, which will be paid for through a combination of philanthropy, UR funds and borrowing. Trustees have approved $11 million for project design. If approvals and construction proceed as expected, the campus could be completed by 2023.
ALLENTOWN, PA. — Center City Investment Corp. will develop 1 Center Square, a 296,000-square-foot Class A office building in the City Center business district of Allentown, located approximately 60 miles north of Philadelphia. The 16-story office building will be built with a speculative corporate headquarters anchor tenant in mind and will feature open floorplans and theater-style auditoriums. JDavis Architects is designing 1 Center Square and Gensler is the interior designer. North Star Construction Management is the general contractor. Construction is slated to begin this fall, with initial occupancy scheduled for 2022. The project is estimated to cost $100 million.
ARLINGTON, VA. — Bethesda, Md.-based Meridian Group has purchased 1525 Wilson Blvd., a 12-story office building in the Rossyln neighborhood of Arlington. The Washington Business Journal reports that EQ Office, which is owned by The Blackstone Group Inc., sold the property for $113.2 million. The 318,729-square-foot building sits above a newly renovated Safeway grocery store and is LEED Gold certified. The building is located less one mile from Rosslyn Metro station and offers access to U.S. Routes 29 and 50, the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Interstate 66. Meridian Group plans to make minor renovations to the 78-percent leased building, including upgrading the building’s common areas, lobby, conference center and fitness center. Meridian’s Andrew Pence, Kyle Maurer and Mike McCarthy handled the acquisition internally.
WESTCHESTER, N.Y. — CBRE has negotiated a 13,000-square-foot office lease for law firm Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin in Westchester, a northern suburb of New York City. The company will occupy the top floor of RiverView at Purchase, a 120,000-square-foot, Class A office property located at 287 Bowman Ave. William Cuddy Jr. and Jacqueline Novotny of CBRE represented the landlord, Phoenix Capital Partners LLC, in the lease negotiations.
TAMPA, FLA. — Highwoods Properties Inc. has signed a three-floor, 92,000-square-foot lease at the 5332 Avion office building with Fanatics Brands, the in-house apparel division for sports apparel company Fanatics Inc. 5332 Avion is a 176,000-square-foot, six-story office building in Tampa’s Westshore submarket. The building, which was developed by Highwoods, will serve as one of more than a dozen worldwide office locations for Fanatics. Laser Spine Institute previously used the space for its company headquarters and an ambulatory surgery center. Fanatics has begun to build out its office space within the property.
TEMPE, ARIZ. — Oregon-based Pinnacle Healthcare has purchased 1860 West University, a creative office building located in Tempe. iT1 Source sold the asset for $8.4 million, or $314 per square foot. The seller, an IT solutions company, will continue to occupy the property through a long-term lease. Geoff Turbow, Matt Pourcho, Anthony DeLorenzo, Gary Stache, Bryan Johnson and Doug Mack of CBRE Investment Properties – SoCal/Phoenix, along with Colton Trauter and Bill Blake of Lee & Associates in Phoenix represented the seller in the deal. Renovated in 2018, the single-story, 26,750-square-foot building features open/collaborative floor plans, superior-quality interior finishes, a rooftop solar power system, excellent ingress/egress and a parking ratio of 4.3 spaces per 1,000 square feet.
Phoenix experienced 1.8 million square feet of absorption and an overall office vacancy rate dipping to 17 percent by the end of 2019. Now that the New Year is here, the city is poised to continue its positive progression as healthcare, science, technology and the professional office service sector continue to show steady employment growth. Arizona ranked third in the U.S. with 2.6 percent job creation, as of the third quarter of 2019. That’s 74,000 new jobs for the year, including 6,900 jobs in the science and technology sector and 14,000 new jobs in the recession-resistant healthcare sector. Companies are focused on finding cost-effective, business-friendly office environments and submarkets with access to top talent, and Phoenix checks all those boxes. Much of the state’s top talent is Millennials and Generation Z who are increasingly willing to move to lower cost of living cities that boast a high quality of life. Arizona ranked No. 1 in inbound state migration in 2018, with 273,714 inbound arrivals. We expect to see similar positive net migration numbers in 2019. The Census Bureau estimates that Phoenix will be the fourth most populous city in the U.S., with a population of 2.2 million, by the end …