$13M Buys Washington Center Tower, Mall

PORTLAND, OR-Eight tenant-in-common buyers have paid about $13 million for Washington Center Tower and Mall, two adjacent Downtown properties that together contain about 76,000 sf of office and retail space. The buildings were purchased together from AP&J Corp. and DTI Corp, which include the Goodman family, local developer Pat Prendergast and investor Frank Piacentini.Washington Center Tower, located at 425 S.W. Fifth Ave., is a 44,045-sf, six-story office building built in 1963. Tenants include Western Business College, which occupies 61% of the building, and Key Bank, which has 25% of the building. Clear Channel Communications leases billboard space on the building’s exterior that has long advertised for Verizon Wireless.Washington Center Mall, located at 401-419 S.W. Washington St., is a three-story building built in 1977 that contains 21,350 sf of office space, 10,630 sf of retail and underground parking for 95 vehicles. Tenants include Western Business College and Pacific Kids, an ESL program, which occupy 27% and 17% of the building, respectively. The largest retail tenant is AniA Collections, a bridal shop. The building is designed to support a 24-story office tower addition.The locally based tenant-in-common syndicate RealNet Investments LLC arranged the acquisition on behalf of the new owners. Chris Johnson of locally based Norris Beggs & Simpson brokered the sale. “This is a prime block, and its potential for development is incredible,” says RealNet principal Jason Larson in a prepared statement. “We’re seeing redevelopment all around Washington Center, in Old Town and Downtown. From an address standpoint, this is located in the middle of progress, so it’s a location that will multiply its value long into the future.”RealNet Investments’ next acquisition is the Bridgetown office building, located at 1631 NW Thurman St. in the Pearl District, at the west end of the Fremont Bridge. RealNet Investments will move its headquarters to the top floor of that building on March 1.