By Kate Snyder
Another property sale in the Pacific Northwest has been recorded at a slight loss for the seller. The three-building Tanasbourne Commerce Center in Hillsboro, a submarket of Portland, traded hands for $33.5 million, or approximately $252 per square foot, according to an SGX report. The seller was Manulife US Real Estate Investment Trust, and the buyer was the John Hancock Life Insurance Company, which operates as Manulife Financial Corporation outside of the U.S.
Manulife U.S. REIT is affiliated with Manulife Financial Corporation through its sponsor, the Manufacturers Life Insurance Company.
Located at 3175 NE Aloclek Drive, the Tanasbourne Commerce Center totals about 132,851 square feet and is 100 percent leased. Building A, the largest, is leased to Tokyo Electron; Building C, which is about 49,462 square feet, is leased to Kaiser. The smallest building is leased to Nike. All tenants have AA credit ratings, and leases are expected to expire in 2027, 2025 and 2026, respectively.
Manulife U.S. REIT purchased the property in 2021 for about $33.9 million, or approximately $254 per square foot, according to previous reporting from The Registry. At that time, the seller of the asset was an institutional real estate fund, which had purchased the property in March of 2016 for $31.1 million, or about $234 per square foot, from Meriwether Partners.
According to the SGX filing, Manulife US REIT’s aggregate leverage was 48.8 percent at the end of 2022. Based on that, the REIT’s manager is seeking to maximize liquidity to provide the option of using cash balances to fund capital expenditure which are necessary as part of leasing, instead of funding via debt and increasing interest costs.
The sale of the Tanasbourne Commerce Center is intended to provide immediate additional liquidity and will allow the manager to operate the portfolio with greater flexibility. The report also states that more meaningful dispositions from Manulife US REIT will continue to be explored but could “be difficult to execute in the near-term due to challenges in the U.S. market.”
Manulife US REIT is a Singapore REIT, according to the company’s website. Manulife US REIT’s portfolio comprises 12 office properties in the United States, with an aggregate net lettable area of 5.5 million square feet. The 12 freehold office properties are located in Arizona, California, Georgia, New Jersey, Oregon, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
