Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Investcorp, Schnitzer West Form JV for Seattle Development

July 02, 2007
By Dees Stribling, Special Correspondent

Investcorp's U.S.-based real estate group has entered a joint venture with Schnitzer West L.L.C., a Seattle-area real estate development group, to develop a 1.6 million-square-foot office, retail and residential project in Bellevue, Wash., outside Seattle. The total value of the transaction exceeds $800 million.

Under the terms of the JV, Investcorp, which currently oversees a real estate portfolio of about $4.1 billion in various markets, will provide most of the project's equity. Schnitzer West will provide some of the rest of the project equity and will serve as the project's day-to-day developer.

The mixed-use development, known as the Bravern, is located on a six-acre site in Bellevue's CBD. About 750,000 square feet of the project's office space, in two high-rise office towers, has already been fully leased by Microsoft, and 305,000 square feet of its retail space will be anchored by a 125,000-square-foot Neiman Marcus. There will also be two 29-story residential towers with 456 condominiums.

Construction on the Bravern has been well under way for about a year, with individual building deliveries scheduled for between mid-2008 and the fall of 2009. Since its inception, Schnitzer West has developed about 2 million square feet of office, biotech and multi-family properties, and manages about 9 million total square feet of commercial property.

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