GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Principal Financial Closes Amberglen Purchase

BEAVERTON, OR-Principal Financial Group this week closed on its acquisition of the Amberglen Business Center. The Des Moines-based company paid State Farm Insurance $114.6 million for the 217-acre business park with 1.2 million sf of built space and 36 undeveloped acres, according to the brokers involved in the transaction. The purchase includes 10 flex-office buildings, six class A office buildings and four class B office buildings. Vacancy at the park is is about 33% (400,000 sf).Seattle-based GVA Kidder Mathews brokered the deal. The brokers involved were Keith Young and Monte Haynes of the firm’s Portland office and Jim Lovsted of the firm’s Seattle office. Young tells GlobeSt.com that an East Coast firm had the business park in escrow but was wavering, so they approached State Farm. An executive there did not officially give them the disposition assignment, but told them to go out and find a replacement buyer. Two weeks later, Principal had the property under contract with largely the same deal points.GVAKM will assume the leasing and development role at Amberglen and Seattle-based KG Investment Management will serve as property manager. Steve Kramer, one of the founders of KG, used to work for Principal.Haynes tells GlobeSt.com that the developable land is approved for both single-story flex space and multistory office buildings. Already planned are two 100,000-sf, four-story buildings similar to 1915 and 1925 NW Amberglen Parkway. Any new development would be dependent on having a tenant in hand, he says, adding that a new building could be ready for a tenant in nine to 12 months.GlobeSt.com broke news of the transaction last week based on unnamed sources not directly involved in the deal, as no one involved would comment at that time. Those sources were off on their estimates of the park’s occupancy and developable land; as a result, their estimated sale price was off.