By Jack Stubbs
Lake Washington Partners, a commercial real estate company based in Seattle, yesterday on March 26th acquired an office building along the I-90 corridor in Bellevue for $20.5 million, or approximately $307 per square foot, according to public records filed with King County. The seller of the property was Seattle-based Rainier Pacific Properties, a family-owned real estate firm that acquires, develops and operates commercial investments throughout the Puget Sound region.
The buyer did not respond calls for comment about the transaction in time for the publishing of this story.
Rainier Pacific Properties is making a significant profit on the asset, which the company acquired for approximately $12.7 million in June 2007.
According to Jonathan Tran, managing broker/principal at Rainier Pacific, the company will remain active in Bellevue and the surrounding area in the coming months.
“This was a transaction that was a win-win for the buyer and the seller. We still are invested in that immediate area and we continue to own and operate a property at 3245 158th Ave. SE. across the street,” Tran said. “This was a strategy for us to reposition some funds, and we’re still very bullish in the Seattle area and looking to make some aggressive plays over the next six months.”
The property, located at 3305 160th Ave. SE., is a three-story office building built in 1985 that totals 66,827 square feet, according to public documents. According to the property listing on 42floors.com, the class C building was previously occupied by Verizon. Currently, the space is occupied by real estate agency Spieker Properties, according to Google Maps.
The asset is approximately one-and-a-half miles to the north of Bellevue’s Eastgate neighborhood and roughly five miles to the southeast of downtown Bellevue. Additionally, the property sits two miles from access to the intersection of Interstate-405 and Interstate-90.
Founded in 2006, Lake Washington Partners has developed and acquired 7 million square feet of property (17 properties across 8 states) nationwide with more than 1 million square feet in the Seattle metro area, according to the company’s web site. The company specializes in large-scale industrial facilities and Class A office space and focuses on long-term portfolio investments across the country.
Established in 1986, Rainier Pacific Properties focuses on long-term ownership in key locations throughout King, Pierce and Snohomish counties in Washington and provides a variety of asset management services to its clients, according to the company’s web site. Some of the company’s other properties in the area include 520 Bellevue, a 53,000 square foot retail complex; Tesla of Bellevue, a 36,000 square foot building that Tesla occupies; and Lane Street, a two-story, 29,000 square foot office building located in Seattle.
There have been a number of acquisitions in Bellevue in recent weeks. Most recently, on March 23rd, Vancouver-based Nicola Crosby Real Estate acquired the Swift Gateway office building from San Francisco-based Swift Real Estate Partners for $25.5 million, or approximately $373 per square foot. In a sizable transaction that took place on March 19th, San Francisco-based Stanford Hotels acquired three parcels in Bellevue’s central business district—which are slated for redevelopment—from Seattle-based Plus Investment USA for a combined $128 million. And on March 6th, Bellevue-based AGM Inc. acquired the approximately 50,000 square foot Clover Building for $15.15 million, or approximately $303 per square foot, from Swift Real Estate.
