In spring 2021, the McFarland | Guernsey Team was hired by Belay Investment Partners and CalSTRS to market a 63,000 square foot creative office project. This adaptive reuse faced unique challenges, including space division, limited parking, and a location overshadowed by Montgomery Park.
CHALLENGE
The project had originally been marketed by three prior brokerage firms Apex Real Estate Partners, JLL and Colliers International from it’s delivery date of December 2019. With no success brought to the property since it’s birth, the asset had a poor status among the brokerage community and was thought to be a project that was going to likely continue to fail.
BACKGROUND
The team’s goal with the project was to improve it’s positioning in the market to give the sense to tenants and brokers that we were eager to make a deal happen. The team hired GBD architects to provide an idea of how the property could be demised, what the costs would be in doing so, and any types of industries that could occupy the project.
SUMMARY
By utilizing direct e-blast outreach to tenants via ZoomInfo, RealtyAds and private broker tours, the team was able to establish a new understanding of the project within four months of the marketing plan. By the Summer of 2021, the team was in discussions with HOKA and Industrious to take two large portions of the building (40K SF and 20K SF). Though both deals did not come through, the activity in the market gave us momentum in the Fall, and the team began receiving tour requests on a bi-weekly basis with requirements ranging from 9K SF – 50K SF.
In addition to the marketing efforts, the team decided to host Nike’s Sneaker Ball event in the Winter of 2021, which was a massive success, and a great showcase of the building to the public. In doing this, the team gained attention from two large tenants in the market, ESCO and Jaguar Landrover.
Through a number of tours with both groups and trading multiple rounds of proposals, until Jaguar Landrover decided to step up and take the space for their new regional headquarters. The team negotiated an above market rent, with an aggressive tenant improvement package and a long term lease. The team was able to land this tenant by removing a portion of leasable square footage by removing mezzanine space, building in special car ramps, hydraulic lifts and securing long term parking in an adjacent lot.
Overall, by casting a wide net, sharing the asset in creative ways to the brokerage community the team successfully brought a fantastic deal to a misunderstood asset and took a loser in the market, to quite possibly the most creative deal of the year in Portland.
