Lincoln Property Buys San Francisco Office Building for $62M

Lincoln Property has picked up a 208,000-square-foot office building in San Francisco’s Showplace Square for around $62 million, or about $13 million less than its initial ask.

The Dallas-based investor bought the five-story building known as 600 Townsend West at 600 Townsend Street for around $300 square foot, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing an unidentified source.

The seller was Toda America, a unit of Tokyo-based Toda. Brokers Rob Hielscher, Erik Hanson and Adam Lasoff of JLL held the listing.

Toda, owner of the building for three decades, listed the offices at the end of last year around $360 per square foot, or about $75 million.

The building was 92 percent leased at the time of sale to such tenants as SS&C Advent and PagerDuty, according to the listing. Built in 1989, the offices have been renovated with “high-end creative improvements,” including a solar overhaul, upgraded lobby and outdoor patio/lounge.

Several tenants in the building have near-term expiration dates, however, and some have put their offices on the sublease market, according to the Business Journal.

Early this year, Toda was in talks with locally based Flynn Properties and an unidentified Japanese investor interested in buying the building. The negotiations fizzled.

Lincoln Property, founded in 1965, has a Bay Area portfolio that includes more than 12.3 million square feet of offices, 3.1 million square feet of industrial buildings and 2 million square feet of mixed-use storefronts and apartments, according to its website.

In 2021, Lincoln partnered with Germany-based Cara Investment to acquire the home of Saks Fifth Avenue at 384 Post Street in Union Square for $156 million, according to the Business Times.

The investor also worked with China-based Gemdale to build two Class A office buildings totalling 428,000 square feet at 350 Bush Street and 500 Pine Street in Downtown.

In 2018, the joint venture sold the 56,000-square-foot building at 500 Pine for $73 million. Last spring, Gemdale listed the 19-story trophy building at 350 Bush for an undisclosed price. It’s not clear if Lincoln still has a stake in the building.

— Dana Bartholomew