Harsch Picks Up Flex-Office Development for $20M

BELLEVUE, WA-Harsch Investment Properties has acquired Plaza 520 Business Park, a 130,195 sf, multi-tenant business park located just south of Highway 520 on the northeast corner of 130th Avenue NE and Northrup Way, from its developer, Peter Jouflas. The Portland, OR-based private real estate company paid $20 million for the 11-building development, which is built out mostly as office and 80% leased.At the time of closing there were 14 tenants, including Windermere East Real Estate, First American Title Insurance, Siemens, Rockwell Publishing, Safeway and United Way. Mark Flippo and Kip Durrell of Pacific Real Estate Partners represented both parties in the transaction and will be retained by Harsch to handle the leasing for the project. Scott Coombs will manage the property for Harsch.”The Bellevue Central Business District has leased over 800,000 sf over the past six months, and suburban office properties like Plaza 520 are well positioned to capitalize on the strengthening Eastside market conditions”, says Coombs, manager of all Harsch properties in the region. With Plaza 520, the company’s Seattle regional portfolio now totals about 1.7 million sf of office, industrial and retail properties and 542 multifamily units. This is the second property Harsch has purchased from Jouflas in the Puget Sound region. In May of 2000, Harsch paid $7.5 million for a 10-acre site in Federal Way that held a 63,000-sf Office Max. Harsch proceeded to create the Pavillions II Shopping Center, a 127,000-sf retail center anchored by Best Buy, Office Max and PetsMart. Other Puget Sound area acquisitions by Harsch in 2004 include the 291,000-sf Fife Business Park in March for $28.2 million and the 165,000-sf SeaTac Village Shopping Center in Federal Way in June for $25.4 million. SeaTac Village is located at the corner of South 320th Street and Pacific Highway South along with the Pavillions II property. Combined with Ross Plaza, a 190,000-sf center that is scheduled for redevelopment and 15% expansion beginning this October, Harsch owns 500,000 sf of retail properties on three of the four corners there. The corner Harsch doesn’t own is the 740,000-sf Sea Tac Mall, now called the Commons at Federal Way.