16-Story Norfolk Office Trades for $30M

NORFOLK, VA-NPV/Direct Invest LLC, a real estate investment firm with offices in Baltimore, Boston and Short Hills, NJ, has acquired an office building here for $29.8 million from an affiliate of Harbor Group International LLC. CB Richard Ellis’ J. Scott Adams served as broker.

Located at 500 E. Main St., the 229,000-sf, 16-story property is 89.5% occupied and anchored by BB&T. Harbor Group acquired the building in 1998. It then made a number of improvements to the property including a new first floor facade and lobby upgrade.

When it came time to divest of the property the firm was a beneficiary of the dramatic increase in investment sales prices in the city and particularly the Downtown area. “It is a very healthy market here, attracting a lot of out of town investors,” chairman and CEO Jordan Slone tells GlobeSt.com, noting that vacancy rate in the Downtown area is 10%.

Last year, he says, the city reached a significant benchmark when a building traded at over $200 sf. Since then office property trades have hovered around that price point.

But Slone does not think Norfolk offices are becoming overvalued. “It is still an opportunistic market. We will to buy and sell properties here and in other markets where the opportunities are.” The firm is actively recycling properties in its $1.8-billion investment portfolio. Earlier this week GlobeSt.com reported that it purchased a historic 22-story office property in Chicago for $79.5 million.