GUATEMALA CITY—DTZ's Real Estate Investment Banking Group has been retained to sell two class A office towers in Guatemala City.

The two glass-clad towers house a “who's who” of world governmental organizations and multinational corporate tenants, including: the United Nations, the European Union, Chevron, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, and a wide range of other desirable corporate tenancies.

The two properties, Europlaza (a four-tower complex) and InterAmericas (a two-tower complex) were constructed in 2001 and 2012 respectively, and were built by Guatemala's leading developer to exacting standards, and consistent with the quality of construction as established by the California Building Code.

DTZ is marketing the two office properties for $115 million, which represents an 8.5 CAP on net operating income. The team expects to identify its buyer within the next 90-120 days, and to close by the end of the year.

According to managing director Jeffrey Donnelly who leads the real estate investment banking group out of New York, “Europlaza is an exceptionally well-located property in Guatemala City's predominantly residential Zone 14. It is virtually the only office building in the city's most exclusive neighborhood where many of Guatemala's foreign embassies are located, and where many of the country heads and senior executives of Fortune 500 corporations reside. The safety and security of this neighborhood is unparalleled in Guatemala City; commercial development is no longer permitted in this neighborhood and Europlaza will therefore always retain its unique competitive advantage in the market.”

The gated, four-tower complex is safe, secure, has abundant parking, four helipads, and has a lushly landscaped open-air interior courtyard coveted by tenants. The property is home to branches of Citibank and five national/regional banks, as well several restaurants. DTZ is selling the remaining 385,000 square feet of space that still belongs to the sponsor, who had previously sold much of the property to outside investors who prize it as Guatemala's leading corporate address.

The second property in the offering, InterAmericas Tower, was recently completed in 2012. Located in Guatemala's traditional corporate submarket, Zone 10, among other several other modern office towers, abundant retail shopping malls, restaurants, and major hotels such as Intercontinental and Westin.

DTZ vice president Joel Weinberg described the property, “InterAmericas is a peerless execution of Class A office development that would be right at home in New York or any other major US city. It is a well-designed, professionally run Class A property that is up to the standard required by any major multinational, which is why Chevron chose to headquarter here.” InterAmericas Tower houses several restaurants, and three banks. Like Europlaza, DTZ is retained to transact the remaining unsold 92,000 square feet of office condominium space, which is leased to Chevron, two financial services companies, and an IT company. Guatemala City is increasingly rivalling Panama City as the location of choice for multinationals in choosing their Central American headquarters. Principal economic drivers are manufacturing (especially the garment business); agribusiness; mining; banking; and increasingly – customer service call-centers, that have exploded in recent years as companies look to Guatemala's significant bilingual population and its time zone that is much more relevant to North American markets than those of South Asia and the Far East.

DTZ VP, Marc Civitillo commented on the timing of the transaction, “Ownership is probably Guatemala's leading high-rise developer, one that has executed at least eight class A projects that have literally transformed the skyline of Guatemala City over the past 25 years. This is an appropriate and logical time for ownership to transact these assets. They are a serial developer, and these are mature assets that should be disposed of to allow for ownership's pursuit of new development projects.” Associate VP, Ulrike Ahrens concluded, “We are honored to be marketing two of the leading office properties of Guatemala City. The sterling quality of the properties and the overwhelming strength of the tenancies make this a very compelling offering in today's market.”

The DTZ Real Estate Investment Banking division is increasingly active in the Caribbean and Latin America. In addition to the Guatemala City sale offerings, the Donnelly team is also currently handling two resort project financings – one in the Dominican Republic, and one in Anguilla.