ATLANTA — CommonGrounds Workspace has signed a 13-year, 49,506-square-foot office lease at 999 Peachtree St. in Midtown Atlanta. The coworking company will occupy two of the 28 floors and is expected to move in in early 2020. This marks CommonGrounds’ first signed lease in 2019 as part of its $100 million Series A expansion program. Five locations are already open around the country. Amenities at 999 Peachtree include Empire State South restaurant on the ground floor, The Peachtree Club and roof deck on the top floor, parking, a fitness center and a communal green space. Other tenants include AARP, Gensler, Akerman LLP, Ballard Spahr LLP, Meunier Carlin & Curfman LLC, Oxford Industries and Eversheds Sutherland. Charles Roach Jr. and Stephen Clifton of Madison Marquette represented the landlord, Franklin Street, in the lease transaction. Jim Sumber, Andrew Lechter and Matthew Barnes of Savills-Studley represented the tenant.
Office
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Commercial-stage cell therapeutics company Celularity has signed a full-building, 147,215-square-foot office lease in Florham Park. The property is part of a two-building office campus at 170-180 Park Ave. that totals 368,780 square feet. The lease marks the largest new office lease in New Jersey for the first quarter of 2019. James Postell, Matt McDonough and Dan Ligorner of Transwestern Commercial Services represented the building owner in the transaction. Charlie Hatfield and Ryan Healy of Colliers International represented Celularity in the transaction.
GRAPEVINE, TEXAS — Construction is underway on a new, 150,000-square-foot office in the Fort Worth metro of Grapevine for Paycom, an Oklahoma City-based provider of payroll and human resources software. The groundbreaking ceremony at the 14-acre site was held on Wednesday, April 10, and the company expects to move in to its new space some time in 2020. Paycom plans to accommodate as many as 1,000 employees at the property, the developer of which was not disclosed.
Washington Capital Management Buys Spectrum Corporate Plaza Office Campus in San Diego for $39.8M
by Amy Works
SAN DIEGO — Seattle-based Washington Capital Management, on behalf of its client, has acquired Spectrum Corporate Plaza, an office asset located in the Kearny Mesa submarket of San Diego. An undisclosed seller sold the property for $39.8 million. Located at 9242 and 9246 Lightwave Ave., the 129,146-square-foot office campus consists of two freestanding buildings. At the time of sale, the property was 95 percent leased. Major tenants include Epsilon Systems, Henkels and McCoy, the State of California and San Diego Workforce Partnership. Situated on 6.4 acres, the asset also features 514 parking spaces. Louay Alsadek and Hunter Rower of CBRE represented the seller, while Washington Capital Management represented the buyer, its client, in the deal.
ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals and The Cordish Companies have celebrated the topping out of the PwC Pennant Building, the Class A office tower that is part of the $260 million expansion of Ballpark Village in St. Louis. The exterior structure of the 11-story building is now completed. The property is scheduled to open this summer. The office tower, designed jointly by HKS Architects, Hord Coplan Macht and Tao & Lee and constructed by PARIC Corp., will feature street-level retail, modern office amenities and more than 460 structured parking spaces. In addition, PwC will have a private rooftop deck that provides views of Busch Stadium, downtown St. Louis and the Gateway Arch. Joining PwC is investment banking firm ButcherJoseph & Co., which will occupy more than 8,000 square feet.
NEW YORK CITY — Ariel Property Advisors has brokered the $15.9 million sale of a multifamily portfolio in Queens. The 72-unit portfolio includes three properties and spans 62,640 square feet. The four-story buildings are located on 65th Street between Central Avenue and Myrtle Avenue. Victor Sozio, Shimon Shkury, Michael Tortorici and Matthew Lev of Ariel Property Advisors represented the seller, 71-15 65th St. LLC, in the transaction. The buyer was a group led by Rockabill Development.
MEDFORD, MASS. — Charles River Realty Investors has acquired a 116,490-square-foot office building in Medford for an undisclosed price. The transaction was a sale-leaseback with the seller, Citizens Bank. Located at 20 Cabot Road, the property was built in 1987. Citizens Bank, currently occupies 85,200 square feet at the property and has signed a 10-year lease with Charles River Realty for the space. The remaining 31,290 square feet will be leased to new tenants. National Development will serve as the property manager. Charles River plans to make significant improvements to the building, including an updated lobby and common areas, a new fitness center, landscape enhancements and updated signage.
Cousins Properties Taps Pickard Chilton to Design Norfolk Southern’s New Headquarters in Midtown Atlanta
by Alex Tostado
ATLANTA — Developer Cousins Properties has tapped Pickard Chilton to design Norfolk Southern’s 1 million-square-foot headquarters in Midtown Atlanta. The railroad company announced in December that it is relocating its headquarters from Norfolk, Va. Norfolk Southern will combine employees from Virginia, Atlanta and its nine divisions across the Southeast to work in the new space, which will be located at 650 W. Peachtree St. in Atlanta’s Technology Square district. The building is expected to be delivered in the third quarter of 2021. Amenities will include a dining facility, rooftop garden, fitness center, conference space, child care and a private greenspace. New Haven, Conn.-based Pickard Chilton has designed more than 6.7 million square feet of commercial space for prominent developers in downtown Atlanta over the past 20 years.
MORRISVILLE, N.C. — FCP and Strategic Capital Partners (SCP) have sold Forty540, a 200,000-square-foot, five-story office building in Morrisville. The asset is located at 3030 Slater Road in the Research Triangle Park district. The joint venture acquired the site in November 2015 and delivered the office building in 2017. It was fully leased at the time of the sale. Brad Corsmeier and Ed Pulliam of CBRE | Raleigh represented the sellers in the transaction. Jason High and Ham Southworth also of CBRE | Raleigh represented the undisclosed buyer.
ST. LOUIS — McCarthy HITT, a joint venture of McCarthy Building Cos. Inc., HITT Contracting, Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp., Gensler and Akima LLC, has been selected by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to build its new campus in north St. Louis. The total project budget of about $1.7 billion includes the McCarthy HITT contract of $711.7 million, land procurement, post-construction outfitting of the building and small business construction projects. Funds are appropriated through the Pentagon’s military construction budget and Congress has authorized spending over several budget cycles. The campus will be built on a 97-acre site at Jefferson and Cass avenues. Designed to replace the current NGA facility located south of downtown, the new development will feature a 712,000-square-foot office building, parking garages, a visitor center, remote inspection facility and access control points. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will oversee design and construction. Preliminary work beginning this spring will include various design and pre-construction activities, submittals and joint planning. Major construction work will begin in early 2020, with plans for the campus to be operational in 2025. NGA has had a presence in St. Louis for seven decades and currently employs more than 3,000 workers locally.