AKRON, OH—A recovery has taken hold in many suburban office markets, and investors have started to see properties there as a solid risk. For example, Rubenstein Partners, LP and its partner, an affiliate of Mark Munsell, just closed the sale of a seven-building office portfolio in Fairlawn, OH, a leading suburban submarket in the Akron metropolitan area, for $30 million to Embassy Park Akron LP, an affiliate of New York based Group RMC.

When Rubenstein acquired the overall portfolio of ten buildings in 2012, it had an occupancy rate of about 68%, and today the seven buildings sold are at 80% occupied.

"By undertaking a fairly complex negotiation at the outset, we were able to clean up the capital stack and remove obstacles to the performance of these buildings," says Brandon Huffman, director at Rubenstein. "We then pursued our value-added business plan to improve and lease up the assets, leading to this successful disposition."

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Brian J. Rogal

Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.