EOP, CBRE Improve Lobby, Occupancy at 1001 Fifth

PORTLAND-It was bound to happen. Every building has a life cycle, and last year at this time the 1001 Fifth Avenue Building was making its publicly traded owner well aware of that fact. Despite a white-hot office market, Equity Office Properties’ 22-story, 363,000-sf Downtown office building dropped quickly to 80% occupancy after a law firm relocated to one of the new buildings in town, an energy company downsized and city government tenants moved back into owned space after the completion of a new building. “1001 Fifth was in its 20th year, and a lot of tenants that had been in there and signed five- and 10-year deals and then renewed had come to the point where they either needed to live through a remodel or move out,” says John Hansen, EOP’s leasing director for Oregon and Washington.

A few months later, Hansen bought in a team of brokers from CB Richard Ellis to re-sign tenants whose leases were expiring and backfill 72,000 sf of available space. Over the next six months, CBRE’s Clint Benson, Eric Grindy and Tom Fellman worked with better than 14 businesses and several brokers–including Doug Bean, Mike Holzgang and Dave Squire–to renew and re-lease a total of 78,000 sf in the building.