The largest office building in downtown Westbrook is for sale.
One Riverfront Plaza has been vacant for more than a year. Disability RMS, a disability insurance provider and one of Westbrooks largest employers, left for South Portland in January 2016.
Marketing materials for the former Disability RMS Building tout the six-story buildings excellent highway access, newer construction and absence of large block competition.
The property owner was already struggling to keep up with the $20 million mortgage, and the loss of its core tenant was a death blow. Court documents show the U.S. National Bank Association filed a lawsuit against the property owner and eventually bought the building back at a foreclosure auction in February.
Now the bank is advertising the building to prospective buyers and tenants. Located on the bank of the Presumpscot River, One Riverfront Plaza has 134,000 square feet of high-end office space. A newly opened pedestrian bridge connects the office directly with restaurants and shops on Main Street.
City Administrator Jerre Bryant said a continued vacancy could hurt Westbrooks downtown.
If you bring in between 300 and 500 employees to the downtown on a daily basis, youre going to bring business to the downtown, Bryant said. When its vacant, thats not happening.
One Riverfront Plaza is listed for sale through NAI The Dunham Group in Portland, and offers were due April 28. The listing does not include an asking price. The advertising materials tout the six-story buildings excellent highway access, newer construction and absence of large block competition. A request for comment from the real estate firm Friday afternoon was not returned.
Portland-based Boulos Property Management is also listing the building for lease at $16.50 per square foot per year.
We have had some interest from prospective office users, Drew Sigfridson, managing director and partner at Boulos Property Management, wrote in an email. Most have had an interest in a portion of the building, not the entire building. We do not have any new signed leases for space at this point. It is a very attractive Class A office building and a great option for large office users in the marketplace.
Sigfridson did not respond to a request for further comment.
When One Riverfront Plaza was built in 2004, the going lease rate was $19 per square foot per year. Starting in 2006, Disability RMS occupied most of the building. In 2014, the company announced its plans to move its 350 employees to South Portland when its lease in Westbrook expired in 2016. City officials told the Portland Press Herald they had done everything possible to prevent the move.
The buildings owner, a New Jersey investment firm called Pendleton Westbrook SPE LLC, was in financial trouble even before Disability RMS left at the end of January 2016. At the time, a report from a New York-based commercial real estate analysis firm showed that Pendleton had failed to make a balloon mortgage payment two months earlier and was asking for an extension. By August 2016, U.S. Bank filed a lawsuit against Pendleton over nonpayment of the $20 million mortgage. The banking group asked the court to approve a foreclosure sale and appoint Boulos Property Management to take over management of the empty building.
That sale took place Feb. 17. The price was $9.2 million, less than half of the buildings assessed value.
Bryant couldnt say who has expressed interest in buying or leasing the property. He hoped for a locally based company to take over the entire building.
Theyve received proposals, he said. Ive heard nothing back from the bank or anybody else about what they received.
When developer Tim Flannery built One Riverfront Plaza in 2004, the city constructed an adjacent parking garage with 540 spaces. Bryant said he expects the buildings next owner to take over that lease and cover the revenue lost when Pendleton stopped paying. The lease costs $13,770 a month, or $165,240 per year.
It would be nice to get a real strong number of people coming into the downtown, Bryant said.
Megan Doyle can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
[emailprotected]
Twitter: megan_e_doyle
Excerpt from:
Westbrook's largest downtown office building for sale - Press Herald
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Whats On Report - Commercial and residential construction ...
GRAND RAPIDS Kent County received three wide-ranging bids earlier this week for its 104,000-square-foot downtown office building at 82 Ionia Ave. NW.
Jenison-based nonprofit affordable housing developer West Michigan Housing Alliance came in as the high bidder at $10 million, while Grand Rapids-based Rockford Construction Company Inc. offered a little over $7 million. Naperville, Ill.- and Grand Rapids-based Franklin Partners LLC offered $3.4 million.
Only one of the development groups opted to share specific details of their plans for the building.
Jeffrey Dombrowski, principal with West Michigan Housing Alliance, said his group would redevelop the building into around 110 workforce housing units, targeting residents earning between 60 percent and 80 percent of the area median income (AMI). The plans also include ground-floor commercial space.
We love the building and the site, Dombrowski said. The county has done a wonderful job maintaining the structure.
Dombrowski added that converting the building from an aging municipal office facility into housing would require a significant investment, but is very doable.
The other development groups were more hesitant to share details regarding potential uses of the building.
Rockford Construction executives say theyre still evaluating several potential options for the building. A Franklin Partners executive declined to comment forthis report.
Kent County officials say theyll assess the bids based on multiple factors including, but not limited to financial considerations, terms and conditions, and timing issues, according to Communications Director Lisa LaPlante. The county wants to ensure a smooth transition for its staff currently working in the building and for the buyer, she said.
Some of the bidders mentioned being open to possible sale leaseback deals involving the county.
The county has no specific timeline for announcing the successful bidder, LaPlante added.
Kent County began seeking proposals nearly two years ago after a study conducted by architecture firm Progressive AE found the local government was under-using the building and that the four departments housed at 82 Ionia could easily be absorbed in other county-owned facilities.
Last July, Kendall College of Art and Design backed out of a $10 million bid to acquire the building, stating that the facility would not allow for the kinds of renovations needed to make it feasible for student housing, as MiBiz reported at the time.
Franklin Partners and Airmont, N.Y.-based The Embassy Group Acquisitions LLC bid on the building at that time as well, offering $6.8 million and $6.5 million, respectively.
Regardless of which bidder is ultimately successful, a redevelopment of the 82 Ionia building would add to the rush of activity in the area and for all of the bidding parties.
A subsidiary of the West Michigan Housing Alliance currently has the nearby Keeler Building at 56 North Division Ave. under option with plans of developing affordable housing and ground-floor retail on the site. Franklin Partners previously had the building under option but decided against moving forward with a project, as MiBiz previously reported.
Dombrowski from West Michigan Housing Alliance told MiBiz on Friday afternoon that having the two buildings in such close proximity would allow for significant efficiencies in terms of property management and other services.
For its part, Franklin Partners is currently in talks to build an office tower on a surface parking lot south of Van Andel Arena as part of a mixed-use entertainment district.
Meanwhile, Rockford Construction redeveloped the Morton House building across the street from 82 Ionia. The Morton is now market-rate apartments with retail and office space. The construction and development firm recently began demolition of several buildings along Bridge Street west of downtown Grand Rapids as part of a large-scale mixed-use development set to bring apartments, office and retail to the area.
Rockford Construction was also one of five development groups to respond to a request for qualifications from the city of Grand Rapids as part of a process to redevelop a publicly-owned 15-acre site along the Grand River on the south end of downtown.
Link:
3 developers bid on Kent County-owned downtown Grand Rapids office building - MiBiz
