120 Montgomery Has More Tenants, New Address

SAN FRANCISCO-Hines and Sterling American recently completed a three-year, $30-million renovation of 120 Montgomery St. and renamed the 25-story, 430,000-square-foot building 100 Montgomery. Through Sterling American Property Fund IV, in which Hines has a 10% interest, the duo paid $67.5 million for the class B building in January 2006 from Equity Office Properties Trust, which acquired the building in June 2000 for around $116 million.

At the time of the fund’s acquisition, 120 Montgomery was 59% occupied, including a 70,000-square-foot lease with the General Services Administration that had just been signed as well as leases with Wells Fargo Bank and the Segal Co., among others. In addition, the building’s aluminum spandrel panels were corroding and the marble cladding was spalling such that a protective pedestrian scaffold had been in place over the sidewalk for several years.

Hines SVP Paul Paradis tells GlobeSt.com the building is now 70% leased and the full service asking rate is in the $40s per square foot per year. The new lobby, carved into the building at the corner of Montgomery and Sutter Streets is defined by an elliptical wall of structural glass. The renovation also included a new state-of-the art crystallized glass panel façade system to cap the failing marble cladding; refurbished exterior metal including the stainless steel window mullions and decorative aluminum panels; the renovation and preservation of the building’s existing lobby on Montgomery Street; refinished elevator cabs; and new retail storefronts.

Robert A.M. Stern Architects designed the new building façade and lobby. Kendall/Heaton Associates of Houston, Texas, was architect-of-record.

Opened in 1955 as the Equitable Life Building, 120 Montgomery was one of five distressed EOP buildings Hines and Sterling American Property Inc. placed under contract in the spring of 2005 for about $400 million. Escrow on the other properties–301 Howard St. and 405 Howard St. in San Francisco, Parkside Towers in Foster City and San Rafael Corporate Center in Marin County–closed during the first half of the that year. The Montgomery Street property was reportedly held out of the sale while some maintenance issues were negotiated away.