One Twelfth is a three-building campus in suburban Seattle
A joint venture real estate platform backed by Hong Kong’s Gemini Investments has made its third US acquisition this year, picking up a 480,389 square foot (45,000 square metre) office complex in suburban Seattle for an undisclosed sum.
Gemini Rosemont, which was formed last year by an agreement between the Hong Kong-based firm and Albuquerque’s Rosemont Realty acquired One Twelfth @ Twelfth, a three building office campus in Bellevue, Washington from Principal Real Estate Investors. The Iowa-based private equity firm had owned the three building campus since acquiring it from Hines in 2004 for approximately $136 million.
The Seattle area acquisition follows soon after investments by Gemini Rosemont in San Diego, California and Durham, North Carolina. When the joint venture was formed last year, the partners announced plans to acquire $3 billion in US office assets over the next three years.
Gemini Rosemont Expects More Deals in the Northwest
Michael Mahony of Gemini Rosemont
“Adding One Twelfth @ Twelfth to our portfolio supports Gemini Rosemont’s desire to expand our footprint in the western U.S.,” said Michael Mahony, chief executive officer of Gemini Rosemont. He added that, “We expect additional acquisitions in the Puget Sound region in the near future.”
The LEED Gold certified office campus sits adjacent to Interstate 405 – a major artery in the Seattle area. The deal for the 2001-vintage complex was brokered by a team from investment advisory firm Eastdil Secured.
Mainland Capital Flowing Through US Joint Venture Platform
The funding for all these acquisitions is flowing at least in part from one of China’s largest real estate developers, Sino-Ocean Land. Hong Kong-based Gemini is the private equity wing of the state-run giant, and was established specifically to manage cross-border deals for the Beijing-based parent company and its partners.
Following this latest deal, Gemini Rosemont now owns 109 buildings across 67 properties in 20 US states, including 64 properties contributed to the joint venture from Rosemont’s pre-existing portfolio.
In April of this year the Albuquerque-based company chose a 177,489-square-foot office building in San Diego for its first joint acquisition. The company then waited until November to pick up a 131,976-square-foot office property in Durham. Gemini Rosemont has said that those two earlier deals totalled $70 million.
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