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Albuquerque Journal, N.M., Commercial Real Estate column: GSA selects Mesa del Sol for two buildings [Albuquerque Journal, N.M.](Albuquerque Journal (NM) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 12--Mesa del Sol, the 12,900-acre, master-planned community south of the airport, has landed two proposed office buildings to house a federal agency currently leasing space elsewhere in Albuquerque. The U.S. General Services Administration refused to identify the agency, but a spokeswoman for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said Mesa del Sol was under consideration for a building to house Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices. ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Construction is expected to begin in early 2010 on a two-story, approximately 33,000-square-foot building on a site just east of the Advent Solar building at 5600 University SE. The project would take 260 days to complete, according to the GSA, putting the opening sometime in late summer or early fall. The second 71,000-squarefoot building would be located just east of the Fidelity Investments building, which is at University and Crick Crossing SE. The number of stories has not been determined. Completion of the larger building is anticipated in early February 2012, according to the GSA. Neither project costs nor images of the two buildings are available just yet, the GSA said. Funding is not coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Obama in February. The buildings are expected to be designed along the lines of the FBI building at 4200 Luecking Park NE in Albuquerque. Built in 2003, the FBI building incorporates post 9/11 security features for federal buildings. It is visible on the east side of Interstate 25, south of Montgomery NE. The federal government isn't buying the land or building the buildings. Instead, the GSA negotiates the option to buy the land, which is exercised by a private developer who then constructs a build-to-suit building and leases it to the GSA. Based on past federal building projects, the developer is often from out of state but uses local contractors. Concerning the selection of Mesa del Sol, GSA spokeswoman Shala Geer-Smith said in a e-mail, "Other sites either had topographical challenges, security concerns, above-market pricing or ownerships that would have taken too much time to work through the option to reach agreement." Company officials at Forest City Covington, lead developer of Mesa del Sol, are under a gag order by the GSA and thus wouldn't comment on the two building projects. Paseo Nuevo leasing increases The 106,000-square-foot Paseo Nuevo building at 8220 San Pedro NE, a totally speculative project that opened its doors in the spring of 2008, has achieved 91 percent occupancy with the recent signing of two leases. The local corporate office of Cricket, the cell-phone provider and wireless carrier, is planning to relocate from the Uptown area to 4,446 square feet on the top floor. The local office of another national retail chain has leased 3,656 square feet. There are 9,250 square feet still available on the bottom floor, which Keith Bandoni, Martha Carpenter and Karen Hudson of Maestas & Ward Commercial Real Estate are marketing at an asking lease rate of $19.50 a square foot. At the rate that Paseo Nuevo has leased up, you wouldn't think the local office market was in a slump. Bandoni attributed the leasing success to several factors, ranging from good value to its location and visibility near the northeast corner of Paseo del Norte and Interstate 25. "The way the floor plates were laid out really makes it a flexible building," he said. "In today's market, flexibility is the name of the game." Then there's the human factor. In interviews with the Journal over the past year-and-a-half, pretty much every tenant in the building has credited the father- son team of Skip and Josh Skarsgard, who represent the building's ownership group, with accommodating their needs. Cricket's area office, which has just over 20 employees, works with about 130 company-owned and dealer-operated stores in New Mexico and West Texas -- with the biggest portion in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The office is currently in temporary space after its lease expired at 1700 Louisiana NE. The move to Paseo Nuevo is scheduled Dec. 1. Represented by John Ransom and Tim With of Grubb & Ellis New Mexico, the company had looked for an office in the upper end of the North I-25 corridor because of its relative convenience to Santa Fe, the West Side and other parts of the metro area, said area general manager James Moak. Paseo Nuevo's appeal for Cricket were the views from the fifth floor and the building's green certification through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, he said. The space is a little smaller than what the company had on Louisiana NE, but is better laid out with extra storage on the building's first floor, he said. Henderson buy Albuquerque-based JB Henderson Construction recently purchased a two-story, 11,264-squarefoot office building in the Southeast Heights to house its central office. "We've been growing pretty consistently for the past 10-15 years," said company president and CEO Rob Biedermann. "We've been out of space for quite sometime." The recently purchased building at 501 Eubank SE is walking distance from Henderson's current headquarters at 10100 Trumbull SE, which is in the industrial area southwest of Central and Eubank. The Trumbull building will be used to consolidate the company's fabrication shop and construction support, Biedermann said. Formerly occupied by Z-Coil, the specialty shoe manufacturer, the Eubank building needs only minor improvements to accommodate a November relocation of Henderson's 45 central office staffers. In a footnote to the purchase, Henderson installed the building's mechanical system when it was constructed roughly 20 years ago. The building, which sits on 1.7 acres, was marketed at an asking price of $1,095,000 by Jim Smith of CB Richard Ellis. Mike Leach of Sycamore Associates represented Henderson. Gone to N.J. Xynatech Inc.'s Rio Rancho operation has been moved to New Jersey by Netherlandsbased Madern Group, a worldwide tooling supplier that bought most of the company's assets a couple years ago. "The move was made to take advantage of the synergy of the existing management and marketing structure" at another Madern subsidiary, said James Redd, Xynatech's president. Redd got in touch after the Journal reported three weeks ago the company had evidently closed and its building was for sale or lease. The move to Pennsauken began around mid-2008 just as the local economy was decelerating. Only one of the company's approximately 35 employees moved to New Jersey, but has since returned, Redd said. "There's a few that have had trouble finding jobs," he said. "And they're good people." It may not be game over. Company founder Pierson Kang is exploring opportunities to continue operations in a limited capacity, Redd said, adding, "We have some know-how that we didn't sell them and could be used." Redd is currently busy preparing Xynatech's 20,900-square-foot building at 545 Vortex Rd. for sale or lease. "Understanding the current lending climate, we are willing to provide seller financing to qualified prospects as well as leasepurchase scenarios," he said. The property is listed with John Morrow and Roderick Smith of West Wood Realty. Richard Metcalf covers commercial real estate for the Journal. You may reach him at 823-3972 or [email protected]. To see more of the Albuquerque Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.abqjournal.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Albuquerque Journal, N.M. 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. |