Office condos take the prize for hottest commodity in Frederick, Maryland in 2011!
Check out Frederick’s top five
office deals below. Combined,they were worth $48 million in sales, a huge increase from $10 million posted by 2010’s top five. Frederick’s commercial office market hasn’t seen a year like this since 2008!
Number 5: $1,908,550 Conley Farm Building Unit 202
Almine LLC purchased condominium Unit 202 of the Conley Farm Building through Thomas Clagett of Clagett Enterprises, Inc. in October.The unit is 7,981 square feet ($239.14 price/sf).
Number 4: $2,525,000 Cannon Hill
Ruppert Properties purchased the Cannon Hill condominium office building at 47 E. South Street from Dan Lawton of East South Street LLC in June. This appears to be a bargain at $151.71 per square foot, given the excellent location of this building. The property (16,644 square feet in size) consists of 12 office units and was 80% leased at the time of sale.
Number 3: $2,670,000 Chairman’s Court
MacRo, Ltd. facilitated this deal, which was a portfolio sale of all three office condos in the Chairman’s Court building. COMSTAR Federal Credit Union purchased the units at 5210 Chairman’s Court in February from all three of the property owners: ArmCo, LLC; MP Holdings, LLC; and Hackers, LLC. The building is 15,011 square feet. COMSTAR purchased the property as a user and subsequently moved their office headquarters from Montgomery County to Frederick.
Number 2: $2,800,000 Urbana Professional Center Unit 100
Urbana Builders Inc. (that being local attorney Greg Burgee, MAI appraiser Bud McPherson and other notables) sold the entire lower level Unit 100 of the condominium building of the Urbana Professional Center building (3430 Worthington Blvd) to Frederick Business Properties in July. The unit is 10,380 square feet ($269.75 price/sf). Frederick Memorial Hospital (FMH) tenant and has located satellite facility there to serve the growing Urbana community. The upper level was sold in a number of units to physician practices that are certified to work at FMH.
Number 1: $38,000,000 Banner Life Building
As we reported in our post 5 Largest Commercial Real Estate Deals of 2011, Natelli Communities sold the Banner Life Building in Urbana to Cole Real Estate Investments, a Phoenix-based REIT, in June. Banner Life fully occupies the 115,000 square foot building.
It’s interesting to note that with the exception of the Banner Life Building, the top office sales in Frederick County were office condominiums.
The office condominium market has been challenging during the recession, but recently low and mid-sized tenants (those using 6,000-20,000 square feet) have become motivated to take advantage of depressed values. By piecing together units in a condominium, businesses are able to gain an ownership stake in their office space without purchasing an entire office building.
Are YOU in the market for new office space?
Stay tuned for some enticing offers located that will appear soon on the Listings page of the MacRo, Ltd. website. These are located in downtown Frederick’s premier office building along the Carroll Creek Linear Park — South Market Center!
Rocky Mackintosh, President, MacRo, Ltd., a Land and Commercial Real Estate firm based in Frederick, Maryland. He is an appointed member of the Frederick County Charter Board. He also writes for TheTentacle.com.