KBS REIT II Buys 142,700-SF Office Building

SAN JOSE, CA- KBS REIT II on Friday paid $35.8 million for 350 E. Plumeria, a 142,700-square-foot office building that is fully leased to Netgear Inc. The wireless router maker signed a 10-year, $30-million lease in fall 2007 that commenced in April 2008.

KBS paid $250.70 per square foot for the asset and the eight acres upon which it sits. The seller Carramerica, acquired the property empty in September 2007 for $130 per square foot and then quickly signed Netgear. Netgear’s rental rate starts (in the 10th month) at $1.50 per square foot per month and ramps up to $1.95 over the course of the lease, according to SEC filings.

KBS has been busy lately. In October, KBS REIT II completed its $365-million acquisition of the 1.1-million-square-foot Park Avenue at Morris County office campus in Florham Park, NJ. Earlier this month, back in the Northern California, KBS REIT I acquired two office buildings in Sacramento, totaling 105,000 square feet for $20.6 million. The asset, Venture Oaks, includes a five-story building and an adjacent single-story building at City Gate Plaza, a four-building office park fronting Interstate 5 in the Gateway Center suburban office district of the South Natomas submarket, two miles north of Downtown Sacramento. The seller was A&B Properties Inc., the real estate subsidiary of publicly traded Alexander & Baldwin Inc. of Honolulu.

A&B president Norbert M. Buelsing called the sale price for the two-building portfolio “favorable” and “reflective of the economic value of a recent lease extension for a major tenant, as well as the underlying appreciation of real estate values in Sacramento” during the company’s ownership. The California State Compensation Insurance Fund occupies 87% of the multi-story building. Other tenants include Variable Annuity Life Insurance and EHealthline.

Also in December, the manager the funds, KBS Capital Advisors, named former Nationwide Health Properties controller David Snyder to the newly created post of chief financial officer to bolster the KBS management team in light of its growing portfolio. KBS Capital partner Chuck Schreiber says the firm chose Snyder for the new position because of his experience at Newport Beach-based Nationwide, a healthcare properties REIT, where Snyder was part of a four-member senior management team that helped grow total assets from $1.4 billion to $3.1 billion in four years.

Since 1992, KBS has bought and sold several billion dollars worth of real estate via 19 separate accounts, six commingled funds and two private equity REITs. KBS REIT I, the first non-traded REIT sponsored by KBS and advised by KBS Capital Advisors, closed its offering period in May 2008. KBS REIT II is the second non-traded REIT sponsored by KBS and advised by KBS Capital Advisors.