Leasing Strong at 71 Stevenson

SAN FRANCISCO-Leasing is strong at 71 Stevenson. The 323,276-sf South Financial District office building that traded hands this time last year lost half its tenants earlier this year, taking availability to approximately 180,000 sf. Now, after signed leases and offers tendered by prospective tenants, the building is on the verge of once again being more than 90% occupied.

The most recent deal was with Regus Group. The publicly traded executive suites company leased the 18,000-sf fourth floor of the building for 10 years. Prior to that, Bovis Lend lease took down close to a full floor. VMWare, which held a billion-dollar IPO earlier this month, expanded within the building; and Bare Escentuals Inc., the publicly held cosmetics company, also expanded, taking another floor-and-a-half.

Anton Qui, the leasing agent for the building, in large part attributed the strong leasing to the large portfolio deals that have transacted recently at top-of-market prices, forcing the new owners to jack up its asking rates on available space. “A lot of tenants are looking for other options and our strategy has been to undercut those rates by 10% to 20% in trade for credit tenants,” he tells GlobeSt.com.