Record Office Sale

Seattle has its first $400/sf building. Hines sold the IDX Tower at Fourth and Madison to TIAA-CREF $368.6 million, which comes out to $411/sf. This is currently the newest of the downtown office towers and has a solid tenant in the law firm of Preston Gates & Ellis (The "Gates" is Bill Sr.). Still, with office vacancies in Seattle still pathetic (currently nearly 15.5%), you have to wonder what's driving a move like this.

It's not the only big office buy this Fall, though. In September Beacon Capital Partners bought the Union Bank of California Center from Walton Street Capital for $100.7 million, and earlier this month Trinity Real Estate bought the Seattle Tower (a personal favorite of mine with its amazing early Art Deco lobby) for $19 million.

Just last week DIFA-GRUND bought two of Adobe's buildings in Fremont for $65.7 million, perhaps showing that the effects of the German tax restructuring with respect to foreign real estate may have reached this corner of the country.