GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Hines Closes on 1001 Fourth Ave.

SEATTLE-Hines’ National Office Partners LP with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System has closed on its acquisition of 1001 Fourth Ave., a 707,000-sf Downtown office building that once was the tallest building in the West. NOP paid $162 million or $230 per sf for the 50-story building, which will have a 40% vacancy by the end of the year if no significant new tenants are signed up by that time.ING Clarion oversaw the sale on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which has owned the building for 10 years. Secured Capital had the disposition assignment. Neither ING’s Seattle VP Steve Brunette nor Secured’s Stephen Van Dusen returned phone calls seeking comment. A Hines official also was not immediately available Tuesday morning. GlobeSt.com reported the buyer and the expected sale price last month .At that time, local industry sources told GlobeSt.com that the impending vacancy “is in some ways…a good thing” for a value-add investor like NOP that plans to upgrade the property with hope of eventually leasing up the building at higher rates (mid-to-upper $20s per sf per year, full service) than it could achieve as is (low $20s per sf). Hines announced this week that it plans to invest more than $30 million in an extensive renovation program for the building to complement recent public investment in the area.When it was completed in 1969, 1001 Fourth Ave. was the headquarters for Seattle First National Bank and the tallest building west of the Mississippi. It is located catty-corner from the city’s new Downtown public library and near the Union Bank of California Building, a similar-aged building that sold for just under $190 per sf in October.Officespace.com lists 305,000 sf as “available” in the building, including 240,000 sf that is not currently vacant but will be by the end of the year. Most, if not all, of that space is leased to IDX, which has already relocated to its new namesake tower but is on the hook for the lease until it expires at the end of the year.