The majority interest in the ownership was purchased by affiliates of Merchant Equity Group and the Arnold Penner family of New York. This is each group's first investment in this office market.

1 Financial Plaza was developed in 1983 and is currently 95% leased. Among its tenants are Unicare, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wellpoint, which occupies over 100,000 sf. Other tenants include Disability Management Services, Prudential Securities, First Union Securities and Senator John Kerry.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed and calls to Kennedy-Wilson were not returned by presstime. In a prepared statement, Samuel Guss, managing director in the New York office of Kennedy-Wilson, says his company "developed significant demand from national investors and local investors through a competitive bid process for the property. Merchant Equity succeeded in besting the competition to be selected as the buyer after a thorough analysis of price, terms and credibility."