Office

ATLANTA AND DALLAS — Cousins Properties Inc. (NYSE: CUZ) and Dallas-based TIER REIT Inc. (NYSE: TIER), two of the larger office development and investment firms in the country, have entered into an all-stock merger agreement. The combined company, which will retain the Cousins name, will have an equity market capitalization of $5.9 billion and a total market cap of $7.8 billion. Following the merger, the company will continue to function as a Class A office REIT with a combined portfolio of approximately 21 million square feet spread across various markets in the Southeast and Southwest. Both firms are active in leading office markets like Atlanta, where Cousins is based, as well as Charlotte, Dallas and Austin. Cousins owns several trophy assets in Atlanta’s Buckhead area, including 3348 and 3350 Peachtree, which have about 670,000 square feet combined, as well as 816 Congress and 303 Colorado in downtown Austin. TIER REIT owns 3354 Peachtree, a 560,000-square-foot building in Atlanta, as well as the 40-story Burnett Plaza in Fort Worth and the 1.5 million-square-foot Domain office building in Austin. Under terms of the agreement, Cousins will issue 2.98 shares of common stock in exchange for each share of TIER stock. That rate …

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GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — HFF has brokered the $11.4 million sale of a medical office building in the Long Island village of Garden City. Located at 224 7th St., the 16,920-square-foot property was built in 1969 and converted to a medical imaging facility in 2007. The facility is currently triple-net leased to the New York University School of Medicine. HFF represented the seller, Meridian Imaging Group, in the transaction. The buyer was undisclosed. Inland Real Estate Acquisitions facilitated the transaction.

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COSTA MESA, CALIF. — Ready Capital has closed a $20.1 million loan for the acquisition, renovation and stabilization of Back Bay Center, a mixed-use retail and office property located in the Eastside submarket of Costa Mesa. The asset features 52,000 square feet of Class B retail and office space. Ready Capital National Bridge Originations Team closed the non-recourse, fixed-rate loan that features an 84-month term, 48 months of interest-only payments and flexible pre-payment options.

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CHICAGO — Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO), a medical technology company, has signed a 13,424-square-foot office lease at the Inland Steel Building in Chicago. IMO will move from its current WeWork space at 100 S. State St. to the new location this summer. Approximately 75 employees will work in the space, which encompasses the entire 18th floor. Jon Azulay, Robert Sevim and Adam Southard of Savills represented IMO in the lease transaction. Mark Buth and Kelsey Morgan of MBRE represented the owner, Capital Properties. IMO is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois.

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SAN JOSE, CALIF. — Mori Trust Co. Ltd. has acquired three office buildings totaling 603,666 square feet in San Jose through its subsidiary MORI America LLC. The purchase price was not disclosed, but The Mercury News reports the portfolio sold for $429 million. The properties are situated on approximately 9.7 acres and are fully leased to Idaho-based computer chip giant Micron Technology. The area is expected to undergo further development under San Jose’s master plan for urban development. Located on Holger Way, the buildings are LEED Gold certified. All three properties, built in 2010, are fully occupied. One of the buildings rises four floors, while the other two are seven floors. The sale also includes a 1,687-space parking garage. The seller on the transaction was Lane Partners, which acquired the campus for $225.5 million in 2017, according to The Mercury News report. The Mori Trust Group is a Japan-based owner and developer with a focus on real estate, hotel management and investment operations. The company previously acquired two office buildings in Boston’s Back Bay district in 2017, and has announced plans to greatly increase its overseas investments. — Kristin Hiller

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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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