(Bloomberg)—An office fully leased to Facebook Inc. in a Seattle suburb is up for sale, a sign that developers are ready to test demand after the pandemic put much of the commercial real estate market into a deep freeze.
Block 16, a new 343,528-square-foot property in Bellevue, Washington, is being marketed by Eastdil Secured, according to sales documents reviewed by Bloomberg News and two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing the private process. The building may fetch between $325 million and $350 million, one of the people said.
Spokesmen for Wright Runstad & Co., the developer of Block 16, and Eastdil declined to comment.
The virus has put much of the commercial real estate market into a state of paralysis, with buyers and sellers unable to agree on price. Some deals have been scrapped and many potential listings have been pulled. In the second quarter, office building transactions in the U.S. plunged 71% compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data from Real Capital Analytics.
Still, some building owners are choosing to move forward with sales, betting they can generate enough buyer interest for well-located buildings with high-quality tenants. In the marketing documents, Eastdil emphasizes that Block 16 is fully leased to Facebook “through June 2033, providing 12+ years of stable, investment-grade cash flow.”
Wright Runstad announced a partnership with Shorenstein Properties and institutional investors advised by JPMorgan Asset Management on Block 16 in 2018. The building is located near the main entrance to the Spring District, a new development that will include 3 million square feet of office space, as well as shops, apartments and parks.
To contact the reporter on this story: Noah Buhayar in Seattle at [email protected].
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Craig Giammona at [email protected]
Rob Urban, Dan Reichl
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