KBS REIT III Acquires 40-Story RBC Plaza for $118.1M

By Gabriel Circiog, Associate Editor

KBS Real Estate Investment Trust III recently announced the acquisition of the 678,045-square-foot RBC Plaza. The Newport Beach, Calif.-based public non-traded REIT purchased the downtown Minneapolis mixed-use office building for $118.1 million (net of closing credits).

Located in Minneapolis’ financial district along Nicollet Mall at 60 South Sixth St., the 40-story RBC Plaza features 609,368 square feet of office space and 68,677 square feet of retail and amenity space on top of an underground parking structure. The retail component of the building is located on the first four floors of RBC Plaza and is connected via skywalk to a multi-building retail complex spanning two city blocks.

The seller, Brookfield Office Properties, was represented by Tom O’Brian and Terry Kingston with Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq and Mike Winn and Tim Richey with Cushman & Wakefield/Denver. KBS has hired Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq to manage and lease the asset, effective Feb. 1, 2013. Sonja Dusil will lead the leasing efforts, and Theresa Elveru will lead the property management team.

Rodney Richerson, KBS regional president, said: “We believe we have a great opportunity to convert some of the upper-level retail floors into creative office space, along with creating a primary entrance off of Nicollet Mall and improving the overall retail mix. In addition to these improvements, we anticipate adding stronger office amenities, conference rooms, a fitness facility and some lobby renovations that will cost approximately $3 million.”

As previously reported by Multi-Housing News, another KBS-affiliated company recently acquired another property in the greater Minneapolis area: Watertower Apartments, a 228-unit mixed-use apartment community in Eden Prairie.