Brookdale Group Completes Acquisition of the Towers at Williams Square in Dallas' Las Colinas Submarket
Atlanta firm's recent Sunbelt office acquisitions total more than 2.1 million square feet.
Online, January 12, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Brookdale Investor's Six, LP, the sixth real estate investment fund of The Brookdale Group, closed today on its acquisition of "The Towers at Williams Square," a 1.4-million-square-foot office complex comprised of four Class A buildings located in the Las Colinas submarket of Dallas, Texas. The Williams Square acquisition follows three other purchases made by the company's sixth fund over the last year, marking the most active twelve-month period in Brookdale's seventeen and one-half year history in terms of both dollars invested and total square footage acquired. Following these recent acquisitions, the firm's sixth fund, which closed in December 2009 with equity commitments of approximately $410 million, will have sufficient uncommitted capital to acquire an additional $600 million of Sunbelt office properties over the next several years.
The Towers at Williams Square consists of one 26-story office tower flanked by two 14-story towers and an adjacent five-story building, all of which are located on a 16-acre site fronting on Lake Carolyn in Las Colinas. Currently 92.5 percent leased to 64 businesses including Pioneer Natural Resources, Flowserve Corporation, Centerline AREA and La Cima Club, Williams Square is also home to "The Mustangs of Las Colinas," one of the world's largest and best-known equine sculptures featuring nine bronze mustangs arrayed across the project's central plaza. Part of Brookdale's ownership plan for Williams Square includes making almost $10 million of capital improvements to the complex, which was completed in 1985.
The Dallas office of HFF, LP represented the seller in the Williams Square transaction and also assisted Brookdale in arranging financing for the acquisition.
"The purchase of this iconic project in one of Dallas' most dynamic submarkets anchors our sixth fund's investment portfolio with an excellent asset that will continue to be professionally managed and leased by Cousins Properties," said Fred Henritze, co-founder and President of Brookdale. Robert Turner, Senior Vice President and one of the Brookdale partners directing the sixth fund's acquisitions efforts, added, "The Williams Square acquisition aligns perfectly with our current strategy of investing in Class A office properties in select high-growth Sunbelt office markets and submarkets."
In addition to its acquisition today of The Towers at Williams Square, on December 27 Brookdale acquired Trinity Place, an 111,800-square-foot, four-story office building in the West Raleigh submarket of suburban Raleigh, NC. Trinity Place, which was completed in 2000, is currently 89 percent leased to Capstrat, TEKsystems, AT&T and RSM McGladrey. Jerry Davis, CCIM of MentorVest Properties represented the seller, and Greg Trainor of Fairfield Advisors assisted Brookdale in the Trinity Place transaction.
On December 15, Brookdale also closed the acquisition of SunTrust Financial Centre in downtown Tampa, Florida. Completed in 1992, the 35-story, 527,100-square-foot office tower is currently 80 percent leased to 27 tenants including SunTrust Bank, Hapag-Lloyd USA, LLC, GrayRobinson, P.A., Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson, P.A. and Ernst & Young. Jeff Morris of Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc. represented the seller in the SunTrust Financial Centre transaction.
On February 11, Brookdale acquired Nottingham Hall, a four-story, 105,700-square-foot office building located in the I-40/Research Triangle Park submarket of Raleigh. Completed in 2001, Nottingham Hall is currently 89 percent leased to 10 tenants including Abraxis Bioscience, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Infineon Technologies North American. Cassidy Turley represented the seller in the Nottingham Hall transaction.
About The Brookdale Group
The Brookdale Group is a privately held Atlanta-based commercial real estate investment company founded in 1994 by Chip Davidson and Fred Henritze. Through its sponsored closed-end investment funds, The Brookdale Group makes commercial real estate investments on behalf of the firm's principals and its institutional co-investment partners which presently include many of the nation's most prestigious educational endowments and foundations. Since its formation, The Brookdale Group has sponsored six investment funds with aggregate capital commitments of approximately $1.5 billion which have focused primarily on making "value-add" commercial real estate investments (mostly in office properties) located within the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Southwest regions of the United States. For more information, visit the firm's website at www.brookdalegroup.com.