Blackstone to sell $1B worth of Austin real

estate

Austin Business Journal - 11:26 AM CDT Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The largest block of office space in the Austin market is being sold--again.

Thomas Properties Group Inc. (NASDAQ: TPGI) of Los Angeles is leading a joint venture to buy 3.5 million square feet of Class A offices in the local market for $1.15 billion in what may be the largest real estate transaction in Texas history. The deal expected to close within two months would also make Thomas Properties, which has thus far played a relatively small role in local real estate, the largest office landlord in town.
The Blackstone Group, which picked up the Austin assets as part of its wholesale purchase of Equity Office Properties Trust earlier this year, is flipping portfolios in key markets across the country. Cities where Blackstone has sold or plans to sell former Equity properties include Seattle, Miami, Sacramento, Miami, New York and Orlando among possible others.

The local portfolio includes the premium downtown office properties like the Frost Bank Tower, 300 West Sixth and One Congress Plaza. A total of 10 properties are in the Austin portfolio, including nearly 1 million square feet in Northwest Austin. Together, the properties are about 82 percent leased.

"We believe this is a truly extraordinary opportunity for our company and our investment partners," says James Thomas, chairman and CEO of Thomas Properties. "Austin is expected to exhibit the strongest job growth in the nation over the next five years and this portfolio is well positioned to benefit from that growth. With a young, highly-skilled labor force, relatively modest cost of living and attractive quality of life, Austin is a very desirable place for companies to do business."

Thomas Properties broke ground earlier this month on 275,000 square feet of offices at its Four Points Centre project in Northwest Austin. That is part of a much larger 333-acre master-planned development that will eventually include an additional 900,000 square feet of office or research and development space, 250,000 square feet of lifestyle retail and a 250-room hotel.

"We have long sought an opportunity such as this to expand our presence in this high growth, diversified market," says John Sischo, executive vice president of Thomas Properties. "We expect to be able to take advantage of rapidly improving market conditions to generate significant value growth for our company and our investment partners."