Columbia Exits the Houston Market
Columbia Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: CXP) today announced that it has exited the Houston market with the sale of three office properties to Spear Street Capital for $272 million in gross proceeds. The assets, which total approximately 1.2 million square feet, include 5 Houston Center, Energy Center I, and 515 Post Oak Boulevard.
Columbia will use proceeds from the sale for reinvestment in its high-barrier target markets. The company has sold a total of $932.5 million in non-core assets since March 2016.
As one of the premier office towers in Houston’s central business district, 5 Houston Center includes 581,000 square feet of office space connected to the city’s skywalk system. Ernst & Young is one of the largest tenants at the award-winning, 27-story office tower, which was built in 2002 and has been owned and managed by Columbia since 2005. The building is located at 1401 McKinney Street.
Comprising 332,000 square feet, Energy Center I is located at 585 N. Dairy Ashford Road, right off Interstate 10 in Houston’s Energy Corridor. The building, which houses the Americas headquarters of Amec Foster Wheeler, a global engineering and construction contractor, was built in 2008 and purchased by Columbia in 2010.
515 Post Oak Boulevard is a 12-story, 274,000-square-foot office building located in Houston’s Galleria submarket. Columbia purchased the building in 2004 and extensively renovated the complex in 2013, helping to attract new tenants to the property including NetIQ Corporation and Rockwater Energy Solutions.
“While our Houston properties have been strong performers over the years, we have shifted our focus to select high-barrier markets as we continue to position Columbia as a top-performing office REIT,” said Nelson Mills, president and CEO of Columbia Property Trust. “We had solid demand from potential buyers for this portfolio, and this was a good opportunity to accelerate our core market strategy. With $932.5 million in disposition proceeds raised over the past year, we have made tremendous progress in unlocking the overall value of our portfolio as we redeploy capital into assets that meet our investment criteria, located in our target markets.”
About Columbia Property Trust
Columbia Property Trust (NYSE: CXP) owns and operates Class-A office buildings in competitive, primarily CBD locations, and over half our investments are in high-barrier-to-entry, primary markets. Our portfolio includes 18 office properties containing 9.5 million square feet and one hotel, concentrated in San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. For more information about Columbia, which carries an investment-grade rating from both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, please visit www.columbia.reit.
