San Francisco’s Bank of America tower — a 52-story downtown skyscraper — has fetched $1.05 billion after being held for just one year. The Bank of America tower consists of 1.8 million sq. ft. of office space. The seller was 555 California Owners LLC, a joint venture between Shorenstein Realty Services, private investor Mark Karasick and IPC REIT.
With this deal, the investors have successfully flipped one of San Francisco’s most prominent office assets. In 2004, they bought the tower for $900 million. The same investor group sold a collection of properties on New York’s west side last summer for $1.76 billion. The property has withstood San Francisco’s volatile leasing market over the past decade, with an average vacancy of 3.6% since 1991.
This is the first time that a major San Francisco office tower has been held for a short period and sold for a strong profit.