SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — Insight Realty Co. has purchased Park Plaza, a 73,000-square-foot office building in downtown Sacramento, for an undisclosed amount. The Class A building is located at 1303 J St. The firm partnered with local developer and investor Patrick Molloy, along with his firm Gavden Investments, to acquire the asset.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — CBRE/New England has facilitated the sale of an office and retail building located at 625 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. L&B Realty Advisors sold the 122,104-square-foot building to a partnership between Lincoln Property Co. and Chile-based Stars Investments for $75 million. Featuring direct access to Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Red Line, the property is occupied by Boston Sports Club, Walgreens, TD Bank and WeWork’s Cambridge location. Dave Pergola and Brian Doherty of CBRE/NE represented the seller and procured the buyer in the deal.
BOSTON — PTC, a global technology provider, has signed a lease for 250,000 square feet of office space at 121 Seaport in Boston’s Seaport District. The company will move its global headquarters to Skanska’s elliptical tower in early 2019. PTC will occupy two-thirds of the 17-story, 400,000-square-foot building, from floors nine through 17. Designed by CBT, 121 Seaport is slated to come online in the first quarter of 2018. Newmark Knight Frank represented the developer/owner, Skanska, while Cresa represented PTC in the transaction.
MEDFORD, N.J. — Atkins Cos., in conjunction with Capital Solutions, has acquired Medford Medical Center, a medical office building located at 103 Old Marlton Pike in Medford. A condominium association sold the 46,400-square-foot property for $2.4 million. Prior to the sale, the facility was comprised of 20 condominium units owned by individual medical groups. As part of the transaction, the individual units converted back into a single ownership entity and the condominium association was dissolved. The buyer plans to renovate the exterior and interior of the property to create a new state-of-the-art medical facility. Larchmont Imaging and South Jersey Eye Physicians anchor the property. Evan Zweben of Colliers International was the sole broker in the transaction.
DULUTH, GA. — Miami-based IG3 Real Estate has purchased Sugarloaf Business Center, a 113,016-square-foot office complex in Duluth, for $13.5 million. The property is situated on 14 acres at 1845-1855 Satellite Blvd., roughly 30 miles north of Atlanta in Gwinnett County. Mariano Perez of Grandbridge Real Estate Capital arranged an $8.4 million acquisition loan through MidFirst Bank on behalf of IG3. Tony Swann and Craig Taylor of CBRE represented the seller, California-based Islandia Sugarwood LLC, in the sales transaction. The complex comprises two single-story office buildings constructed in 1999 and 2001. At the time of sale, Sugarloaf Business Center was 98 percent triple-net-leased to tenants including Credit Union Service Corp., Emory Clinic, Hire Dynamics, United HealthCare Services Inc. and USASF Servicing.
HOUSTON — The J. Beard Real Estate Co. has brokered the sale of two office/warehouse properties totaling 119,675 square feet in Houston. The flex properties are situated on 16.7 acres at 12450 and 12452 Cutten Road. Jeff Beard of The J. Beard Co. represented the buyer, Downhole Technology, a provider of hydraulic fracturing plugs. Cape Bell and Allison Hall of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, Northwest Real Estate Holdings LLC.
WESTMONT, ILL. — CBRE has arranged the sale of Oakmont Corporate Center and One Oakmont Plaza in Westmont, located about 23 miles west of Chicago, for $18.9 million. Oakmont Corporate Center is a four-story, 74,279-square-foot office building that is currently 95 percent leased. One Oakmont Plaza is a six-story, 117,841-square-foot office building that is currently 100 percent leased. Both properties are situated on five-acre sites and feature recently renovated lobbies. Bill Novelli, Derek Fohl and Pete Adamo of CBRE represented the undisclosed seller. Valley Equity Group purchased the portfolio.
CINCINNATI — Azelis, a specialty chemicals distributor, has signed a 13,000-square-foot office lease at Pictoria Tower in Cincinnati. The 253,000-square-foot, Class A building is located at 225 Pictoria Drive. Other tenants include First Financial Bancorp, Northrup Grumman Corp., Ameriprise Financial, Yusen Logistics and Ultimus Fund Solutions. Pictoria Tower features a seven-story parking deck, two-story lobby and multimedia conference center that can accommodate 100 people. Roddy MacEachen of SqFt Commercial represented Azelis in the lease transaction. Rusty Meyers of JLL represented the landlord, Fairbridge Properties.
As the flooding in Houston from Hurricane Harvey begins to recede and more properties become accessible, commercial real estate firms are beginning the long, tedious process of figuring out the full magnitude of the destruction. It will likely be months before the full extent of the property damage throughout Houston is known. But the fortunes of certain classes of commercial real estate are already coming into focus. Metro Houston’s industrial market, which according to CoStar Group has experienced positive net absorption for 10 consecutive quarters, appears to be an immediate beneficiary of the storm. With recovery and restoration projects now fully underway across the metro area, demand for construction materials — wood, sheet rock, concrete — is set to rise. These products will need to be stored in warehouses and distributed throughout the metro area. This influx will likely put a dent in industrial vacancy, which rose from 5.3 percent to 5.6 percent between the first and second quarters. Rents for warehouse assets, which declined by 1 percent during the second quarter, should also rebound from the recovery effort. “On the industrial side, our people have seen a spiked level of demand that will result in more absorption,” says Tim …
SEATTLE — Amazon has announced plans to open Amazon HQ2, a second company headquarters in North America. The online retailer plans to invest more than $5 billion in construction. The Amazon HQ2 Request for Proposal is now open. The company is looking for a metropolitan area with more than one million people that boasts a stable and business-friendly environment. It is considering both urban and suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent. The new facility will be comparable to Amazon’s current Seattle headquarters, which contains 8.1 million square feet of space within 33 buildings. The new project will not be a satellite office. Amazon estimates its investments in Seattle from 2010 through 2016 resulted in an additional $38 billion to the city’s economy. Every dollar invested by Amazon in Seattle generated an additional $1.40 for the city’s economy overall, according to the company.