EMERYVILLE, CALIF., Jan. 5, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KBS Real Estate Investment Trust III (KBS REIT III), a public, non-traded real estate investment trust based in Newport Beach, Calif., announced the acquisition of The Towers on December 23, 2014. The Towers is a three-building, 815,018-square-foot Class A office property located directly across the bay from San Francisco on a waterfront location.
The Towers were originally built between 1972 and 1985 and renovated in 1998 and 2012 and offer a best-in-class urban campus environment offering a combination of onsite amenities, easy access to transit and nearby hotels, restaurants, retail and residential living. Twenty-five restaurants and bars and four hotels are located within walking distance of the property. "The Towers presents KBS with a great opportunity to purchase an institutional quality asset located just across the Bay from San Francisco in the dynamic East Bay/Emeryville market," commented KBS Western Regional President, Rodney Richerson. "We consider this to be one of the best assets in a market that is seeing increasing interest from financial service and technology-oriented users who do not want to pay the high rents associated with downtown San Francisco. As San Francisco goes, Emeryville has historically followed."
"We have a very active asset management philosophy that will involve immediate improvements to this property," commented KBS Senior Vice President and Asset Manager, Brent Carroll. "We plan to convert the property's conference center into a permanent tenant lounge and conference center that will hold up to 150 people and will allow the space to be used for meetings and entertainment and will tie into an attractive outdoor common area with great views."
Major tenants currently occupying the property include AAA of Northern California, Gracenote, Inc., Sutter Health and Berkeley Research. In addition to The Towers, KBS and its affiliated companies currently own 10 properties in the greater Bay Area totaling over 2.0 million square feet. About KBS KBS Capital Advisors is KBS REIT III's external advisor and is an affiliate of KBS Realty Advisors, a private equity real estate company and SEC-registered investment adviser founded by Peter Bren and Charles J. Schreiber in 1992. Since its inception, KBS- affiliated companies have completed transactional activity in excess of $30 billion via 14 separate accounts, six commingled funds, five sovereign wealth funds and six non-traded REITs. For information, visit www.kbs.com.
This release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended including statements relating to KBS REIT III's ability to invest in and manage a diverse portfolio, and the performance of the Towers at Emeryville and of the Emeryville real estate market. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause KBS REIT III's and/or the Towers at Emeryville's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
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Media Contact:
Phil Diment
pdiment@kbsrealty.com
949-417-6532
