Prudential Real Estate Investors agreed to enter a $54 million joint
venture with Dominion Realty Partners to build Charter Square, an
11-story office property in Raleigh’s downtown central business
district, the company announced today. PREI®, acting on behalf of
institutional investors in its open-end, value-added commingled
strategy, is the real estate investment management and advisory business
of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU).
“Raleigh has become one of the best cities to live, work and play making
it comparable to other tech hubs in popular cities around the country,”
said Soultana Reigle, managing director at PREI and portfolio manager of
the firm’s value-added, open-ended equity commingled real estate
strategy. “We chose to invest in Charter Square because of the growing
popularity of Raleigh’s downtown business district, coupled with the
rising trend among working professionals who now prefer to work in
direct proximity to the 24-hour amenity base a city like Raleigh has to
offer. These facts and the strength of Dominion Realty Partners make
Charter Square a compelling investment opportunity for our fund.”
Technology sector growth in the region over the last decade has largely
been focused on the suburban Research Triangle Park. With 40,000
workers, the RTP has transformed Raleigh into a tech hub similar to
Seattle, Austin, San Francisco and Boston. More recently, downtown
Raleigh has turned its efforts to draw employees to its urban core
following a growing national trend among technology sector employees in
which they prefer to be located in an urban “live, work and play”
setting.
The 236,000 square-foot Charter Square building will be at the corner of
Lenoir Street and Fayetteville Street, the main thoroughfare of the
downtown business district. Since 2006, more than 200 new businesses
have opened in the downtown submarket, and more than 1,200 apartments
are currently under construction.
“Charter Square is the cornerstone of the revitalization of downtown
Raleigh, and Dominion Realty Partners is proud to partner PREI to
develop this 236,000 square foot speculative office building,” said Andy
Andrews, CEO of Dominion Realty Partners, LLC.
“The leasing activity for this opportunity has been tremendous because
of the location, ownership strength and aggressive rental rate
structure, LEED qualities and tenant improvement package, as well as the
exterior signage opportunities for sizeable tenants.”
When completed, Charter Square will consist of an exterior courtyard,
restaurants, retail space, in addition to office space. The building,
which will be built to achieve Platinum standards under the Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design program, will be situated above an
existing 613-space subterranean parking garage.
PREI is a leader in the global real estate investment management
business, offering a broad range of investment vehicles that invest in
private and public market opportunities in the United States, Europe,
the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Headquartered in
Madison, N.J., PREI has other offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, New
York, San Francisco, London, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Munich, Frankfurt,
Paris, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Hong Kong,
Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo. In addition, PREI has representatives in
Milan and is establishing a presence in Sydney (pending regulatory
approval). As of March 31, 2013, PREI managed approximately $53 billion
in gross real estate assets ($37.3 billion net) on behalf of more than
490 clients worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.prei.com.
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with
approximately $1.06 trillion of assets under management as of March 31,
2013, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin
America. Prudential’s diverse and talented employees are committed to
helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their
wealth through a variety of products and services, including life
insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and
investment management. In the U.S., Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has
stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a
century. For more information, please visit http://www.news.prudential.com/
Copyright Business Wire 2013