Aggressive Bidding Yields High Return for Schnitzer West, Shows Promise for the Commercial Marketplace
Schnitzer West LLC has sold two adjacent office buildings in Seattle, WA last Wednesday, August 10th, to JP Morgan Chase & Co. for a total of $479.4 million between the two transactions.
The first transaction was for the 36-story, 668,333-square-foot tower located at 1918 8th Ave., which sold for $350.1 million, or about $524 per square foot. The majority of the building is leased to Amazon, which signed a long-term lease for 22 floors of the Seattle skyscraper this past May. Schnitzer originally developed the building and began leasing in 2007. Despite sluggish initial tenant demand, the Amazon deal boosted the building occupancy rate to above 90 percent. The building was 94 percent occupied at the time of the sale.
The second transaction was for the 14-story, 238,200-square-foot office tower located at 818 Stewart St., which sold for $129.3 million, or about $557 per square foot. The sale transaction was for the entire building, with exception of one 5,700-square-foot retail condo unit. The property was 90 percent occupied at the time of the sale. Both deals were all-cash transactions.
Kevin Shannon of CB Richard Ellis represented Schnitzer West LLC in both sales of its class A buildings. Reportedly, the offering brought in more than 80 bids.
For more information on these two separate transactions, please see CoStar COMPS #2158885 and #2158901.