Charles Schwab to Sell & Leaseback San Francisco HQ

CoStar Web Site - May 6, 2004

American Financial Realty Trust (NYSE: AFR) said it signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire a downtown San Francisco office building fully leased to financial advisor Charles Schwab & Co. as well as Schwab's leasehold interests in three suburban office buildings. The agreement covers approximately 823,500 square feet of office space in Northern California.

American Financial said it will buy a 373,500-square-foot, Class-A office building in downtown San Francisco that will be fully leased on a 'bond net' basis by Schwab. American Financial also said it will "assume control over" three office buildings in Northern California totaling approximately 450,000 square feet and currently leased to, but not occupied by, Schwab.

Those buildings are believed to be part of Pleasanton Corporate Commons, a four-building office park developed by Hines on Stoneridge Mall Road, near the intersection of Interstates 580 and 680 in the East Bay community of Pleasanton. Schwab pre-leased the campus from Hines in 2000 with plans to occupy the entire complex. But those plans never materialized as the economy slipped into recession and Schwab initiated several rounds of lay-offs, eventually putting the space up for sublease.

Hines sold the office park to Swiss banker UBS at the end of last year in a sale brokered by Secured Capital Corp. It is believed that Schwab's leases may have been restructured as part of that sale. Prior to the sale, Schwab had two long-term leases for the Pleasanton buildings. One for one building of approximately 150,000 square feet through 2010, and the other for the remaining 446,000 square feet through 2013. Schwab subleased approximately 118,000 square feet in one of the buildings to E-Loan.


Sphere: Related Content