Newport Beach, CA and Portland, OR – Bixby Land Company has purchased the Marquam Building, a 75,000-square-foot, five-story office building at 2501 Southwest 1st Avenue in Portland, OR for $10.8 million. The purchase continues Bixby’s investment strategy in the Pacific Northwest, where the Newport Beach, California-based investor and developer has shown increasing interest in acquiring both value add office and fully-leased industrial buildings.
Chris Johnson of Colliers International represented Bixby in the transaction, while the seller, OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation, represented itself.
“This is a key acquisition for Bixby, both in the fundamental upside opportunity of the asset itself and in the synergy created by integrating the Marquam Building with our substantial redesign of the adjacent CDK Plaza,” said Mike Severson, executive vice president and chief acquisitions officer at Bixby Land Company.
The Marquam Building acquisition completes the assemblage of a three-building campus, following Bixby’s December 2016 purchase of CDK Plaza for $33.4 million. Bixby is underway with an extensive $8 million redevelopment that will transform the project into a progressive work environment, similar to the manner in which the company has redesigned more than 30 office buildings in West Coast markets since 2010.
In the case of the Marquam Building, Bixby was further attracted to the purchase by the upside potential of a building that is 66 percent occupied at rents 50 percent below market.
A compelling case is made for the positive change taking place in the immediate area, where Under Armour is adding 100 jobs this summer in a new 60,000-square-foot facility immediately west of the Marquam Building. Meanwhile, single-digit office vacancy rates in Portland reflect the continued high demand for space.
“We like many aspects of the Portland investment market, not the least of which is the competitive cost basis dynamic with which to execute our established value add strategies,” added Severson. “We’re looking for more investments in the area.”
Bixby prefers value add office investments in the $10 million to $100 million range, and seeks leased, institutional grade industrial investments in the $10 million to $50 million range.
