AUSTIN – CBRE Capital Markets’ Investment Properties announces the sale of Westlake Place, a 60,338-square-foot, multi-tenant office building in Austin. Maryland-based Moore & Associates purchased the building from a California-based partnership.
Westlake Place is a five-story building located at 1515 South Capital of Texas Highway, in the southwest Austin submarket. The Class B asset is 94.2 percent occupied and prominent tenants include Sotera Defense Solutions, Inc., Frontier & Associates and Vertex Software Corporation.
According to CBRE Research, citywide Austin office vacancy was 11.9 percent at the end of Q2 2015—the tightest among all major Texas metros. Specifically, Class B office buildings in Southwest Austin are performing well, recording the highest absorption (49,411 square feet) and lowest vacancy rate (7.4 percent) among all Class B product citywide for the second quarter.
“The sale of Westlake Place was particularly exciting for our team. The transaction is representative of a developing Austin trend of long-term owners choosing to sell now,” said Cathy Nabours, CBRE First Vice President. “Very few Class B office buildings traded in the last two market cycles. Current owners of this product are finally able to take advantage of selling under favorable market conditions while buyers can still obtain historically low interest rates for new financing.”
“Moore & Associates has historically purchased institutional quality Austin properties and the group recently modified their buying strategy locally to include Class B suburban office with upside potential. Moore & Associates plans significant capital improvements to reposition the asset to take advantage of its coveted location on Capital of Texas Highway and capitalize on current tenant demand,” said Walter Saad, CBRE First Vice President.
Saad, Nabours and Logan Reichle, with CBRE’s Austin office, represented the seller.