Chuck Slothower//October 4, 2017//

The Pearl District‘s Wieden + Kennedy building has sold for $103.25 million to a San Francisco investment firm.
The buyer of the 185,809-square-foot office building was a limited liability company managed by Stockbridge Capital Group, according to state and Multnomah County records. Stockbridge is an investment firm with broad holdings across the U.S.
The price of the Wieden + Kennedy building equates to $555.68 per square foot, near a record for the Portland office market. The current record holder is Pearl West, which sold in July for $87.5 million, or $563 per square foot.
The deal offered the buyer predictable, long-term cash flow, said Paige Morgan, an executive vice president with Jones Lang LaSalle in Portland.
“Investors currently are targeting and liking those long-term leases in Portland,” Morgan said. “They’re paying for that stability.”
Prices per square foot are expected to continue trending upward as buildings with newer, market-rate leases sell, Morgan said.
“I think we will continue to see new price-per-foot records, mostly because the rents have gone up dramatically here in the past few years,” she said.
The sale also reflects a tidy profit for seller JPMorgan Chase Bank. The New York-based bank acquired the building, via a limited liability company, for $65 million in 2012, according to government records. The bank made a 58.8 percent return on its original investment.
Like much of the Pearl District, the building at 224 N.W. 13th Ave. was originally constructed as an industrial warehouse in 1908. It was renovated into modern office space in 2000 from a on behalf of Wieden + Kennedy.
Locally, Stockbridge also owns the Tualatin Corporate Center, a 401,670-square-foot, multi-tenant industrial park, and Lloyd Safeway Center, a 205,173-square-foot retail property in the Lloyd District. Stockbridge did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.
Wieden + Kennedy, an advertising firm that has created national ad campaigns on behalf of Nike, Coca-Cola and other major brands, is the primary tenant in the Pearl District building. It’s also home to Bluehour restaurant. Wieden + Kennedy has a long-term lease.
“It’s a very iconic building with a sort of iconic company in there as well,” Morgan said.
In total sale price, other Portland office buildings have sold for more. The U.S. Bancorp Tower, better known as “Big Pink,” sold for $372.5 million in 2015. The Block 300 building sold for $155.2 million in 2015, the PacWest Center traded for $170 million in 2016 and Pioneer Tower sold in 2016 for $121.7 million.
Currently, the most notable office property on the market is the 689,840-square-foot Wells Fargo Center, Portland’s tallest skyscraper.
The Wieden + Kennedy building transaction was recorded in Multnomah County records Sept. 8.