Office

River-South-Austin

In 1987, Austin was a relatively quiet market where the major industries were higher education and state government, along with some large technology companies like IBM. Fast forward to 2019 where Austin continues to make national headlines, receiving high accolades as a top place to live and a leading city for millennial growth.  This transformation — coupled with an increasing number of companies choosing to move or expand in Austin — begs the question: Why Austin? How did the Texas capital go from a fairly sleepy town to one of the hottest markets in the country? What really accounts for this seismic shift and what does the future hold? The Office Boom Begins  In 2004, after the dot-com bust hit Austin, a group of private business leaders felt compelled to take the destiny of the city into their own hands with the creation of Opportunity Austin within the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.  Opportunity Austin was launched with the goal of creating 72,000 regional jobs and increasing regional payrolls by $2.9 billion within five years. To do this, the regional business community invested $14.4 million in the program. These funds allowed the Austin Chamber to increase initiatives for corporate recruitment …

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PARSIPPANY, N.J. — HFF has brokered the $66 million sale of an office building in Parsippany. Located at 300 Kimball Drive, the five-story property was originally built in 2001 and is LEED Silver certified. The building is currently 78 percent occupied by a tenant roster that includes FM Global, Fiserv, Langan Engineering and Western World Insurance. Kevin O’Hearn, Jose Cruz, Stephen Simonelli and Michael Oliver represented the seller, a large national insurance company, in the transaction. The buyer was a private investor.

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STAMFORD, CONN. — Media and entertainment company WWE has signed a 415,000-square-foot office lease in Stamford. Located at 677 Washington Blvd., the three-building complex will serve as the new global headquarters for WWE. Drew Saunders, Robert Ageloff, Allison Melichar and Joe Messina of JLL represented WWE in securing the lease with property owners George Comfort & Sons and AVG Partners. Additional tenants at the 12-acre property include KPMG and Perkins Eastman.

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NEW YORK CITY — Cronheim Mortgage has arranged a $5 million loan to refinance a 12-story office building in Midtown, Manhattan. Located at 32 E. 31st St., the 52,000-square-foot property also includes ground-floor retail. The tenant roster includes a fitness studio, hair salon, media company and real estate developer. Cronheim secured a 20-year loan amortized over 30 years on behalf of the borrower, 32 E. 31 Street Corp. The lender was CMFG Life Insurance Co.

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DALLAS — Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, a law firm with offices in the United States, London and Shanghai, has signed a 56,340-square-foot office lease at PwC Tower at Park District, a 500,000-square-foot tower in Uptown Dallas. Matt Craft of Lincoln Property Co. represented the law firm, which plans to move in during the fourth quarter, in the lease negotiations. Dennis Barnes, Shannon Brown and Clay Gilbert of CBRE represented the landlord, a joint venture between Trammell Crow Co. and MetLife Investment Management.

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OMAHA, NEB. — NorthMarq Capital has arranged a $5.2 million loan for the acquisition of a 61,120-square-foot office property in Omaha. A single tenant occupies the building, which is located at 10802 Farnam Drive. Bob Chalupa of NorthMarq arranged the 10-year loan, which features a 22-year amortization schedule. A life insurance company provided the loan.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — CBRE has negotiated the $40.5 million sale of Gateway Center, a 10-story, 310,745-square-foot office building in Uptown Charlotte. Hamilton EQ, an affiliate of New York-based Hamilton Equity Partners, purchased the asset, which is located at 901 W. Trade St. Gateway Center was 91 percent leased at the time of the sale, with Bank of America occupying 78 percent of the property. The seller was not disclosed, but Charlotte Business Journal reports that Chicago-based GEM Realty Capital sold the tower three years after purchasing it for $30.5 million. Patrick Gildea, Matt Smith and Grayson Hawkins of CBRE represented the seller in the transaction. Hamilton EQ entered the Charlotte market earlier this month with a portfolio acquisition in the suburbs.

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Stakes are rising in the war for talent, and employers are using amenity-rich real estate to win the hearts and minds of the brightest young recruits. Determined to outflank the competition, companies are increasingly focused on occupying buildings with the best available on-site features, proximity to nearby amenities, and the elusive “cool” factor.  Competition escalates To heed the call for better offerings, landlords in Minneapolis have begun to offer unconventional amenities including golf simulators and nap pods. As owners of traditional Class B and C buildings undertake renovations and amenity package upgrades to compete with Class A properties, lines between building classes are starting to blur. Tenants will likely start taking a more cautious approach to real estate, reflecting an increase in business uncertainty and projections for slower growth. This mindset will decrease appetites for relocations, prompting more renewals in 2019.  Despite this trend, there will be a healthy number of relocations for those tenants that have not yet right-sized by employing modern furniture systems, single-sized offices, more natural light and more collaborative space. Within tenants’ spaces, private offices will grow increasingly scarce, and those that remain will move to the interior to provide more light, greater flexibility and better …

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PLANO, TEXAS — Florida-based TerraCap Management LLC has purchased Preston Park Financial Center, a 367,543-square-foot office property located in the northeastern Dallas suburb of Plano. The Class A complex offers amenities such as a fitness center, deli, conference center and tenant lounge. Gary Carr and Robert Hill of CBRE represented the seller, a joint venture between Griffin Partners and San Francisco-based Stockbridge Capital Group, in the transaction. Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co. has been hired to lease and manage the property. IberiaBank provided debt for the acquisition on behalf of TerraCap.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Office Properties Income Trust (OPI), a REIT, has sold a 129,035-square-foot office building located at 500 First St. NW in downtown Washington, D.C. The Bureau of Prisons is expected to leave the office by the end of April, leaving the property vacant. According to OPI CEO David Blackman, OPI planned to renovate the asset, “but at a sales price of more than $540 per square foot for a to-be vacant building, we decided to be opportunistic and focus our capital elsewhere.” Proceeds from the sale will go toward repaying a portion of OPI’s unsecured term loans. The buyer was not disclosed, although Washington Business Journal reports Georgetown University bought the property. The university plans to relocate many Georgetown Law centers and institutes and some McCourt School of Public Policy centers and institutes into the building, according to the report.

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