Duke Realty Sells 269,500-SF Suburban Office Complex

CINCINNATI-Duke Realty has sold a 269,496-sf suburban office complex here to TIC Properties LLC of Greenville, SC for $30.4 million. The three building development, Executive Plaza I, II and III, is located within a larger park in the Northern Cincinnati’s Tri-County office submarket.TIC Properties president Trevor Gordon tells GlobeSt.com that the two older buildings, built in the early 1980s, are three-story structures fully leased to General Electric and occupied by its aircraft engineering division. The third, Executive Plaza III, built in 1998, is a three-story, multi-tenant class A suburban office building with about 15 tenants and about 16,000 sf of vacancy. The two tenants with the closest lease expirations renewed their leases prior to the close of sale and there are good prospects for filling current vacancy, he says. “Our reconnaissance on leasing tells us there is several hundred square feet of smaller tenants up for renewal in that market in the near term,” Gordon tells GlobeSt.com. “We think that’s a tremendous opportunity” (to lease up the available space).GE is believed to have between five- and 10 years left on its lease. Paul Stone, TIC Properties’ VP of acquisitions, tells GlobeSt.com that he likes the chances of GE renewing its leases for Executive Plaza I and II. “There are nine buildings in the larger park and GE occupied seven of them,” he says. “In addition, GE also has a 6.4 million-sf manufacturing plant in nearby Evendale.”After purchasing the property for $30.4 million, TIC Properties syndicated it to the group of mostly 1031 exchange investors for $33.8 million. The cap rate based in the TIC’s price is 7.75%, says Gordon. Upon re-trading the property, he expects investors will have seen the equivalent of an 11.25% average annualized return. Matt Good with Professional Mortgage Company Inc. secured $21.9 million in financing for this property from LaSalle Bank. TIC Properties raised the remaining $11.9 million of equity. “We were attracted to this property on the strength of the anchor tenant…but saw real opportunity with Executive Plaza III,” says Stone. “Further, given the historical strength of the Tri-County market, and the base of companies throughout the community, we see real appreciation opportunities with the properties through economic expansion and leasing.”