Equastone Acquires VHA Place – 11 Acquisitions in Texas in 10 Months

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) August 28, 2006

Equastone has announced the acquisition of VHA Place, a 13-story, 317,472 square foot, Class A office building, with an eight-story parking garage, located at 220 East Las Colinas Boulevard, in Irving Texas. Equastone purchased the property from UBS Realty Investors and the purchase price was not disclosed. The building was 74% occupied at acquisition and the major tenant is VHA, Inc.

VHA Place is located in the desirable Las Colinas sub-market of Dallas and in close proximity to Dallas Fort Worth Airport. Las Colinas is a rapidly growing high-tech area, which has attracted many Internet and telecommunication companies. The Las Colinas sub-market currently has a vacancy rate of 17.5%, its lowest vacancy rate since 2001, having absorbed more than 968,000 square feet of office space in the second quarter of 2006.

Equastone Executive Vice President Clint Harrington said, “VHA Place is a quality asset in a high growth market. Dallas is forecast to lead the nation this year in job growth with a project additional 82,000 jobs. In line with our typical value-add strategy, we plan on undertaking common area upgrades and fully leasing the building within the next 16 months. VHA Place will offer great value for tenants interested in a strong Class A presence in the desirable Las Colinas area.”

Andrea Peskind and Brad Thronburg of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller in the transaction. Joanna Hagerty of Cushman & Wakefield has been awarded the leasing assignment for the property and Tracy Fults and Jamie Galati also of Cushman & Wakefield will provide property management services.

VHA Place is the second property acquired by Equastone in the Las Colinas sub-market of Dallas. In July 2006, the firm acquired the Atrium at Highpoint, a 225,000 square foot office building from the Real Estate Owned division of CW Capital Asset Management. Since October 2005, Equastone has acquired 11 value-add office and flex buildings in Texas that total more than 1.6 million square feet. To manage Equastone’s growing Texas portfolio, in June 2006, Equastone announced the opening of its new Texas regional office located in Houston and the addition of Clint Harrington as Executive Vice President.

Equastone Chairman David Bourne said, “Until recently, the Texas economy and demand for office space has been soft for many years, that rental rates and property values have fallen to very low levels. As a result we are now able to acquire buildings at significantly below replacement value, with the confidence that construction of new office buildings will not take place until rental rates are dramatically higher. After taking steps to diversify its economy and with today’s high oil prices, the Texas economy is recovering rapidly, so we expect rental rates and values of existing buildings to rise significantly over the next four years. Simply stated, Equastone is finding very compelling office building investment opportunities in the four major cities of Texas”

Equastone is a private equity real estate firm specializing in acquiring and adding value to underperforming office and industrial properties in growth and recovery markets in the U.S. Equastone currently owns and operates properties in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Texas.

The firm intends to acquire more than $1 billion of office and flex properties over the next two years and is seeking investment opportunities in new markets including Oregon, Washington, Utah and New Mexico. Investment offerings should be directed to John Locke at jlocke@equastone.com and Chris Stai at cstai@equastone.com.

Equastone invests in and operates commercial real estate on behalf of Equastone Real Estate Funds. Equastone and its affiliates currently have offices in San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; and Houston, Texas. For more information about Equastone and Equastone Real Estate Funds, call Mykel Sprinkles at 858/812-3261 or visit http://www.equastone.com.

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