HOUSTON — Madison Marquette has negotiated 95,883 square feet of lease transactions at Bank of America Center, located at 700 Louisiana St. in downtown Houston. Deal highlights include international law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP leasing 17,519 square feet; asset management firm Carlson Capital LP renewing its 8,774-square-foot lease; and financial services provider BMO Capital Markets Corp. renewing its 30,275-square-foot lease and taking an additional 7,065 square feet of space. John Spafford and Madeline Gregory represented the landlord, Houston-based M-M Properties, in the lease negotiations.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Avison Young has negotiated a 56,556-square-foot lease for Transbotics to move its headquarters to 2205 Beltway Blvd. within Westpark85 in Charlotte. The tenant, which specializes in automatic guided vehicles (AGVs), is almost doubling its square footage with the move from its existing facility at 3400 Latrobe Drive in Charlotte. Transbotics expects to move into the space in June when the landlord, Foundry Commercial, completes the interior buildout of the space. Westpark85 is a 1.2-million-square-foot development being constructed in two phases on 107 acres near interstates 85 and 485. Christopher Skibinski, Henry Lobb and Tom Tropeano of Avision Young represented the tenant in the lease transaction. Fermin Deoca and Warren Snowdon of Foundry Commercial internally represented the landlord.
LOS ANGELES — An affiliate of Optimus Properties has completed the sale of an office building located at 864 S. Robertson Blvd. in West Los Angeles. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Originally built in 1956 and renovated in the 1980s, the 16,000-square-foot property features three floors, parking and several rooftop patios. Optimus completed improvements on the interior and exterior, including modernization of the entrance, lobby, common areas and new, ADA-compliant bathrooms.
PITTSBURGH, PA. — CBRE has arranged an office lease for Kennametal Inc. at an office tower in Pittsburgh’s central business district. Located at 525 William Penn Place, the 900,000-square-foot, 41-story office property is owned by investment group FAC 525. The tower is Pittsburgh’s fourth-largest office building in the CBD. Major capital improvements are nearing completion as part of a rebranding and redevelopment initiative at the property, including a complete lobby renovation, fitness center and reserved tenant parking.CBRE represented FAC 525 in the deal. Avison Young represented Kennametal in the lease transaction, the size of which was not disclosed.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Insite Properties has arranged the sale of Forest Park 6, a single-story, 70,000-square-foot office building in Charlotte, for $12.6 million. The asset was fully occupied by three tenants — Camso, Paychex and Lending Tree — at the time of the sale. Built in 2000, the property is situated at 8215 Forest Point Blvd. in the south Charlotte airport submarket. Insite Properties represented the buyer, Longvalley II LLC, in the transaction. Rob Cochran, Jared Londry and Nolan Ashton of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, Stream Realty Partners. Insite Properties will provide property management and leasing services for Forest Park 6.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Job aggregator Indeed Inc., which has headquarters in Austin and Stamford, Conn., has signed a 183,911-square-foot office lease at Domain Gateway in Austin. The company will occupy the entirety of the Class A building, which was built in 2009 and is owned by a fund of California-based KBS, following the expiration of the current tenant’s lease. Troy Holme and Katie Ekstrom of CBRE represented KBS in the lease negotiations. CBRE also worked with Todd Chessher Commercial Leasing & Brokerage on behalf of Indeed. The space will ultimately be able to accommodate the 3,000 employees that the company plans to hire in the coming years. A timeline for assuming occupancy was not disclosed. According to local news station KXAN, with this lease, Indeed’s office footprint in Austin is now approaching 1 million square feet.
HOUSTON — HFF has negotiated the sale of a three-property, 544,291-square-foot office portfolio located in the Tanglewood and Memorial Village areas of Houston. The portfolio comprises 1616 Voss, 7500 San Felipe and 6363 Woodway, all of which will be renovated and repositioned as part of a $15 million capital improvement program. Dan Miller, Marty Hogan and Johnny Kight of HFF represented the seller, a partnership led by Unilev Capital Corp., and procured the buyer, CapRidge Partners LLC. Jim Curtin and Andy Scott of HFF arranged floating-rate acquisition financing for the deal through New York Life Insurance Co.
MADISON, WIS. — Serendipity Labs Coworking will open a shared workplace on the sixth floor of 525 Junction Road in Middleton, about six miles west of Madison. Franchisee Ryan Jacobson will own and operate the 23,000-square-foot location. The Lab will feature offices, team rooms, focus rooms, wellness rooms, a lounge and café. Michael Berman, David Pudlosky and Nick Hepner of JLL represented Serendipity Labs in the lease transaction. Brett Rieman of JLL represented Artis REIT, the landlord and property manager.
ENCINO, CALIF. — Harbor Associates has purchased Encino Office Park, a transit-oriented office campus located at 6345 Balboa Blvd. in Encino. An undisclosed seller sold the property for $47.8 million. The four-building property features 213,459 square feet of office space and is adjacent to the Balboa Station of the Orange Line transportation system that connects the property to Warner Center, Universal City and downtown Los Angeles. The property was 89 percent leased at the time of closing, and features 12-foot slab-to-slab ceiling heights and subterranean parking. Harbor plans to renovate the property, which was built in two phases between 1988 and 1990. Renovations will include a new building entry, project lobbies, electric-vehicle charging stations, bike rooms, LED site lighting, and improvements to the corridors and restrooms. The vacant office space will be repositioned as modern speculative suites and feature a high-impact reception area, flooring upgrades, glass conference rooms, new paint, new carpet and the implementation of energy-efficient LED lighting to replace existing florescent lighting fixtures. Anthony Delorenzo, Mark Shaffer, Todd Tydlaska and Mike Longo of CBRE represented the seller in the deal. Shaun Moothart, Bruce Francis, Dana Summers and Katie Diaz of CBRE arranged financing for the project through PNC …
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — Brooklyn-based real estate investment firm JFR Global Investments has acquired two office buildings in Garden City for a total of $91 million. Atria East, which is located at 900 Stewart Ave. sold for $50 million while Atria West, which is located at 990 Stewart Ave., sold for $41 million. JFR plans to spend $4.2 million on upgrades and repairs to the 252,730-square-foot Atria East and $3.5 million on repairs and upgrades to the 297,339-square-foot Atria West. The seller was Onyx Equities and its partner, The Davis Cos.