Benaroya Sells Met Park, Park Place for $345M

SEATTLE-The locally based Benaroya Co. has sold its Metropolitan Park office campus and Park Place office building to Chicago-based Walton Street Capital for $345 million. The two downtown developments have a combined 1.2 million sf of office and retail space.

Park Place is located at 1200 6th Ave. on the corner of University Street. The 21 story 310,628-sf building has a vacancy of 18.5%, but 21.6% of the building is being marketed as available, according to officespace.com. The full-service asking rental rate $24.50 per sf per year.

The three Metropolitan Park Towers are bounded by Boren Avenue, Interstate 5, Olive Way and Stewart Street. The 20-story 363,727-sf East Tower, located at 1730 Minor Ave., was built in 1988 and renovated this year; it 19% vacant, according to officespace.com. The 18-story 339,868-sf West Tower, at 1100 Olive Way, was built in 1980 and also renovated this year; it is 6% vacant. The 11-story 185,760-sf North Tower was built in 2001 and is 100% leased. The full-service asking rate for the two older buildings is $23.50-$24 per sf per year, according to the Web site. The asking rate for the newer building is $27.50 per sf per year.

Bob Watson of R.M. Watson Co. had the disposition assignment. In September, Watson represented Equity Office Properties in its estimated $200-million acquisition of Harbor Steps, a four-tower, 785-unit Downtown Seattle apartment development that includes 51,600 sf of retail, 31,000 sf of office and 413 underground parking spaces.

Watson was unavailable Thursday night for comment. Benaroya Co. principal Larry Benaroya and Walton Street principal Perry Pinto also could not be reached. In a prepared statement, Benaroya says the company’s offices will remain in Met Park and the company will consider additional asset sales while also looking for new development and acquisition opportunities.

Pinto says Walton Street’s prior investments in Seattle–the Union Bank of California Building and the Exchange Building–”produced attractive returns for our investors” and he is “very optimistic” that this acquisition will do the same.