By Jack Stubbs
On Thursday September 28th, the World Trade Center North sold for $65 million, or roughly $488 per square foot, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer was Seattle-based Unico Properties, a real estate investment company that specializes in the management of commercial and multifamily assets. The seller was UK-based global real estate investment management company TH Real Estate, an affiliate of Nuveen, LLC.
Located at 2401 Elliott Ave., the World Trade Center North office building is located right on the edge of Elliott Bay. The property offers views of the bay and the Olympic Mountains and is just half a mile from the center of Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. Built in 2000, the 5-story 133,177 square foot Class A office building sits on nearly 40,000 square feet of land, and also includes a 359-space parking garage. The architect for the building was Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, and the contractor was Turner Construction Company.
According to a report by Wright Runstad and Company, the developer and manager of the property, the office building was the third and final building developed in the World Trade Center complex. The complex also consists of the 69,507 square foot World Trade Center West, owned by the Port of Seattle and leased to several organizations engaged in international trade activities; and World Trade Center East, a 186,912 square foot office space that is fully leased to Microsoft, according to the report.
According to the same source, current tenants of World Trade Center North include Seattle-based Pacific Market International, a worldwide manufacturer and designer of brands and products; and Comtech TeleCommunication Corporation, Inc., a telecommunications provider also based in Seattle. As of June 2017, there was 12,701 square feet available on the fifth floor and 18,800 square feet of space available on the third floor, according to a report written by Kidder Mathews.
Founded in 1953, Unico Properties has developed, owned and managed commercial and multifamily assets in Seattle, Portland, Denver and Austin, as well as throughout the western United States. The company offers a wide range of services to its partners and investors, including acquisitions, dispositions and financing, leasing and asset and risk management. Unico currently owns and operates more than 13 million square feet of office properties, medical office buildings and multifamily residences nationwide, according to the company’s web site.
Some of the other commercial properties in the company’s Seattle portfolio include 51 University, a six-story 96,000 square foot office building located in the Waterfront District; 701 Dexter, a 6-story building with 4 floors of office and 2 floors of parking located in South Lake Union; and 705 Union Station, a 257,769 square foot office building located in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood.
TH Real Estate currently has about $103 billion in assets under management across eighteen countries worldwide, according to the company’s web site. Additionally, the company manages a wide-ranging suite of almost 80 funds and mandates that span both debt and equity across diverse geographies, sectors and investment styles. TH Real Estate is a specialist investment affiliate of Nuveen, LLC, the investment management business of TIAA, a financial services company. The firm’s U.S. portfolio includes 365 assets across industrial, mixed-use, multifamily residential, retail and office types.
