SEATTLE — Hudson Pacific Properties has acquired Merrill Place, a 179,000-square-foot office and ground-floor retail center in Seattle, for $57.7 million. The center is located at 411 1st Ave. in Downtown’s Pioneer Square.
Merrill Place contains four interconnected brick-and-beam buildings that span an entire city block. The property is currently 93 percent leased. About 52 percent of the leases are scheduled to expire over the next four years. Hudson estimates in-place rents to be about 22 percent below current market rents.
The company plans to reposition the property, which may soon be home to a second development. Current zoning would also allow for the potential development of a new office building that would front the Alaskan Way waterfront, which will soon undergo improvements itself. Hudson intends to begin the entitlement process immediately in the hopes of delivery the new office building by 2017.
The Eastdil Secured group of Wells Fargo Securities, LLC advised both Hudson and the seller, a joint venture between Angelo Gordon, Nitze-Stagen and Mile Rock Capital, in this transaction.