Meridian Building Sold for $60M

October 3, 2012

Another major office transaction has rippled across the Columbia market. Hot on the heels of Bank of America Plaza’s sale comes the trading of another major office building in the city's downtown area

By Eliza Theiss, Associate Editor

Another major office transaction has rippled across the Columbia market. Hot on the heels of Bank of America Plaza’s sale comes the trading of another major office building in the city’s downtown area. According to the Columbia Regional Business Report, Massachusetts-based CommonWealth REIT has purchased the 333,000-square-foot Meridian Building for $60 million.

The 17-story Class A office building is located at 1320 Main St. in the heart of Columbia’s Central Business District; it is one of eleven Class A office properties in the CBD. The Meridian Building has 17 tenants, occupying 92 percent of the building’s total leasable surface. Currently active leases have an average term of 8.8 years.

The property, completed in 2004 by Atlanta-based Holder Properties, was the first office high-rise to be built in the downtown market in 15 years. It had an estimated cost of $62 million and was designed by architectural firm Stevens & Wilkinson Inc. of South Carolina.

The Meridian is Energy Star-certified and features two pocket parks and a rooftop garden. A fitness center, a restaurant and banking facilities are also to be found onsite. Additionally, the building features 1,008 parking spaces in an attached eight-level parking garage.

CommonWealth entered into an agreement to purchase the Meridian Building in May and expected to close in the third quarter of 2012. The office and industrial real estate investment trust owns an additional four buildings in Columbia’s Synergy Business Park. Globally, CommonWealth owns properties in 31 states, Washington, D.C. and Australia worth an estimated total of $7.2 billion.