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Equity Commonwealth Sells $416M Office Portfolio

CHICAGO—The big sale shows again how attractive urban cores, even ones outside the top metros, have become to national investors.

By Brian J. Rogal | brianjrogal | | Updated on August 30, 2016

 

chase-tower-indianapolis2 Salesforce Tower in Indianapolis, the city’s tallest, in which the tech giant has leased more than 200K of space.
CHICAGO— Equity Commonwealth has just completed the sale of a four-property Midwest office portfolio totaling 3.1 million square feet to Hertz Investment Group for $416.9 million. The assets sold, all located in their respective downtowns, include 111 Monument Circle and 101-115 W. Washington St. in Indianapolis; North Point Office Complex in Cleveland; and 100 E. Wisconsin, a 37-story tower in Milwaukee. As of June 30, 2016, the portfolio was 86.5% leased. Santa Monica, CA-based Hertz acquires and manages commercial properties throughout the US, but this sale illustrates the growing attractiveness of downtown markets, especially ones outside the nation’s top metro areas. “Hertz strategically targets premium downtown office properties in secondary markets,” Mike Cagna , senior research analyst in the Indianapolis office of JLL , tells GlobeSt.com. “The Indianapolis office market has seen vacancy rates drop below 15% so far this year, the lowest the rate has been in nearly a decade. Combined with 2.5% rental growth year-over-year, Indianapolis offers a much more stable environment than investors are typically able to find on the coasts and at a lower price point.” And the downtown Indianapolis office market has also started to attract a different kind of tenant. As reported in GlobeSt.com, earlier this year the 48-story 111 Monument Circle was renamed Salesforce Tower, after the San Francisco-based cloud computing giant decided to take 227,781 square feet in this rather traditional, modern office building. Tech companies usually avoid this type of structure, but the historic, loft-type spaces they favor are becoming scarce in many cities, including Indianapolis. In all, 28 tech companies have occupied space located within one-quarter mile of Indianapolis’ Monument Circle, according to a JLL report. The changes sweeping over cities such as Indianapolis, Cleveland and Milwaukee has also made their downtowns more attractive places to live. In Indianapolis, for example, since 2010 the population in the CBD has increased 92%, with the number of millennials increasing by 111%, JLL found. And between now and 201 8, developers have another 3,348 downtown units in the pipeline.      Equity Commonwealth, a Chicago-based REIT, has sold 27 properties for a total of 7.2 million square feet valued at $1.1 billion so far this year.

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