Westcore CEO Donald Ankeny says the 75%-occupied portfolio was a value-add play for the company and the company had accomplished its objectives by renovating common areas, raising occupancy, preparing vacant space for quick move-ins and dealing with "a fair amount" of near-term rollover. "We…felt that the time was right to sell a sizeable amount of our Bay Area holdings," he says. "We plan to re-invest some of the capital into other properties in the Northern California region as well as key markets throughout the western states."

In the coming days and weeks, Westcore will be acquiring two portfolios from publicly held Mack-Cali Realty Corp. for a total cost of about $320 million. Over the next 12 months, Ankeny projects that the company will continue its rapid growth by acquiring in excess of $750 million in assets. In addition to large, institutional-grade portfolios, Ankeny says the company will be acquiring single core-plus and value-add assets.

Westcore expects to close tomorrow on a 1.4-million-sf portfolio of office and office-flex buildings in Denver from Mack-Cali for $194.3 million. The portfolio includes 19 buildings that are 94% occupied plus 7.1 acres of vacant land and 1.6 acres of land dedicated to a parking facility. Ankeny tells GlobeSt.com the company expects to benefit from increasing rental rates in the recovering market. "Denver is interesting in that rents for flex-office space are very close to more conventional office product."