Hines Pays $147M for Office High-Rise

The property is under new ownership for the first time in more than 60 years.

Norton Building. Image courtesy of Hines

Hines has closed the acquisition of the Norton Building, an office tower totaling 269,000 square feet within Seattle’s central business district. The company paid $147.3 million for the multi-tenant property, according to King County records.

The transaction marks the first time the Class B building changes ownership in its more than 60-year history. The price per square foot was $547.39, higher than the average price per square foot ($465.97) for the market’s office transactions in the first half of the year, but below the average price per square foot for the CBD office properties ($707.48) that traded since the beginning of the year, according to CommercialEdge data.

Located on less than an acre at 801 Second Ave., the 17-story Norton Building features 14,679-square-foot floorplates and a parking ratio of 1 space per 1,000 square feet.

A piece of Seattle history

Norton Building

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, the office building was completed in 1959. The project marked Seattle’s first high-rise with a glass curtain wall facade, as well as the city’s first International Style building. The Norton Building underwent cosmetic renovations in 2000, CommercialEdge data shows.

Hines also plans to renovate the office building by upgrading the lobby, adding creative and interactive areas throughout the property, as well as including other improvements with an environmental, social and corporate governance focus.

The tenant list includes architecture firm LMN, The Puget Sound Business Journal and Summit Power Group, among many others. The office property was 94 percent leased at the time of the sale.

The Norton Building offers major street exposure to First and Second Avenues. The office tower is easily accessible via a light rail station, ferry terminal and other public transit stops, all within half a mile away.

As of September, office vacancy in Seattle has increased by 590 basis points year-over-year, reaching 15.5 percent, CommercialEdge data shows. Driven by a robust pipeline, the rate outpaces the 14.9 percent U.S. average. Vacancy in the Seattle office market may however rebound quickly due to declining unemployment, which has dropped to 4.4 percent, a 60-basis-point fall month-over-month, according to preliminary BLS data. As of the third quarter, Seattle had 6.8 million square feet of office properties under construction, representing 4.7 percent of the total stock.

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