Saban Real Estate Closes $430M Portfolio Sale with Easterly

LOS ANGELES—Locally-based Saban Real Estate reports it has completed the previously announced sale of a 14-property portfolio leased predominantly to the federal government for $430 million. The buyer of the portfolio is Washington, DC-based Easterly Government Properties.

The 1.48-million-square-foot portfolio is located in 11 states and is approximately 94% leased to the federal government and 99% leased overall.

Easterly Government Properties announced last June its intent to acquire a 14-property portfolio from affiliates of an unnamed independent third-party. Easterly Government Properties could not be reached for comment at press time.

“The 14-property sale completes an eight-year journey with this portfolio for Saban Real Estate,” states Philip Han, chief investment officer at Saban Capital Group. “We are proud of the work we did and value we added throughout the portfolio over the last several years, including leasing over 1.5 million square feet to the federal government in eight of eleven GSA regions.”

Saban Real Estate also announced today it has acquired One Independence Square at 250 E St. SW, a 340,000 square feet Class A office building in Washington D.C. for $170 million Globest.com reports that the office building was acquired by Piedmont Office Realty Trust. Saban Real Estate and its affiliates operate in three segments: student housing where it owns a portfolio of 30 properties containing approximately 20,000 beds; government office where it owns and operates a portfolio of seven properties with approximately 1.4 million square feet and in the self-storage space where it owns a portfolio of 34 properties totaling more than 19,000 storage units.

Recently, Easterly Government Properties announced it had completed the acquisition of the final three properties of the aforementioned 14-property portfolio.

Those properties include a 49,692-square-foot facility in Sterling, VA that serves as a special testing and research laboratory to assist the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in performing mission critical forensic analyses. The facility is 100% leased through 2020. The second property now part of Easterly Government Properties’ portfolio is an 80,677-square-foot office and laboratory building in College Park, MD for the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition programs. The final property is located in Portland, OR, a 225,057-square-foot Class A trophy multi-tenanted asset that is occupied by tenants such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Easterly Government Properties states that the three properties represent an aggregate of 355,426 square feet and were acquired for a combined purchase price of $152.5 million.

The other properties in the portfolio are located in:

Buffalo, NY—a multi-tenanted Class A office building completed in 2004, which is primarily occupied by two federal agencies—the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Internal Revenue Service. The 267,766-square-foot building also houses one of the National Labor Relations Board’s 26 regional offices.

Chicago—a 239,331-square-foot, multi-tenanted office building is located next to Chicago O’Hare International Airport and serves as the Federal Aviation Administration’s Great Lakes Regional Office. The US Department of Agriculture also maintains a presence within the facility.

Parkersburg, WV—A 182,500-square-foot build-to-suit property, was built in multiple phases in 2004 and 2006 and is 100% leased to the General Services Administration for use by the Bureau of Fiscal Service through 2021.

Charleston, WV—a 110,000-square-foot single tenant facility fully renovated in 2000, is occupied by the Office of Hearings Operations, a part of the Social Security Administration.

Pittsburgh—The building serves as one of 56 FBI field offices located throughout the country. The 100,054-square-foot facility was built-to-suit for the FBI in 2001 and is 100% leased until 2027.

Clarksburg, WV—The property serves as a multi-tenanted federal center for various federal tenants within the market area, including the FBI, DEA, SSA, Offices of the U.S. Attorney, and Small Business Association. This 100% leased 63,760-square-foot build-to-suit facility was constructed in 1999 and serves the five tenant agencies through a single GSA lease, which expires in 2019.

Charleston, SC—A historic townhouse with a modern annex that, together with two adjacent federally-owned buildings, constitutes the federal judicial complex in Charleston. The 60,500-square-foot federal courthouse is 100% leased through 2019.

Pittsburgh—A state-of-the-art, build-to-suit facility constructed in 2004, is occupied by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Class A facility houses the Homeland Security Investigations division. The 33,425-square-foot facility is located adjacent to the FBI Pittsburgh field office and is 76% leased and has a weighted average lease expiration year of 2019.

Baton Rouge, LA—Constructed in 2004, the 30,000-square-foot property serves as a VA outpatient facility for Baton Rouge and the surrounding veteran population.

Dallas—The 27,200-square foot build-to-suit facility is 100% leased to the GSA for SSA through 2020.

Bakersfield, CA—The 9,800-square-foot build-to-suit facility houses the Bakersfield Resident Office for the DEA’s San Francisco Division.