Parkway Properties Buying NASCAR Headquarters for $100M

Parkway Properties, Inc. announced this week that it had entered into a purchase agreement for NASCAR Plaza in Charlotte, NC for a purchase price of approximately $100 million. A joint venture between Trinity Capital Advisors and Rubenstein Partners is selling the 390,000 20-story office tower located in the central business district, according to an Orlando Business Journal article. Parkway will own 100% of the asset and plans to assume the first mortgage secured by the property, which has a current outstanding balance of approximately $42.3 million with a current interest rate of 4.7% and a maturity date of March 30, 2016; Parkway intends to amend and restate the loan upon assumption to current market terms. Closing is expected to occur by the end of the fourth quarter 2012 and is subject to customary closing conditions.

James R. Heistand, Parkway's President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "The purchase of NASCAR Plaza represents another off-market transaction that enables us to expand in one of our key, target submarkets with a high-quality asset. NASCAR Plaza has a strong tenant base and is the headquarters for several well-known companies, and we expect to create additional value through leasing and rent growth in a submarket that we believe will outperform during a recovery."

Walker Collier, Partner at Trinity Capital, notes that while it's bittersweet to sell the building after less than two years of ownership, he is proud of Trinity Capital's work that created such value for the asset. "Rubenstein Partners and Trinity Capital‘s partnership worked tirelessly with our leasing and property management stakeholders to shift NASCAR Plaza from the tremendous distress it was under before it was purchased, creating the stabilized asset it is today," Collier said. "NASCAR Plaza will serve as a good case study for Trinity Capital and the value creation that we work towards for our investors and partners." Anne Vulcano and Jessica Brown of CBRE handled the building's leasing duties and Trinity Partners managed the property for the ownership group.

NASCAR Plaza, created by renowned Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and built in 2009, sits adjacent to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and serves as the headquarters of NASCAR. The building is currently 88% leased, with 139,000 square feet leased to NASCAR through May 2021.

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