Manulife Real Estate, the real estate division of Manulife Financial, has declared the purchase of Hawthorne Plaza from a partnership of Hines and RREEF. The 441,000 FT2 office complex is located in downtown San Francisco.
The complex consists of two buildings which include a 20 storeyed 342,000 FT2 construction built in 1987 and a five-storeyed 99,000 FT2 construction, built in 1910 and renovated again in 1991. This is the second investment of the company in the Bay Area real estate, earlier it assumed the ownership of a 770,000 FT2 Market Center, an office complex in San Francisco in September last year.
Earlier in May 2009 under the previous management the Plaza has become the first ever multi-tenant office construction in San Francisco to gain LEED-EB Gold Certification and the complex underwent notable capital improvements in the last few years. The Plaza has a strong tenant base led by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has rented around 285,000 FT2 to house its Southwest Regional Headquarters and EPA has renewed its tenancy for a further period of 15 years in June this year. As a part of the EPA renewal the property underwent significant repairs by making changes in the important building systems, improvement of tenant facilities to achieve LEED-EB Platinum status.
The plaza in addition to offering birds-eye view of the city, its bay and Twin-Peaks also offers easy access to all types of transport facilities connecting all the important routes linking the Greater Bay Area and San Francisco.
Source: http://www.manulife.com/