Portland’s Towne Storage building has earned a record price on a per-square-foot basis.

The building traded for $62.75 million, according to Multnomah County records. The sale was recorded April 23.

The sale equated to $630 per square foot for the approximately 100,000-square-foot building, beating the previous record for Portland office space of $565 per square foot for Pearl West, according to Jones Lang LaSalle research.

CBRE Global Investors purchased the building from an entity of Westport Capital Partners. NKF Capital Markets represented Westport, while CBRE represented itself.

The high price reflects the strength of the tenant, said Patricia Raicht, senior vice president for research at JLL. The building is fully leased by Autodesk, a software maker for architecture and engineering, construction and entertainment applications. The company moved into the building, near the Burnside Bridge’s east end, from Lake Oswego.

“They have a credit tenant with an 11-year lease in there,” Raicht said.

Investors have been willing to pay a premium for buildings with long-term tenants. The Wieden + Kennedy building sold for $103.25 million, or $556 per square foot, last year to an institutional buyer.

The sale also shows bustling office demand in the Central Eastside industrial District. Developers are rushing in with projects such as Platform by Project^. That proposal calls for new construction of 140,000 square feet of office space.

The Towne Storage building originally opened in 1916 and was once home to a wholesale paper distributor. LRS Architects designed an adaptive reuse project to update the unreinforced masonry building, and Bremik Construction served as the general contractor. Sentinel Development was the developer.

Fortis Construction performed the tenant improvements for Autodesk, with design by Mackenzie.

Editor’s Note: This article has been corrected from an earlier version that misstated the price per square foot.

The post Towne Storage building fetches record price appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A celebration was held Aug. 24 to mark the completion of core and shell renovations to the Towne Storage building in the Central Eastside. Bremik Construction served as the general contractor on the project, which was designed by LRS Architects for developer Sentinel Development and owner Westport Capital Partners.

The 16-month project was built in phases. The first phase included interior demolition of the building, a 102-year-old warehouse that had been divided into multiple art studio spaces, and seismic upgrades, which included installation of concrete shear walls, two new steel brace frames, and supporting the building on a series of new micropiles reaching as far as 130 feet deep.

The second phase of construction saw envelope improvements, including window rehabilitation and replacements, a new roof, masonry and concrete restoration, and new entries. It also included the addition of the building’s sixth floor and a 4,000-square-foot roof deck, restoration of a the building’s water tower, new MEP/fire safety systems, and a new elevator core.

The entire building has been leased by software maker Autodesk, which will relocate from Lake Oswego. Fortis Construction will be the contractor on the tenant improvement, which was designed by Mackenzie.

The post Photos: Towne Storage building renovation wraps appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.