Nashville AmeriPlex Complex Sold for $26M

Jackson, Mississippi-based StateStreet Group has purchased the AmeriPlex warehouse and office development in Nashville for $26.3 million. The four-building complex was sold by owner-developer Holladay Properties, which opened the property in 2009 as the company's first LEED industrial park. Terms of the deal were not disclosed; both companies were self-represented in the transaction. The deal gives StateStreet its seventh local property.

"We have enjoyed developing this Class A office/warehouse complex, where we finished the final phase of construction just this year," Allen Arender, Holladay Properties senior vice president of development, said in a statement. "AmeriPlex has attracted many of Nashville's most desirable tenants and it is set to be a highly successful property for a long time. It was a pleasure to work with the people at StateStreet. They truly appreciate the unique value of this property and I am confident it will continue to perform well under their management."

"AmeriPlex is a very desirable in-fill office/warehouse property in one of the best real estate markets in the country. It's in excellent condition and fully leased to several high quality national corporations including Epiphone, Bridgestone and DHL. We've been fortunate to grow our Nashville portfolio significantly and we continue to look for additional quality assets like AmeriPlex," added John Ditto, president of StateStreet Group.

Located at 1508 Elm Hill Pike, AmeriPlex at Elm Hill is situated at the heart of Nashville's industrial central business district and accommodates approximately 260,000 sq. ft. of office warehouse industrial space. The first 90,000 square foot building was developed in 2009; Holladay developed the site and operates from the 1508 building, and said it will remain in that office post sale.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Zurich Buys 2.0 University Place for $41.3M

University Place Associates, the Philadelphia-based development company, announced this week that it has sold 2.0 University Place to Zurich Insurance Group for a record $41.25 million, with an implied rate of $438 square-foot. The deal is Zurich's first acquisition in Philadelphia, and commits the company to completing up to $1.8 million in interior construction work, developer Scott Mazo said. Full terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"The sale of 2.0 University Place paves the way to continue the vision of establishing University City's 40th Street transit hub as Philadelphia's corridor for the highest standards in environmental responsibility," said Mazo, Principal of University Place Associates. "We are looking forward to breaking ground later this year on 3.0 University Place to further enhance University City's emerging status as a world-class destination and to demonstrate our commitment to building the highest quality and healthiest workplaces."

The over 90,000 square foot, Class A structure at 30 North 41st Street in Philadelphia is located on the northern edge of the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. 2.0 University was developed to be completely eco-friendly, earning a Platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program. At the time of the sale the building was 100% leased with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS) as an anchor tenant leasing three floors of the five-story building.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

KBS REIT III Buys Salt Lake Tower for $170.5M

KBS Real Estate Investment Trust III, a public non-traded REIT, announced this week that it had purchased 222 Main in Salt Lake City's Central Business District for $170.5 million plus closing costs, making it a record-setting deal for commercial real estate in Salt Lake City, on a cost per-square footage basis. The 426,657-square foot tower was sold by a joint venture of Bentall Kennedy, Hamilton Partners and Honeywell Retirees Pension. Marc Renard of Cushman & Wakefield, Kip Paul of Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce, and Tim Richey and Michael Winn of Cushman & Wakefield of Colorado coordinated the sale on behalf of the selling venture. The property was 85% leased at the time of sale.

"We believe 222 Main was designed to the highest standards with first-class finishes throughout which, along with its location in Salt Lake City's CBD, makes it a premier office property," said KBS Capital Advisors Senior VP Tim Helgeson. "This is an asset that benefits from unobstructed views of the Wasatch Range. Additionally, downtown Salt Lake City is just two blocks from the $2 billion City Creek Center mixed use development, which features numerous first-class amenities."

Designed by the international architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the 22-story tower at 222 Main was built in 2009 by Okland Construction and was the first Utah building to be LEED Gold certified. The sale drew national interest and multiple bids from local and out-of-state investors, according to one of a team of real estate brokers at Cushman & Wakefield | Commerce offices in Salt Lake, Denver and Los Angeles who were involved in the sale. "We had huge traffic on this," said Kip Paul, the firm's director of investment sales in Salt Lake. "I can't tell you how many people flew in to see this."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

First "Salmon Safe" Building in Seattle

Seattle's new EMP Museum administrative office building is the first urban in-fill project anywhere to be certified as "salmon safe," according to a press release issued by Howard S. Wright, the property builder. The EMP Museum in Seattle, Washington, received a LEED® Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is the first Salmon-Safe certified urban in-fill project to date and the first Salmon-Safe certified office building in Seattle.

Salmon-Safe, a Portland nonprofit, certifies projects that protect water quality and restore habitat, according to a Puget Sound Business Journal article. The nonprofit recognizes construction companies that implement pollution control and runoff protection measures in all of their projects.

