It's Official: Amazon.com Building Changes Hands

325 Ninth Avenue North

SEATTLE—GlobeSt.com first got wind of the Amazon.com Phase VIII 12-story office building being on the block back in April. At the time, sources said that the building could fetch near $260 million and Vulcan, while not disclosing details, told us that the “market will determine pricing based on a competitive bidding process.” Well that process is done and Mirae Asset Global Investments paid $246.8 million for the property. Representation was led by NGKF capital markets president, West Coast Capital Markets Kevin Shannon , executive managing director Ken White , and managing director Michael Moll . Local market assistance was provided by Lou Senini and Tom Pehl from CBRE . Shannon tells GlobeSt.com that “In the last five years, Seattle has clearly established itself as the sixth coastal gateway market along with NY, San Francisco, LA, DC and Boston for both domestic and foreign capital. Recent large office sales to Mirae Asset, GLL , Investcorp, Gaw Capital, Union, Pacific Eagle etc. shows clearly how global capital has migrated to Seattle from three different continents during the last year.” Shannon adds that “Seattle doesn’t struggle with the ‘unicorn’ tenant perception issue like San Francisco and has the best overall credit tenant profile of the three gateway coastal markets.” Phase VIII is a core, low-risk investment opportunity with a remaining lease term of approximately 15 years with contractual rent increases anchored by Amazon.com. The building includes 5,297 square feet of fully-leased ground floor retail space and is located in the heart of Seattle’s South Lake Union, one of the most dynamic, desired and best performing submarkets in the US. “Global capital is increasingly recognizing the unique opportunity offered by South Lake Union and the Puget Sound region. Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles sales activity in the CBDs has been dominated by foreign buyers in 2016 and this is yet another example of this,” says Shannon. The urban South Lake location benefits from an abundance of nearby retail amenities boasting a Walk Score Index of 95, considered to be a “walker’s paradise”. The core location provides excellent access to multiple modes of transit. The Amazon.com-occupied building was built in 2015 and features LEED Gold certification. NGKF executive managing director, David Milestone and managing director, Brett Green are arranging financing for Mirae Asset Global Investments .