CLAYTON, MO. — KBS has sold Pierre Laclede Center I & II, a two-building, 580,368-square-foot office campus in Clayton, to Lingerfelt CommonWealth. The sales price was not disclosed.
Pierre Laclede Center I & II were constructed in 1964 and 1970, respectively. KBS acquired the office campus in 2010 and implemented a $19 million renovation plan in the intervening years. Amenities include an outdoor veranda/patio area, conference rooms, fitness centers, café, deli, onsite concierge and car washing. The sale included a four-level, 1,304-stall parking garage.
HFF marketed the property on behalf of KBS, a California-based private equity firm that owned the asset through its KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II portfolio. The buyer is a national real estate investment management firm based in Richmond, Virginia.
Current tenants include Centene, Lathrop Gage, Morgan Stanley and Dana McKitrick P.C. Additionally, The St. Louis Club, a private dining club, occupies the top floor of the property with views of downtown and the Gateway Arch.
Clayton is one of the St. Louis region’s most sought-after submarkets for office space and is considered the hub of the St. Louis metropolitan area. Clayton boasts over 1 million square feet of retail space as well, and the Pierre Laclede Center sits in the center of the submarket.
The property is within walking distance to Clayton’s burgeoning restaurant and retail scene, as well as multiple MetroLink rail stations. The Clayton submarket has experienced a falling vacancy rate for its Class A office properties, hitting 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to CBRE’s St. Louis Office Market View Q1 2019 report. Moreover, the Missouri unemployment rate hit 3 percent that quarter, its lowest in 50 years, which proved the market’s viability.
Lingerfelt CommonWealth will own the tower via its discretionary investment vehicle, Lingerfelt Commonwealth Value Fund II. Commonwealth Commercial Partners, an affiliated commercial real estate operating firm, will open its 14th U.S. office in Clayton and will handle all aspects of the day-to-day asset and property management. Cushman & Wakefield will handle the leasing and marketing of the building’s available space.
“Within the first year of ownership, Lingerfelt CommonWealth plans to make a significant capital investment towards modernizing the property,” says Will Bradford, asset manager with Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners. “Our plans currently include renovating and revitalizing the property’s common spaces, including the amenity center floor, common courtyard, common lobbies, and bathrooms, which is intended to enhance both the tenant and community experience.”
The HFF investment advisory team representing the seller included Jaime Fink, Jeffrey Bramson, Danny Kaufman, Bryan Rosenberg, Patrick Shields and Sam DiFrancesca.
— Jeff Shaw