"Our primary focus was to achieve the owner's goal of constructing a LEED Platinum building," said Brad Phillips, senior project manager at at Howard S. Wright. "We knew that in order to achieve this goal, we had to design and build an extremely high performing building envelope, and also include a high percentage of natural light – a challenge the team took to heart."

Construction on the 51,200 square foot concrete structure with four levels above grade, and one level below, began in October 2011 and was completed in June 2013 by developer Vulcan, Inc. The facility houses additional space for the Museum and includes office space, workshops, and acclimatized collections storage. Owned by Cedar Strands Properties, the project was designed by Collins Woerman of Seattle, Washington, and also earned a 2013 ENR Best Project Award for Office/Retail/Mixed-Use Developments in the Northwest in December.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Kilroy Realty Developing $315M LinkedIn Campus

Kilroy Realty Corporation (KRC) announced this month that it had acquired a 12-acre site in Sunnyvale, California to develop, own and manage a $315 million campus for LinkedIn Corporation, operator of the world's largest professional network on the internet. Under a 12-year lease agreement, KRC will develop a state-of-the-art 587,000 square-foot office project for LinkedIn, with three mid-rise Class A office buildings and a parking structure designed and pre-certified to meet LEED Silver requirements. Sherman Chan and Bob Steinbock, both senior vice presidents at CBRE, acted as investment brokers in the transaction. Attorneys with the law firm Allen Matkins represented both Kilroy Realty and the seller, according to a CoStar report.

"We're delighted to partner with LinkedIn in the creation of a new LEED-certified office facility," said John Kilroy, Jr., KRC's President and Chief Executive Officer. "This is another opportunity for us to create significant value for our shareholders through the development of the highest quality real estate at superior returns."

Eli Khouri, KRC's Chief Investment Officer, added: "This transaction is the fourth of its kind in 2012 where KRC has agreed to develop, from the ground up, new state-of-the-art buildings for leading technology companies in the Bay Area. These types of opportunities have arisen from KRC's strategy of acquiring superior locations in the best submarkets where we can offer superb space to the region's premier tenants."

Sunnyvale, with a Class A total vacancy rate of less than 5%, is a highly sought after location for tenants seeking to cluster around major technology firms, including Apple, Yahoo!, AMD and now, LinkedIn. Average asking rents for Class A office space in Sunnyvale stood at $4.01 per square foot as of the third quarter of this year, according to Cassidy Turley. LinkedIn already is in roughly 76,000 square feet on the site at 599 Mathilda Ave., and that building is expected to remain, according to a San Jose Business Journal article.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

KBS Acquires Houston Class A Property for $68.5M

Pearlmark Real Estate Partners, a Chicago-based real estate investment firm, with Easton Group, Chuck Cobb, and Jorge Perez have sold 1800 West Loop South in Houston for $68.5 million this week to KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT. The Harris Central Appraisal District previously valued the building at $53.9 million. KBS purchased the property with funds from initial public offering, but said it may later place mortgage debt on the property. Russell Ingrum, Jared Chua, Bernard Branca, Gary Carr and John Alvarado with CBRE represented the seller in the transaction.

"We are pleased to acquire another quality Houston asset," said Jeff Rader, vice president of KBS Capital Advisors. "Houston is among the best performing markets in the country and we believe that strong oil prices, an increasingly diversified local economy, and the lack of new office development will contribute to significant demand over the long haul."

The property, which came to market in September, is a 21-story building located at San Felipe and the 610 feeder road in Houston, Texas. The facility obtained LEED Silver certification in 2008 and has earned the ENERGY STAR every year since 2008. Constructed in 1980 and designed by Morris-Aubry, 1800 West Loop South offers 399,777 square feet of office space with an 11-story double helix parking garage. At acquisition, the building was 88% leased by 40 tenants at the time of sale, according to a CoStar report.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

The Move for Bike Rooms in NYC Office Buildings

An article from the New York Times, A Room of Their Own for 2-Wheeled Commuters, examines the recent move by some building landlords to establish bicycle rooms for their tenants, and the related benefits and limits of offering the ammenity. The article used 345 Hudson Street in New York as an example, where the property manager says that the bike room they built in its storage space in 2008 is "always packed". "We have 35, 40 bicycles there a day," said Alfonse Amore, vice president for property management for the building's landlord, Trinity Real Estate.

Regulations established by the New York City Department of Transportation on December 11, 2009 requires commercial office buildings with at least one freight elevator to implement and post a Bicycle Access Plan that allows the tenant's employees to bring bikes into the tenant's office space. "The law doesn't require bike rooms," explained Noah Budnick, the deputy director of the nonprofit Transportation Alternatives. "The law just requires that the buildings let the people get their bikes from the street to their office. We're hearing more and more that this is a selling point for the real estate industry. You're seeing office spaces marketed with bike rooms, which is pretty awesome."

