NEW YORK CITY — Transwestern has negotiated a 25,000-square-foot office lease for nonprofit childcare organization Sheltering Arms in Manhattan. The space is situated on a single floor of 25 Broadway, a 22-story, Class A office property also known as the Cunard Building. Other tenants include Relay Graduate School of Education, Teach for America and the American Thoracic Society. Lindsay Ornstein, Stephen Powers, Thomas Hines and Jake Cinti of Transwestern represented Sheltering Arms in the lease negotiations. Bruce Surry, Richard Levine and Gary Kamenetsky of CBRE represented the landlord, The Wolfson Group.
SAN FRANCISCO — Lincoln Property Co., led by Lincoln’s LPC West team in San Francisco, has partnered with affiliates of the Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division to purchase 1045 Sansome Street, a four-story creative office building in San Francisco’s North Waterfront/Jackson Square neighborhood. Constructed in 1926, the nearly 90,000-square-foot building was originally home to a printing press before its conversion to creative office space. The property has undergone several improvements, including high ceilings on the ground level, a unique sawtooth glass roof, open floor plans, polished concrete floors and large windows throughout. At the time of sale, the building was 95 percent leased to a diverse mix of tenants in a variety of fields, including technology, architecture, nonprofit, business and media. Terms of the transaction were not released.
BOTHELL, WASH. — CBRE Capital Markets’ Debt & Structured Finance group has secured $38 million in financing for Canyon Park East, a business campus in Bothell. CBRE arranged the financing for Kennedy Wilson Fund VI, which purchased the property in December 2019 for $54.6 million. The $38.6 million loan closed on Jan. 30 with financing from an East Coast-based bank. Brad Zampa, Mike Walker and Megan Woodring of CBRE arranged the six-year, non-recourse, floating-rate financing with full-term interest-only payments. The loan will finance a portion of the acquisition and provide funding for future capital expenditures and leasing costs. Tom Pehl and Lou Senini with CBRE Capital Markets in Seattle represented the undisclosed seller in the acquisition deal. Situated on 16.5 acres, Canyon Park East comprises five office, R&D and warehouse buildings offering a total of 269,369 square feet of rentable space. At the time of financing, the property was 83 percent occupied.
DENVER — H.I.G. Realty Partners, an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, has funded a $33.1 million loan for the acquisition of an industrial/flex office portfolio located in Denver. The borrower is CW Capital Partners. The three-building portfolio features 264,000 square feet of industrial and flex office space. At the time of acquisition, the portfolio was 80 percent occupied by a diverse group of tenants. The floating-rate, five-year loan allows for future advances for the lease-up of the portfolio over time.
The Denver office market remains strong. Vacancy continued to compress in 2019 as rental rates and sale prices forged ahead to the highest levels in history, allowing landlords and sellers to remain in control of the market. Class A office transactions accounted for $1.7 billion in office sales in Denver Metro over the past year, versus $1.2 billion of Class B office sales, with average market cap rates of 6.6 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Interestingly enough, vacancy rates are higher in Class A product at 11.7 percent versus 10.1 percent in Class B. Sale prices and rental rates continued to grow in both classes. However, there was a significant difference in rental rate and sale price numbers as Class B lagged by about 20 percent to 25 percent in both categories. With a potential downturn looming, it begs the question, is Class A or Class B office a better long-term value? Considering rental rates and income are a direct derivative of what investors will pay for office buildings, investors must ask themselves whether rental rates are sustainable. It is apparent that the “chase” for the cool, hip, new Class A office is real, but the question is whether Class …
HOUSTON — Occidental Petroleum Corp. has signed a 91,986-square-foot office lease expansion at Three Greenway Plaza in Houston. The energy giant now occupies more than 972,000 square feet at the 52-acre Greenway Plaza campus, which serves as its U.S. headquarters. Brandon Clarke, Charles Gordon, Steve Hesse and Ryan Roth of CBRE represented Occidental in the lease negotiations. Rima Soroka represented the landlord, Parkway, on an internal basis.
ATLANTA — Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA) has opened Exhibit Hall BC, a 100,000-square-foot expansion creating more than 1 million square feet of contiguous exhibition space within Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. The project’s budget was $55 million. The expansion brings Georgia World Congress Center’s total exhibit hall space to more than 1.4 million square feet. GWCCA reports that more than 20 events have already booked a spot in the new exhibit space, with dates stretching into 2030. Georgia World Congress Center is situated within a mile of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Centennial Olympic Park, CNN Studios, State Farm Arena, Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola. Atlanta-based general contractor Holder Construction Co. completed the expansion in 18 months.
BAKERSFIELD, CALIF. — Adler Realty Investments has completed the sale of Cal Twin Towers, an office asset located at 4900 California Ave. in Bakersfield. Steve Blumer, a local investor, acquired the office complex for an undisclosed price. Adler originally purchased the 151,829-square-foot asset in 2005, completing a building renovation and maintaining high occupancy during its 15 years of ownership. Current tenants include Omni Healthcare, Regus, Progressive Insurance and Principal Life. The seller recently updated the building’s energy systems, which included a solar installation with covered carports. Alex Belfour, Jeff Andrew, Scott Salters and Susan Moreno of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller in the deal.
PITTSBURGH — Fe Equus Development LLC, a Wisconsin-based developer, is underway on BLD 2563, a 20,000-square-foot Class A office building in Pittsburgh. Situated at 2563 Brandt School Road, the property will offer amenities including a full kitchen, billiards and game room and a fitness room with Peloton bikes. Software company SRS Computing is the building’s first signed tenant, with 6,400 square feet on the top floor. Construction is slated for completion by the third quarter of this year. Tim Goetz and Darin Shriver of Cushman & Wakefield are leading the leasing initiative.
NEW HAVEN, CONN. — Newmark Knight Frank has arranged the $12.2 million sale of 545 Long Wharf Drive, a 245,389-square-foot Class A office building in New Haven. The nine-story building previously served as AT&T’s corporate office and is now partially leased by a number of companies and start-ups. Steven Schultz, Cory Gubner, Tony Georgiev and Alex Haendler represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. Vision Real Estate Partners was the buyer.