CHICAGO, IL-Valspar Corp. has signed a long-term lease for 40,000 square feet of office space at the O’Hare Plaza I. The Minneapolis-based company will occupy space at 8725 W. Higgins Rd.

Roughly, 150 Valspar employees in the architectural division will utilize the space. The employees are relocating from a number of other locations, but the company is not closing other offices as a result of this move.

Valspar will occupy part of the ninth floor and all of floors 10 and 11 in the 11-story, 473,646-square-foot building. Terms of the lease were not disclosed.

David Burden, Jack Rosenberg, and Frederick Regnery with Colliers Bennett & Kahnweiler Inc. represented Valspar. Jones Lang LaSalle’s John Clark and Rob Lundin represented building owner, Fulcrum.

Colliers B&K executives see this lease as a positive sign for the O’Hare market, which has been heavily hit during this economic downturn. At year-end the vacancy rate reached 26%, when the average suburban vacancy rate was 24.9%.

Unrelated to this deal, Colliers B&K has hired Brian Nagle as EVP of its Investment Services Group. Nagle has more than 30 years of experience, with a focus recently on investment sales in the Chicago and Midwest office markets. Prior to joining Colliers B&K, Nagle spent 20 years at Cushman & Wakefield. Most recently he was an executive director in the company’s Capital Markets Group.

Source: Globest.com

Warsaw, Poland: Astellas Pharma Sp. z o.o., the second largest Japanese pharmaceutical company in the world, has signed a contract to lease modern industrial and office space in Ożarów Mazowiecki – a building owned by Panattoni Europe. Throughout the transaction Astellas was represented exclusively by leading global real estate services company, Colliers International.

Astellas Pharma sp. z o.o. specialises in urology, dermatology and transplantology with a  focus on research and development of new drugs and their market implementation.

To meet the company’s development needs in Poland Astellas decided to lease 25,000 sqm of industrial and 260 sqm of office space in Panattoni Park Ożarów. This modern building is located 15 km from the western border of Warsaw and close to the planned A2 Berlin to Moscow highway.

The exclusive agent for this transaction was Colliers International.

Colliers International Poland’s industrial & logistics department specialises in tenant representation, and its services include coordination of the relocation process and renegotiation of lease terms. The department’s largest clients are: Leroy Merlin, Pregis, Sonoco, Nestle and MEFA.

San Diego: A team from Colliers International has been selected to handle the leasing, sales and property management of nearly 359,000 square feet and 8.52 acres of land in the Carlsbad Raceway Business Park. The team was selected by Wachovia Bank and Bank of the West. Opus West Corp. was the original developer of the project. Melrose Point is a 103,547-square-foot Class A corporate headquarters building at 3115 Melrose Drive. The Collection at Lionshead is five free-standing office buildings containing nine condo units ranging from 3,806 square feet to 12,176 square feet available for sale. Raceway Point is six R&D/flex buildings from 16,532 square feet to 64,327 square feet for sale.  Additionally, two vacant lots totaling 8.52 acres are available for development of corporate headquarters, R&D or manufacturing facilities.

The team for Melrose Point and The Collection is comprised of Gary Williams, Dan Tate and Chris Williams while the team of Chuck and Erik McNary are handling the Raceway Point and available lots. Property management responsibilities are being handled by Gina St. Aubin and Phil Covington.

Source: San Diego Metropolitan Magazine

LOS ANGELES-Colliers International has expanded its Southern California operations with the addition of a new corporate services exec in San Diego, has hired two industry veterans in Los Angeles and has moved the company’s Diamond Bar office to Ontario to join an existing Colliers office there. The moves follow the strategic combination that Colliers International and FirstService Real Estate Advisors created early this year when they unveiled plans to combine their operations and global real estate platforms.

The new corporate services executive is Nick Foussianes, who joins Colliers in the newly created position of executive managing director, Southern California, for the Client Solution Design division of Corporate Solutions. The new hires in Los Angeles are senior vice president Kitty Wallace, a multifamily specialist formerly with Sperry Van Ness; and senior vice president Scott Heaton, an investment sales specialist and former longtime Colliers broker who brings a team with him from the Private Client Group at CB Richard Ellis.

Foussianes will work with corporate clients to develop an in-depth understanding of key business strategies, create customized real estate solutions that meet their objectives and then oversee execution on an on-going basis, according to Dylan Taylor, president of FirstService Real Estate Advisors, who will become president and CEO of Colliers International USA this spring. Foussianes will coordinate with Scott Nelson, president of the Client Solution Design division of Corporate Solutions in the US.

Wallace was a senior vice president for Sperry Van Ness in West Los Angeles. For six years, she ranked as the company’s number one multifamily adviser in the country, and for eight years running she ranked as the number two Sperry Van Ness agent in the country for all product types.

