Prudential Real Estate Investors, the real estate unit of insurance services firm Prudential Financial Inc, has reportedly purchased an office tower in San Francisco for $100 million and is under contract to buy another office space, the Sabadell Financial Center at 1111 Brickell Avenue in Miami.
The company purchased the San Francisco commercial property from Clarion Partners LLC, a real estate services firm. Located at 100 Spear Street, the high rise office tower provides 203,000 square feet of commercial space. The building has 22 floors and spans a height of 83 meters. Completed in 1989, the building features modern architecture. Nearly 91 percent of the building has been leased out to affluent tenants, reports Bloomberg.
The company is also under contract to purchase a high-end office property in Miami. The Sabadell Financial Center at 1111 Brickell Avenue is a posh 30 story building offering 525,000 square feet of total commercial space. The building last sold for $132 million in 2002, reports Business Journal.
Both the transactions have not yet been made public. However, people familiar with the matter have confirmed the deals with the respective sources.
The commercial real estate market has been recovering slowly albeit steadily in the U.S. Recently, in a report released by the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) it was revealed that the increase in employment opportunities and the improving global economy was driving the growth of commercial properties in the country. The reports also forecast that office and commercial property vacancy rates would fall by 0.4 percent in 2013, while the retail sector could expect the rates to slump by 0.3 percent.
"The economy is expected to grow 2.5 percent (in 2013) and with modest job creation, assuming there is no fiscal cliff, the demand for commercial space will gradually rise. The greatest friction that remains is a tight credit environment, notably for smaller properties," Dr. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR, said in an interview with AGBeat.
