Completed in 1985, the pink granite-skinned main building is reportedly about 90% leased. Crosby Heafey, the East Bay's largest law firm, is the anchor tenant with 90,000 sf. The firm signed an 11-year, estimated $50-million lease extension at the property in May 2001. Occupancy was not immediately available for 1956 Webster, a 50-year-old building that was renovated a few years ago.

The new owner is an affiliate of Beacon Capital Partners, a Boston-based national real estate investor that acquired three San Francisco properties in 2005, including 50 Beale St., 100 California St. and 1 Sansome St. Those three properties were acquired by its third fund, Beacon Capital Strategic Partners III. Beacon's Los Angeles-based senior managing director Jeremy Fletcher could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

According to Colliers International, the direct vacancy rate for class A office properties in Downtown Oakland at the end of 2005 was 7.9%, and rents are expected to increase in 2006. Across the Bay in San Francisco, there was 10.7 million sf of office space available for a 14.2% vacancy rate. The class A availability rate was higher at 15.7%, which equates to 7.3 million sf.

Transdevco took out a 10-year, $87-million loan on Lake Merritt Plaza in 2002. The lender is Greenwich Capital. Transdevco says it decided to sell Lake Merritt Plaza as part of an overall portfolio strategy to sell some of its higher profile office properties in California and replace them with warehouse properties in strong distribution markets throughout the US. Eastdil secured the disposition assignment for Lake Merritt.

TDC president Thomas Irish says Transdevco has sold $225 million of California assets in the past nine months and exchanged them for about four million sf of distribution space. The acquired industrial properties are located in the Dallas, Indianapolis and Columbus markets, which Irish calls three of the top 15 distribution markets in the country. Looking ahead, Irish says he would like to double the company's distribution portfolio in 2006.

Instant Insights /

Transdevco Sells Lake Merritt Plaza to Beacon Capital Affiliate

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