Two More Baltimore Office Towers Go Up For Sale

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

Two fast-leasing Baltimore office towers are going up for sale. Both are located in the city’s downtown and both are more than 90 percent occupied.

The Baltimore Business Journal reports that Ireland-based CMC Investments, the owners of  300 E. Lombard St., have recently decided to sell the Class A property. This past year, tenants old and new have leased about 100,000 square feet of space in the building, bringing its occupancy to 91 percent. Its tenant roster includes companies such as First National Bank, Ballard Spahr LLP or Ameritox.

CMC Investments purchased the 237,000-square-foot office building in 2004, for $40 million. It invested an additional $2 million in the property to upgrade its lobby, elevators, building mechanicals and garage. The Baltimore Business Journal reported that the garage is expected to produce an income of $350,000 this year.

So far, CMC Investments has not announced an asking price for 300 E. Lombard St. The Irish company has retained Cassidy Turley to market the building.

The second office tower to go up for sale is 250 W. Pratt St. According to The Baltimore Business Journal, Dallas-based Tier REIT Inc. has hired Cushman & Wakefield of Maryland Inc. to sell the Class A property at a time when its occupancy has reached 97 percent. As in the case of 300 E. Lombard St., no asking price has yet been set for the 24-story office tower.

Tier REIT purchased the 368,000-square-foot building in 2004, for $51.8 million. Its tenant roster includes University Systems of Maryland and Wells Fargo. And, starting next spring, it will be the new home of Pandora Jewelry’s American headquarters. The Danish company signed a lease for 88,000 square feet of space in the building in July. It will become 250 W. Pratt’s anchor tenant and will have naming rights.

250 W. Pratt St. is the seventh large Baltimore office building to go up for sale in the last 18 months, and the largest since the recession. The current record is held by 1 E. Pratt St., which sold to Emmes Asset Management Co. LLC, for $58.7 million, at the start of the year. Another downtown office building, the Thames Street Wharf, also broke some records when it was acquired by KBS Realty Advisors. The $89 million paid by the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company was the largest sum for a Baltimore office building since 2005. It was also the largest price-per-square-foot to ever be paid for an office property in the city.

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