The Capital Markets Group at Cushman & Wakefield was able to complete the massive transaction amidst a deteriorating climate that shelved many high-profile assets entering the sales arena last summer. Contacted by GlobeSt.com, C&W investment sales chief Robert E. Griffin Jr. declined to provide details about the transaction, citing confidentiality agreements. Industry sources, however, say the deal is in the range of $550 per sf.
Rreef, the real estate arm of Deutsche Bank, bought into the towers in April 2000 for $337 million. Some observers maintain the firm was never comfortable with an arrangement that gave limited control over property related decisions, contributing to its decision to divest. A spokeswoman for Rreef, Cindy Talmadge, declined comment on the matter when contacted by GlobeSt.com, saying only that, "we don't respond to things like that."
Brookfield has not returned phone calls regarding the deal. The towers command some of the city's priciest rents; likely steeling the firm's confidence such that one source claims it wielded an option to keep another suitor from buying Rreef's interest. The Financial District vacancy rate is down to 8.8%, pushing rents near record levels, according to Richards Barry Joyce & Partners. The real estate services firm says select space is commanding rates close to $75 per sf, while class A asking rents are now averaging above $61 per sf.
Both 53 and 75 State St. were constructed during Boston's unprecedented 1980s building boom, with the former opening at the corner of Congress and State Streets in the heart of the CBD. The 40-story, 1.1 million sf tower came on line in 1984, and was joined four years later by 75 State St., a 31-story, 800,000-sf property that features an ornate gold-leaf façade and dramatic atrium lobby.
Tenants of 75 State St. include Advent Financial, Sovereign Bank and Wellington Management Co., while 53 State St. houses such firms as Citizens Bank, Fidelity Investments and law firm Goodwin Procter LLP. The landlord scored a coup last summer when advertising firm Hill Holliday relocated from the Back Bay into 110,000 sf at 53 State St., and RBJ says in its officeSTATus report that the company has just taken another 16,000 sf. Also known as Exchange Place, 53 State St. is undergoing extensive lobby upgrades, says RBJ, which is also a tenant and the tower's leasing agent.
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