Pacific Corporate Park Sold for $145.5M

Gramercy Property Trust, the New York-based global investor and asset manager, announced this week that it has sold the Pacific Corporate Park complex just a few miles north of Dulles International Airport for $145.5 million, or $209 per square foot. Terry Reiley, Robert Faktorow, Thomas Cleaver and Daniel Grimes of CBRE handled negotiations on behalf of Gramercy Property Trust, according to a CoStar report. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Troutman Sanders LLP spokesperson told Law360 that it had represented Gramercy Property Trust in the deal.

The sale is part of the Gramercy Property Trust's previously announced plan to dispose of select single and multi-tenant office assets. Since the sale plan was announced, Gramercy has exited $646.3 million of office assets at a weighted-average cap rate of 5.7%, with another $70 million of properties are under contract and $250 million that are currently on the market the majority of which are expected to close in the first half of 2016.

Pacific Corporate Park was put on the market last December by Chambers Street Properties, close to the same time that it and Gramercy Property Trust were finalizing their merger. The New York City-based REIT acquired the 696,377-square foot property at 22110, 22260, 22265 and 22270 Pacific Boulevard in Sterling, Virginia from AOL Inc. for $144.5 million in 2010. The four-building office campus is located right next to AOL's Dulles headquarters outside of Washington, DC. Three buildings in the campus serves as the headquarters for Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems, which has occupied the property since 2009, and is scheduled to remain in the park until 2026; the fourth building is partially rented to Strategic Federal Credit Union.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

CNL Buys Former Fossil HQ in TX

Orlando-based CNL Commercial Real Estate, Inc. announced this week that it had acquired what was formerly the Fossil Watch Headquarters at 2280 N. Greenville Ave. in Richardson, Texas. CNL purchased the property through a joint venture investment with CenterSquare Investment Management; terms of the deal, representation or a sale price were not disclosed. KDC sold the property to the CNL-CenterSquare joint venture after it originally acquired the asset when Fossil relocated to a larger location in 2011.

"This will be a really cool adaptive reuse of an existing facility," said Jimmy Grisham, managing director of CNL Commercial Real Estate. "We are going to be one of the few large blocks of contiguous space in a rapidly growing market, and will have the competitive advantages of large floor plates, high parking ratios and more than 400 covered parking spaces."

"This investment aligns with CenterSquare's objective of partnering with best in class local operators that have the vision and market experience to develop asset-specific business plans that create significant value enhancement upon execution. We certainly believe we have the right team members in place across the board to achieve the desired results," added Jeffrey Reder, senior vice president for CenterSquare Investment Management.

Originally built in 1994 and expanded in 2001, the 190,000-square-foot, 2-story office building and adjoining 130,000-square-foot warehouse property is located in close proximity to State Farm Insurance's regional hub, as well as a Raytheon's business unit that's relocating to Richardson from Garland. According to a Dallas Business Journal report, CNL plans to immediately convert the existing warehouse building into a 400-space covered parking facility, which increases the office building's parking ratio from three per thousand square feet to more than seven per thousand square feet. This gives CNL the ability to lease the space to a tenant seeking a high parking ratio, such as a call center.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Northstar CP Buys Office Complex

Denver-based Northstar Commercial Partners announced earlier this week that it had acquired an 199,418 square-foot office complex in Lakewood, Colorado for $4 million, or $20 per square foot. Northstar purchased the two-building complex from Hub Properties Trust c/o Reit Management & Research out of Ohio. Northstar is calling it "the largest block of contiguous office space in a stand-alone building in the entire metro Denver area," according to a Denver Business Journal article. HFF LLP's Mary Sullivan, John Jugl Jr. and Chris Crawford represented the seller in the transaction.

"We bought this because there are several large tenants in the market place now," said Brian Watson, founder and president of Northstar Commercial Partners in a statement. "This is one of just a few opportunities to be able to accommodate them and their needs."

The complex at 3840 S. Wadsworth Boulevard is currently vacant, but has previously been the home of Gateway Computers, Raytheon, Martin Marietta, Merrill Lynch and most recently Lockheed Martin, which vacated the property in the first quarter. "It's always been for a single tenant," said Watson of the complex, with one building measuring 59,426 square feet and the main one at 139,992 square feet. "It's just the way the buildings are laid out."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Crystal City Buildings Get $118M Loan

Lowe Enterprises, owner of Century Center I and II in Crystal City, VA just minutes over the bridge from Washington, DC, received a $118 million refinance loan on the properties arranged by Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF) according to a Washington Business Journal article. HFF secured the five-year, adjustable-rate loan through Wells Fargo Bank, the proceeds of which were used to refinance an existing loan and fund future leasing and capital expenditures.

"Century Center's renovation and repositioning, which included creating a retail promenade extending down Crystal Drive, demonstrates Lowe's commitment to the property and the Crystal City submarket," said Cary Abod, managing director with HFF.

Century Center I and II covers 560,207 square feet of office space, 65,797 square feet of retail space and a three-level, 1,494-space underground parking garage. Lowe originally acquired the property on behalf of a pension fund client in 2004 and recently completed a $30 million renovation to improve building systems and curb appeal. Major tenants include Raytheon, GSA, and Northrop Grumman.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

AOL Selling Part of VA Campus to CBRE for $144.5M

AOL Inc. has agreed to sell part of its large office complex known as Pacific Corporate Park in Northern Virginia for $144.5 million according to a Washington Post article. CB Richard Ellis will take ownership of four office buildings no longer utilized by aol and two undeveloped parcels of land on the Dulles campus. The combined total office space is approximately 700,000 rentable square feet in the four buildings; AOL vacated the building by early 2010 and the space is currently 100% leased with most of the space leased defense contractor Raytheon for a 10-year term.

"While the Dulles campus is an important part of AOL's future, we simply had no need to continue owning the additional space -- having already moved all of our talent in Dulles to one side of the campus," said Artie Minson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial and Administrative Officer at AOL. "With a long-term lease in place it made sense for us to pursue a sale to realize maximum value of these assets and add significant cash to our balance sheet."

"We find this is an excellent location and very attractive set of resources with respect to the Northern Virginia market," said Phil Kianka, executive vice president and chief operating officer at CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust. The trust's parent company, CB Richard Ellis Group, represented AOL in the deal.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.