WALL TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Sitar Realty Co.-TCN Worldwide has negotiated the $3.1 million sale of a 44,000-square-foot warehouse/office building located at 1325 Route 34 in Wall Township. 1325 Wall LLC was the seller and Chester Lieder was the buyer. Gregg Nowell and Doug Sitar of Sitar Realty were the brokers in the transaction.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Equitable Commercial Realty (ECR) has negotiated a 16,444-square-foot lease on behalf of engineering firm Cobb, Fendley & Associates Inc. at Centennial Towers, an office property located at 505 E. Huntland Drive in Austin. Matt Levin and Jason Steinberg of ECR represented the landlord in the transaction. Jason Whittington of NAI Partners represented the tenant.
LOS ANGELES — Omninet Capital LLC has purchased the four-building Los Angeles Corporate Center in the Monterey Park submarket for an undisclosed sum. The office campus is located at 900, 1000, 1200 and 1255 Corporate Center Drive. The Class A campus contains a total of 394,524 square feet. It is 95 percent occupied with tenants like the State of California, Los Angeles County, State Compensation Insurance Fund, Synermed and AT&T. Sean Fulp, Kevin Shannon, Ken White and Brunson Howard of NGKF Capital Markets represented the seller, Equity Office Properties, in this transaction.
SAN DIEGO — A private investor has acquired Paseo Palomar, a 60,649-square-foot office building in the San Diego submarket of Vista, for $12.8 million. The low-rise building is located at 3220 Executive Ridge. Paseo Palomar is fully leased to tenants like Jaguar Mobile Inc., Chandler Signs and 101domain.com. The property is less than two miles from Bressi Ranch Village Center, one of the area’s major shopping centers. CBRE’s Gary Stache, Anthony DeLorenzo, Matt Pourcho and Doug Mack represented the seller, Rialto Capital/Birtcher Anderson Realty, in this transaction.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services has negotiated a sublease for 20,752 square feet of Class A office space at 777 Main St. in downtown Fort Worth. Erik Blais and Nick Talley of Bradford Commercial represented the sublandlord, Trinity River Energy LLC, in the transaction. The new subtenant, TEP Barnett, a division of French oil and gas company Total E&P, will occupy the 37th floor of the 40-story, 955,000-square-foot building.
DOWNERS GROVE, ILL. — InvenTrust Properties Corp. has signed a 22,000-square-foot office lease at the Highland Landmark II building in Downers Grove, a suburb of Chicago. The real estate investment trust will occupy the space at 3025 Highland Parkway. InvenTrust is moving its corporate headquarters currently located at 2809 Butterfield Road in Oak Brook, Ill. The company expects to complete the move this summer. Jon Springer and Gary Fazzio of CBRE represented the tenant in the lease transaction.
LOUISVILLE, KY. — PRG | Commercial Property Advisors has brokered the $5.8 million sale of First Trust Centre, a seven-story office building located at 200 S. 5th St. in downtown Louisville. The 156,600-square-foot building is currently 72 percent leased. Tyler Smith of PRG represented the buyer, Miami-based Market Street Real Estate Partners, in the transaction. Smith has also been retained by Market Street to lease the property, which is the buyer’s first acquisition in the Louisville market.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Spector Group, a New York-based architecture and interior design firm, has unveiled the new design for the headquarters of Heineken USA. Heineken is consolidating two locations into a single location at its headquarters at 360 Hamilton Ave. in White Plains. The project consisted of redesigning the two-floor, 60,000-square-foot space to increase densification and to expand and update the bar and social area, which is used to cater large events and for training programs.
MORRISTOWN, N.J. — G.S. Wilcox & Co. has secured a $16.5 million loan for the Hampshire Cos.’ newly constructed office building located at 49 Market St. in Morristown. The 44,000-square-foot property is a build-to-suit for law firm Fox Rothschild LLP, allowing the company to consolidate its Morristown and Roseland offices. The Morristown-based mortgage banker secured the financing over a 15-year term from a life insurance company headquartered in Alabama. Gretchen S. Wilcox and Al Raymond of G.S. Wilcox handled the transaction.
One measurement of the health of the U.S. office sector stood out in the first quarter of this year. Net absorption totaled 4.9 million square feet, down from an average of 9.4 million square feet per quarter in 2016 and the lowest since 2014. In short, growth in the office sector “continued to disappoint,” according to Reis. The New York City-based real estate research firm, which tracks 82 markets nationally, recently released its analysis of the property sector’s vital signs in the first quarter. The positive news is that the office vacancy rate held steady at 15.8 percent from the prior quarter, and was down 20 basis points from the first quarter of 2016. The overall asking rent rose 1.8 percent on an annual basis. Construction was also relatively low at 7.9 million square feet in the first quarter of 2017, down from an average of 8.8 million square feet in 2016. Much like retail real estate’s war with e-commerce, office markets are competing with the pressures of using space more efficiently and hiring employees who work from remote locations, says Reis senior economist Barbara Byrne Denham. “Firms have persistently leased less space for their growing workforce,” she says. The …