KBS Realty Advisors and affiliates continue to hunt for sizable office properties across the country for sale, with nearly $250 million worth of notable deals announced this month.
The Newport Beach-based investor, which buys large commercial properties through a variety of nontraded real estate investment trusts and private funds, this month announced it bought a recently built, 18-story office tower in Columbia, S.C.
The Main & Gervais building, 98% leased, has about 186,000 square feet and comes with a seven-story parking structure. KBS paid about $65 million for it, according to local news reports.
It was sold by an affiliate of Atlanta-based developer Holder Properties, which built the tower in 2009 for an estimated $60 million.
The office sits across from the South Carolina State House and a half-mile walk from the University of South Carolina, the largest university in the state.
KBS was also part of a venture that bought a recently renovated creative-office property in Portland, Ore., this month called Sixth at Yamill.
The 11-story building is 109,725 square feet. It was built in 1955 and renovated last year with creative-office flourishes, including an indoor-outdoor tenant patio on the fourth floor.
KBS paid $28.5 million, or $260 per square foot in a venture with True North Management Group of White Plains, N.Y.
At least one more large deal appears imminent for KBS, this one in Northern California. Its KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT II Inc. fund is under contract to buy Oakland City Center, a two-building office property in the Bay Area that spans 367,357 square feet and is 92% leased.
The affiliate will pay $155 million for the Oakland campus, according to regulatory filings pertaining to a $625 million follow-on offering for the nontraded REIT, whose primary investments include two hotel properties, two office buildings, and one apartment building.
KBS Realty was formed in 1992 and has completed nearly $34 billion worth of real estate transactions. It was ranked the 11th largest office owner globally last year by National Real Estate Investor.
Quick Flip
A large industrial building in Buena Park has sold in what appears to be a nearly 40% markup of its last reported trade, which came last year.
The 218,640-square-foot building at 6280 Artesia Blvd., a few blocks south of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway, was bought last month by the Irvine office of Duke Realty, an Indianapolis-based industrial property owner.
Duke paid about $35.8 million, or about $164 per square foot, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
The building is leased to Cypress-based Exemplis Corp., which makes office chairs under the SitOnIt and Ideon brands.
It was sold by an affiliate of Irvine’s Greenlaw Partners, which paid a reported $25.5 million, or $117 per square foot, for the property in May 2016.
Last month’s sale ranks third among the priciest sales of stand-alone industrial buildings in Orange County this year, according to CoStar records.
The biggest industrial sale here this year was also in Buena Park: J.C. Penney’s 1-million-square-foot former logistics facility, which was bought by CenterPoint Properties of Oak Brook, Ill., for about $130 million.
New Brokerage
Tulsa, Ok.-based commercial brokerage Stan Johnson Co. is opening its first office in OC in Newport Beach.
The Newport Center office at 23 Corporate Plaza Drive is its fourth location in California and 10th overall.
“Southern California, and specifically Orange County, is a key market for Stan Johnson Company as we have many clients with properties in the region,” said Regional Managing Director Myles Helm, who’s part of the team overseeing the new location.
“We will continue to look to grow our Newport Beach office with additional brokers,” Helm said in a statement.
The brokerage said it focuses exclusively on net lease transactions involving retail, office, industrial, healthcare and sale-leaseback properties. The firm also provides acquisition, disposition, capital markets and advisory services for institutions, developers, investment funds and private investors.
