Brandywine Realty Trust Buys Austin’s Four Points Centre

December 27, 2013

Brandywine Realty Trust recently paid $47.3 million to buy Four Points Centre and related land parcels in Austin. The acquisition was announced on December 20. At the same time, Brandywine, one of the largest, publicly traded, full-service, integrated real estate companies in the United States, also announced it purchased the remaining common ownership interest in One and Two Commerce Square, in Philadelphia's Central Business District, for $331.8 million.

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Brandywine Realty Trust recently paid $47.3 million to buy Four Points Centre and related land parcels in Austin. The acquisition was announced on December 20. At the same time, Brandywine, one of the largest, publicly traded, full-service, integrated real estate companies in the United States, also announced it purchased the remaining common ownership interest in One and Two Commerce Square, in Philadelphia’s Central Business District, for $331.8 million.

Four Points Centre consists of two LEED-Gold buildings constructed in 2008 and located in Austin’s Northwest submarket. Both buildings are three stories tall and offer a total of 192,396 square feet of space. They are currently 100 percent leased. According to Brandywine, Four Points Centre is valued at $41.5 million, or $214 per square foot.

The Radnor, Pennsylvania-based real estate investment trust also said it paid $5.8 million for the land parcels. Up to 480,000 square feet of additional office space can be constructed on them. Brandywine funded the acquisition of the land parcels and the Four Points Centre with available corporate funds.

“We are delighted to complete the Commerce Square and Four Points Centre transactions and congratulate the Parkway and Thomas teams on the closing of their transaction,” says Gerard H. Sweeney, president and CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust. “The acquisition of Four Points Centre and the land parcels further expands our operating platform and provides a quality addition to our Austin portfolio at an attractive price along with a value-add development opportunity.”

According to a Marcus&Millichap Market Report for Q3 2013 demand for office properties in the Greater Austin area is high. The median sales price reached $200 per square foot, a sizable uptick from last year’s $170 per square foot price. Office vacancies in the metro area are going down, expected to reach 12 percent at the end of 2013. Over the past 12 months, the average asking rent for local office space increased 4.9 percent to $26.30 per square foot. Rents are expected to end the year at $26.50 per square foot.