But, notes the article, one thing may be preventing landlords from building even more bike rooms: showers. An excerpt:

In new office buildings, the U.S. Green Building Council, which certifies buildings as LEED-compliant, awards points only for bike rooms with showers and changing rooms. And in existing buildings, bike rooms also do not automatically earn LEED points because they are based on behavioral changes in tenants — for instance, if a tenant allows employees to telecommute or if a landlord puts in a bike room that gets heavy use. LEED certification, shorthand for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is important to landlords because it tells the public, and investors, that their buildings save energy.

The building council's requirement that new buildings have showers, which can be costly to install and take up more space, is a sticking point for some New York landlords. While a rinse may be necessary for riders pedaling 10 miles to a suburban office park, landlords say, Manhattan employees coming from, say, Park Slope in Brooklyn, usually won't work up much of a sweat.

"You have a lot of buildings here which would like to get LEED points," said Eric Gural, an executive managing director of Newmark Knight Frank who oversees the 1,000-square-foot bike room at 520 Eighth Avenue. "If we didn't have to put a shower in, I think you'd see a lot more bike rooms that would be provided by landlords."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

PNC Building New $400M Headquarters

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. announced this week that it would be constructing a new skyscraper in Pittsburgh, dubbed the Tower at PNC Plaza, that will serve as the company's new headquarters when complete in 2015. Located at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Wood street, the approximately 40 story, 800,000 square foot building will be "the world's most environmentally friendly skyscraper" according to PNC.

"When the Tower is complete, we will have invested more than $700 million in green buildings at the heart of the city," said James E. Rohr, chairman and chief executive officer of PNC. The Tower will feature a double glass facade, state-of-the-art, high efficiency heating and cooling systems and will be oriented to take advantage of sunlight in workspaces, reducing the need for artificial light during the day. The designers in the Pittsburgh office of Gensler are also currently exploring fuel cells, solar panels, geothermal systems and other alternative power generation sources that will significantly reduce carbon emissions. The Tower will also feature green rooftops to collect rainwater and channel it for use in other parts of the structure.

"A headquarters facility is the cornerstone building of any company's portfolio, embodying company values and business ethics. PNC is making a strong statement by building their forthcoming headquarters to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards," said S. Richard Fedrizzi, president, chief executive officer and founding chairman of the United States Green Building Council.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

UCLA Medical Facility Gets $38M in Financing

The University of California Los Angeles' partially constructed 50,000 square foot outpatient medical facility has received a $38 million, 12-month forward financing commitment according to a GlobeSt.com article. The 12-month forward take-out commitment secured a non-recourse loan with a 10-year fixed rate of interest at 5.67 percent, with 30 years amortization. The medical center project is scheduled to be completed in December 2011 and promises LEED Gold certification.

"The borrower wanted to eliminate financing risk and lock-in returns, given market volatility. But lenders have recently refused to commit more than three to six months before funding, and premiums for such hedging were prohibitive." said Steven C. Orchard, a Senior Vice President at George Smith Partners, which arranged the financing. "We were pleased to secure a loan that exploits the low interest rate environment, and controls exposure to inflation during the remaining construction period. It reflects well on the sponsor and the project, but it also says a lot about our team at GSP. It was the culmination of our firm’s market expertise and strong relationship with capital sources."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Top 10 LEED States Released by USGBC

The U.S. Green Building Council releases its 2010 list of top 10 states for LEED-certified commercial and institutional green buildings per capita, based on the U.S. 2010 Census information. USGBC’s LEED green building certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of green buildings. Over 40,000 projects are currently participating in the commercial and institutional LEED rating systems, comprising over 7.9 billion square feet of construction space in all 50 states and 117 countries.

"Using per capita, versus the more traditional numbers of projects, or pure square footage, is a reminder to all of us that the people who live and work, learn and play in buildings should be what we care about most," said USGBC SVP of LEED, Scot Horst. "2010 was a difficult year for most of the building industry, but in many areas, the hunger for sustainable development kept the markets moving."

The top LEED states per capita, including the District of Columbia:

• District of Columbia: 25.15 square feet per person
• Nevada: 10.92 square feet per person
• New Mexico: 6.35 square feet per person
• New Hampshire: 4.49 square feet per person
• Oregon: 4.07 square feet per person
• South Carolina: 3.19 square feet per person
• Washington: 3.16 square feet per person
• Illinois: 3.09 square feet per person
• Arkansas: 2.9 square feet per person
• Colorado: 2.85 square feet per person
• Minnesota: 2.77 square feet per person

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.