New Urban Properties Selling in San Francisco
Submitted January 22, 2012, 6:28 PM
San Francisco-based New Urban Properties LLC has sold two historic San Francisco office buildings acquired as part of a string of similar purchases from March 2006 to January 2008. It also is in escrow to sell a third San Francisco historic building at 332 Pine St., where it has its own headquarters location in the penthouse.
New Urban is a niche property investor that has specialized in buying and renovating historic office buildings in San Francisco with an eye on their attractiveness to start-up and early-stage technology companies.
Roman Rosario, a partner for equity investments with Sacramento-based Palmer Capital Inc., was the listing agent on the sale. Rosario and New Urban executives declined comment on the transaction.
The disposition follows the October sale by New Urban of the 33,400 square-foot 580 Market St. for $10.3 million, also according to JLL. The buyer was Market Street Capital Investors LLC, said Robert Dumas, a principal and investment director with Sansome Street Advisors Inc. in San Francisco, which represented New Urban in the transaction. The capitalization rate at the time of sale was 7 percent, based on the current rent, Dumas said. The building was 95 percent leased at the time. The property is a multi-tenant building leased to a variety of small tenants.
New Urban also expects to close escrow this quarter on 332 Pine. The company has owned the 47,640 square-foot property, which is 100 percent leased to multiple tenants, since March 2006.
New Urban has focused on San Francisco buildings with an eye on their attractiveness to the city's technology company community, said Tom Owens, company founder and a principal. This would typically mean brick buildings with high ceilings and areas with facilities for bicycle racks and showers, Owens said.
"We are known as a value-add player, who looks to buy a B-quality asset and eventually turn it into an A-quality asset. We generally like to sell properties once we have maximized the value in the property through a renovation or a re-leasing," he said. Owens himself is a San Francisco history buff.
New Urban plans to extend its formula south to the West Los Angeles region and expects to open an office in the area in the first three months of this year, Owens said.
