Constructed in 1991, Key Center is an integrated, mixed-use complex that comprises a 57-story office tower, 400-room Marriott Hotel, and parking structure. It now houses the headquarters of Key Bank, and the law firm BakerHostetler. As of December 31, 2016, the office portion of Key Center was 82% leased.

Mills says Columbia took great care in choosing a buyer. There were several bidders in the range of the eventual sales price, but Millennia “was committed from the beginning and very diligent in assembling their capital.” And although the prospect of owning Key Center attracted several outside investors, “the strongest interest came from local operators such as Millennia.”

That is perhaps not surprising, considering that Key Center is the most recognizable icon on the Cleveland skyline. “It's a good performing asset, but it's a key feature of the city, and that had a lot of appeal for the buyer and all the other prospective buyers,” Mills says.

“We were proud to have owned it, and it served our investors very well for many years.”

CLEVELAND—Columbia Property Trust, Inc. has completed the sale of Cleveland's iconic Key Center—a 1.3 million-square-foot, class-A office tower—and the adjacent Marriott Hotel to Millennia Housing Development Ltd., a Cleveland-based multi-family property development firm, for a gross sales price of $267.5 million.

With this sale, Columbia has completed $1.2 billion of dispositions since January 2016 and $3.3 billion since January 2012, taking advantage of favorable market conditions to exit most secondary markets. Columbia will use proceeds from these sales for reinvestment in its target markets.

“About four years ago, we set out to transition our portfolio, and that is now complete,” Nelson Mills, president and chief executive officer of Columbia, tells GlobeSt.com. The firm now owns 17 office properties totaling about eight million square feet and concentrated in core markets such as Manhattan, Washington, DC, San Francisco and Boston. It still has a property in suburban Pittsburgh, and several in the Atlanta metro area, but has no plans to sell these.

“Cleveland is a relatively healthy market; Key Center has a unique position there, and it competes very well,” he adds, but the city no longer fits into their investment strategy.

Constructed in 1991, Key Center is an integrated, mixed-use complex that comprises a 57-story office tower, 400-room Marriott Hotel, and parking structure. It now houses the headquarters of Key Bank, and the law firm BakerHostetler. As of December 31, 2016, the office portion of Key Center was 82% leased.

Mills says Columbia took great care in choosing a buyer. There were several bidders in the range of the eventual sales price, but Millennia “was committed from the beginning and very diligent in assembling their capital.” And although the prospect of owning Key Center attracted several outside investors, “the strongest interest came from local operators such as Millennia.”

That is perhaps not surprising, considering that Key Center is the most recognizable icon on the Cleveland skyline. “It's a good performing asset, but it's a key feature of the city, and that had a lot of appeal for the buyer and all the other prospective buyers,” Mills says.

“We were proud to have owned it, and it served our investors very well for many years.”