8 posts tagged “cushman & wakefield”

NRG Texas and its retail business Reliant Energy have executed a long-term lease at Pavilions Tower in the Houston Pavilions complex, an agreement that includes the space in floors one through ten (Sheehy, Serpe & Ware occupy the top floor). Eric Anderson and Greg Tilton of Transwestern represented the owner, Houston Pavilions LP. NRG Texas was represented by George Strake and Christopher Oliver with Cushman & Wakefield of Texas, Inc.

With the completion of the NRG lease, the second largest lease to be completed within the last year in downtown Houston, the office section of the project is now completely leased. "Even in the best of economic times, it's not often that a 240,000-square-foot tenant comes along," said Geoff Jones, co-developer/principal of Houston Pavilions. "In today's climate, we feel extremely fortunate to have executed a lease of this size with a tenant like NRG."

For more news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

SunTrust Bank has leased 252,822 square feet of space at the Marquis II, a 28-story Class-A office building at 285 Peachtree Center Avenue in downtown Atlanta, according to a CoStar Group report. SunTrust will move into the space in January 2011 after its current lease at 250 Piedmont expires, keeping 1,200 jobs in the city.  CB Richard Ellis represented the owners, America's Capital Partners, while Cushman & Wakefield represented SunTrust.

"Managing the company's office space needs and real estate assets more efficiently and effectively has been a key component of SunTrust's ongoing 'excellence in execution' initiative," said Doug Sinclair, senior vice president of corporate real estate at SunTrust. "After considering various locations, the Marquis II building offered the best fit for our changing business needs while allowing us to maintain a close proximity to our corporate headquarters at SunTrust Plaza."

For more news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

The New York Times published an article today titled "New York Office Landlords Go Small", commenting on the choice some office spaces are making to turn large vacant blocks of real estate into smaller, pre-built offices as the commercial real estate market continues to see vacancies on the rise. "In the past, landlords would have been less likely to break up whole floors, because it is easier to do one single transaction," said Peter Turchin, an executive vice president at CB Richard Ellis.  "But that’s not where the market is now."

According to a report from Cushman & Wakefield, the first quarter of 2009 in Manhattan saw nearly 85% of the leases inked for spaces under 10,000 square feet, with another 11% in the 10,000 to 25,000 square foot range. Brokers say such a strong tilt toward small offices is unusual in New York, where the financial industry, in particular, has traditionally rented large blocks of space.

For more news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

According to Costar.com, a 20,000 square-foot building on Chicago's well-marketed "Magnificent Mile", also know as N. Michigan Ave,  is being sold through a sealed-bid auction. The Mather Building sits at 326 N. Michigan Ave, just two blocks from Millennium Park.  Loukas Development currently owns the building and the transaction is being handled by Inland Real Estate Auctions. According to Paul Rogers, senior vice president and managing broker of Inland Real Estate Auctions, this is a "developable" parcel of land with somewhere around 16,000 pedestrians and 37,000 vehicles passing the space every day. The next owner will receive full rights to develop the land, potentially valued at $93 million.

The decision to auction the property is another indication of the current stresses in the commercial real estate sector and the owner's desire to move the property quickly. "Increasingly, the owners of even high-profile properties are turning to auctions as a way to realize immediate value in a volatile market," said Rogers. GlobeSt.com cited a year-end market report by Cushman & Wakefield which found leasing rates for similar office space in the area goes for around $37 per square foot and occupancy rates are around 88%.

For more news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

SL Green Realty Corp. and Gramercy Capital Corp. have sold their interests in a three-building, 670,000-square-foot property at 55 Corporate Drive in Bridgewater, N.J. for $230 million, according to a crefeed.com report.   The sale, worth approximately $343 per square foot, was negotiated by Inland Real Estate Acquisitions, Inc. on behalf of Inland American Real Estate Trust.   Andrew Merin and Gary Gabriel from Cushman & Wakefield along with the legal team from Greenberg Traurig represented the SL Green/Gramercy venture in the transaction.  The deal includes the assumption of an existing $190 million mortgage and is expected to close within the next 60 days subject to customary conditions.

The property serves as the North American headquarters, under a long-term net lease, for Sanofi-aventis, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. SL Green purchased and retenanted the property as part of its venture with the Gale Companies. Gramercy acquired its interests from the Gale Companies in 2006, and have been owners through a 50/50 joint venture.

For more news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Datura Place in West Palm Beach, Florida has been sold to a New York based firm, Cohen Commercial Properties, for $8 million according to a GlobeSt article. The seller, Applefield Waxman, paid $4.9 million for the 66,130-square foot building at 324 Datura Place in 2000. At approximately $121 per square foot, the sale is below those deals that took place at the end of 2008, according to Jay Caplin, capital markets broker with Cushman & Wakefield in Miami. Applefield Waxman is said to have sold the office building with plans to buy another in Palm Beach Gardens.

"They had achieved very high occupancy at the property and it was time to harvest profits for their investor groups," said John Bell, managing director of Miami-based DTZ Rockwood, who handled the transaction on behalf of Applefield. The Health Care District of Palm Beach County is the major tenant at Datura Place with remaining space largely occupied by small law firms; Cohen Commercial Properties plans to bring its local property management office into the building, bringing the occupancy to 100 percent.

For more real estate news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

inVentiv Health will occupy 154,035 square feet of Class A office space in Somerville, NJ as its new headquarters building in order to consolidate four of its existing office locations, according to a Commercial Property News article. More than 500 inVentiv employees will occupy the four-story office building at 500 Atrium Drive, bringing together staff from inVentiv Health, inVentiv Commercial, inVentiv Patient Outcomes, inVentiv Clinical, Strategyx, and The Franklin Group. inVentiv employs more than 7,000 people worldwide and has offices across the globe.  In addition to being the headquarters, Somerset, NJ is the company's largest location.

"The move to a new headquarters is very consistent with our overall business strategy," said Terrell Herring, President and COO of inVentiv Health. Atrium Corporate Park is a four-building complex containing 900,000 square feet of Class A office space located directly off Davidson Avenue in Somerset.  It offers an array of amenities including complimentary use of its conference center and fitness center as well as a full-service hotel and banquet facilities and nearby daycare centers, restaurants, hotels and shopping.  Cushman & Wakefield represented inVentiv in the lease and Jones Lang LaSalle represented Atrium Corporate Park owner LaSalle Investment Management.

For more news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Alameda Contra Costa (AC) Transit has purchased the Fruitvale Business Center in Oakland, California from Kavped Inc. for $19 million.  The 16-acre industrial center is adjacent to its current bus maintenance facility and has 240,657 square feet spread across four buildings and six undeveloped acres on its property.  The center had been in escrow with a home builder earlier this year, but the deal fell through.

AC Transit plans to use the undeveloped land for future expansion, said Jim Morris, who helped complete the deal while at Colliers International (representing the seller in the transaction) but later moved to Cushman & Wakefield of Northern California.  The timing of the expansion has not yet been determined as current tenants, including a roofing company and a landscaping business, have leased nearly 100 percent of the existing buildings and will remain in place for at least five years.

"This deal demonstrates there is still strong demand for industrial property in Oakland," said Colliers Vice President Gabe Burke in an article published by East Bay Business Times.  Because industrial space is scarce in the inner East Bay, when a property like this comes available next to a company's existing site, "you take a hard look at it," Morris said.

For more real estate news and information, visit Blumberg Capital Partners.