Swig Co. Sells San Francisco Waterfront Building
Submitted January 24, 2012, 11:52 AM
San Diego real estate investment trust American Assets Trust Inc. has acquired One Beach Street in San Francisco for approximately $36.5 million, or more than $376 a square foot.
The seller was a joint venture between The Swig Co. LLC and various funds managed by Angelo, Gordon & Co. LP. , a New York City-based real estate fund manager.
Located in the city’s North Waterfront district, One Beach Street is a converted 1920s-era warehouse that was originally the West Coast manufacturing operation for Otis Elevator Co.
The 97,000 square-foot building is fully leased and occupied by Alliant International University, S/B Architects and Skyy Spirits LLC of SKYY Vodka fame. Skyy is a wholly owned subsidiary of Italy’s Gruppo Campari and is headquartered at the Beach Street location. Alliant is a private, non-profit university offering graduate study and undergraduate bachelor’s completion programs.
Swig bought the building in April 2008 paying $27.5 million in cash. Later that year, the company formed the joint venture with Angelo, Gordon and refinanced.
Swig has bought and sold four California properties in the last three months, including One Beach Street. In December, it sold the nearly 460,000 square-foot Arco Center in Long Beach and bought 617 W. Seventh St., a 12-story office building in downtown Los Angeles. In October, it bought 595 E. Colorado Blvd., a nearly 86,000 square-foot Pasadena office building. In mid-2011 Swig sold 115 Sansome St. in San Francisco’s North Financial District to Emeryville’s Harvest Properties.
“This is an excellent, high-quality brick-and-timber creative office building in an exciting area of the city, and we are delighted to be able to execute on our investment strategy for the property,” said Swig Chief Executive Jeanne Myerson in a prepared statement about the One Beach Street sale.
American Assets is a publicly traded REIT that owns a cross-section of commercial properties including offices, apartments, shopping centers and hotels. In early November, the company reported revenue of nearly $56.3 million for the quarter ended in September. Its net income was $4.6 million. American Assets became a public company in January 2011.
Besides One Beach Street, American Assets owns two additional San Francisco office buildings: 160 King St. and The Landmark at One Market. The company has a $133 million interest-only loan against The Landmark that becomes due in mid-2015, and a $31.8 million loan against 160 King, which becomes due in May 2014.
Its single largest office tenant is Salesforce.com Inc., which occupies nearly 227,000 square feet at The Landmark, paying annual base rent of more than $10.25 million. Other major company tenants are Microsoft Corp. and Autodesk Inc., both at The Landmark as well. Microsoft leases nearly 46,000 square feet, paying annual base rent of $2.9 million, while Autodesk leases not quite 69,000 square feet and pays more than $2.8 million.
