Prentiss Properties, Pushing Office Strategy, Pays $63.3 Million for Bay Area Property

Dallas-based Prentiss Properties Trust is paying $63.3 million for an Oakland, CA, office and development site, action that closely follows a planned disposition of the REIT’s final holdings in Houston and Dallas.

The move is not an indication that the REIT, set to be acquired by NJ-based Mack-Cali, is reducing its presence in TX, says Rick Bower, Prentiss Properties vice president of capital markets. “It’s not necessarily a focus on getting out of Texas, but a focus on core markets,” Bower told GlobeSt.com. He says the REIT is redirecting its emphasis to office properties from industrial holdings. Before the end of first quarter 2001, Prentiss plans to dispose of its remaining industrial holdings in metro Washington, D.C., and Tucson, according to a company statement. In this year’s second quarter, industrial dispositions in Dallas and northern CA generated $56.3 million while another $4.2 million was realized by the sell-off of a 26,730-sf industrial holding in a Philadelphia suburb. The Dallas portfolio consisted of five buildings totaling 664,306 sf while northern CA’s two buildings had a combined 382,322 sf.

Bower says the markets key to Prentiss’ future are the Bay Area, Southern California, Denver, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Sacramento, Chicago, Los Angeles and … Austin and its corporate home, Dallas. The most closely watched markets are Austin, northern VA and Delmar, north of San Diego, according to Bower.