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Salt Lake City high-rise office is 20 percent leased, 2 years before completion(Salt Lake Tribune, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Nov. 29--A high-rise office building under construction at 222 S. Main St. in downtown Salt Lake City already is about 25 percent leased even though tenants won't be able to move onto the property for another two years. Real estate developer Hamilton Partners this week said work on the 22-story office building is on schedule, with construction of the skyline-altering project expected to be completed in the fall of 2009. "Right now we've got a hole in the ground and more prep work to do," said Bruce Bingham, a principal at the Chicago-based Hamilton Partners. "Once that is completed, though, we will be able to go vertical, probably in late winter." Hamilton Partners this week chose CB Richard Ellis to act as the exclusive listing agent for the project, which is expected along with the massive City Creek Center development two blocks to the north to contribute to a rebirth of Salt Lake City's downtown business district. The building's anchor tenant will be the Denver-based law firm of Holland & Hart. The firm's Salt Lake City office has agreed to take the top three floors of the building comprising approximately 67,000 square feet. Another law firm has agreed to occupy approximately 33,000 square feet. "Having a quality tenant such as Holland & Hart already committed speaks a lot about the future of this project," Bingham said. "CB Richard Ellis should be able to use that as a springboard to secure other tenants." CB Richard Ellis' Scott Wilmarth and Eric Smith will oversee leasing of the property. Wilmarth said there currently is a dearth of class A office space for lease in the downtown area. And that should help attract tenants to the property even though the lease rates will be slightly higher than the $27 to $28 per square foot other class A buildings, such as the newly renovated Walker Center, now command. Bingham said the success of Hamilton Partners' high-rise project in downtown Salt Lake City may have a "ripple effect" and eventually lead to the construction of additional new class A buildings downtown. "For now though, we would just as soon have that [niche] to ourselves." Hamilton Partners first started talking about building a high-rise on Main Street between 200 and 300 South in 1999. Yet the market turned against the company as vacancies started to rise dramatically in the early 2000s. Construction remained on hold until Hamilton Partners judged that market conditions had improved. During the past two years, conditions improved dramatically. Demand for office space, driven by the state's booming economy, took off and paved the way for Hamilton Partners finally to break ground on the project in August. To see more of The Salt Lake Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sltrib.com. Copyright (c) 2007, The Salt Lake Tribune Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |