Venture buys two properties in downtown Seattle
A joint venture of Brickman, a real estate private equity firm, and GreenOak Real Estate, an independent, partner owned, real estate–focused principal investing and lending firm, has paid $43.3 million for the Joseph Vance and Sterling buildings in downtown Seattle. The buildings have a combined 121,210 square feet of space.
Brickman purchased the properties through its fund, Brickman Fund VII.
The seller was Jonathan Rose Cos., which acquired the buildings in 2006 for approximately $23 million.
Located at 1402 3rd Ave., The Vance and Sterling buildings are situated in the heart of Seattle’s central business district along the Link and King County Metro transit lines. The buildings are located one block away from the highly trafficked Pike-Pine retail corridor, five blocks from the Waterfront development project and a single block from the Rainier Square Tower redevelopment.
The Vance is a 14-story tower and the Sterling Building features three stories of office and retail space.
The Seattle/Puget Sound real estate market closed 2017 strong but a peak in construction activity was apparent moving forward into 2018, according to Colliers.
The regional vacancy rate ended 2017 at a low 6.6 percent, the lowest of the year. Regional absorption remained positive at 542,066 for the 31st straight quarter and totaled 2.36 million square feet for the year. The largest fourth quarter move-ins were Amazon occupying 423,000 square feet at Troy Block North and 132,000 square feet at Westlake Terry East, both in South Lake Union. F5 Tower, fully leased to F5 Networks, delivered this quarter along with Amazon-leased 9th & Thomas.
Year-over-year employment grew by 2.8 percent but appeared to be peaking as projections for 2018 and 2019 come in at 2 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively. Unemployment reached a 10-year low of 4 percent, according to The Puget Sound Economic Forecaster.