Joining Colliers International with Wallace are Corri Nicol, who will serve as business development specialist, and Mike Mortimer, who will serve as analyst. Wallace and her team will be temporarily based in Colliers International’s Downtown Los Angeles office until the opening of Colliers International’s West Los Angeles office.

Heaton, a 30-year industry veteran, will be based in the Downtown L.A. office of Colliers, where he will specialize in investment sales, redevelopment opportunities and consultative brokerage assignments throughout the Greater Los Angeles basin. Before joining Colliers, Heaton led the Los Angeles-Central Private Client Group for CBRE, which included business partners Patrick Barnes and Joseph Williams, who have also joined Colliers International’s Downtown L.A. office, as senior associate and associate, respectively.

Heaton began his real estate career at Colliers and stayed with the company for 22 years. Before joining CBRE in 2003, Heaton was a principal at Colliers-Seeley International, now Colliers International, where he ranked among the top 10 producers every year from 1987 to 2002.

The move of the Colliers Diamond Bar office to Ontario expands the Ontario office by 16 brokers and staff members, according to Martin Pupil, senior managing director of Colliers International’s Greater Los Angeles area operations. Pupil says that the move centralizes the Colliers Inland Empire operations within the hub of that market.

“We initially entered the Inland Empire market in Diamond Bar. However, Ontario has become the focal point of the region and to keep up with the changing marketplace, it makes sense to move our Diamond Bar operations to this location,” Pupil explains. He adds that Colliers is focused on expanding its business in the Inland Empire and will continue to recruit new talent there.

Recent additions to the company’s Inland Empire operations include Greg Horton, Barbara Armendariz, Jeff Kim and Kosha Arabi, who have joined Colliers International as associates in its Ontario office. Additionally, Mark Zehner has joined Colliers International as senior vice president. In this role, he will develop the company’s asset and property management platform within the Inland Empire and throughout the Greater Los Angeles region.

Steven Bellitti and Tom Taylor, both senior vice presidents from Colliers’ Diamond Bar office, will maintain leadership roles at Colliers’ Ontario office. In addition, Tony Phu, also senior vice president from Colliers’ Diamond Bar office, will continue to lead Colliers’ China Client Group from the Ontario office as well as maintain client service throughout the San Gabriel Valley.

Source: GlobeSt.com

Philadelphia: Dependable Distribution Service signed a two-year, 122,000-square-foot lease at 2500 Grant Ave. in Philadelphia. The 330,000-square-foot warehouse was built in 1980 and renovated in 2006. It is in the Greater Northeast industrial submarket. Richard Gorodesky of Colliers Lanard & Axilbund represented Dependable Distribution Service. The Binswanger team of Chris Pennington and Frank Cullen represented the landlord, Sant Properties.

VALENCIA, CA-Arvato Digital Services has signed a lease for a 165,141-square-foot industrial building here, striking the deal at 20% below the owner’s first asking price, according to Colliers International brokers who represented the high-tech firm. The Arvato Digital Services lease is for a building at 29011 Commerce Center Dr.

According to senior vice president John DeGrinis of the Colliers International Encino office, Arvato had an option to renew its lease at fair market value, but the renewal terms presented by the landlord “were not satisfactory to our client.” Although Arvato had substantial existing infrastructure in its facility, “Soft market conditions made a relocation feasible because of the aggressive lease rates and concessions that were being offered by other landlords,” said DeGrinis, who represented the high-tech firm along with senior associate Patrick DuRoss and associate Jeff Abraham of the Colliers Encino office, as well as Colliers Bennett Kahnweiler in Chicago.

DeGrinis says that the Colliers team evaluated several facility opportunities in the region with Arvato, but the company elected to stay in its existing location after the landlord offered the more favorable terms. The landlords, Waikiki Marc LLC and Calavista LLC, were represented by Craig Peters of CB Richard Ellis. Arvato―a provider of services for the high-tech, games, video and audio sectors―is a subsidiary of the Germany-based media giant Bertelsmann AG.

NEW YORK CITY-As part of the new entity known as Colliers International, FirstService Williams becomes the tri-state area hub for the combined Colliers operations. For tri-state clients of FSW, which has been in operation under various names for 90 years, the transition means both change and continuity, FSW CEO Mark Jaccom tells GlobeSt.com.

Aside from the Colliers name and branding, which will be adopted during this quarter, there’s also the new global ranking of the combined operation of Colliers and FirstService Real Estate Advisors: the third largest in the world, company officials say. And there’s a shift to “centralized ownership” rather than a worldwide network of local partnerships, Jaccom says.

What’s remaining the same as Jaccom becomes tri-state CEO at Colliers is the local leadership. He tells GlobeSt.com that the other mainstays of FSW–executive chairman Robert L. Freedman, president Michael T. Cohen and vice chairman Andrew Roos–are all very much part of the Colliers tri-state hub, which includes 300 employees in New Jersey and Connecticut as well as Manhattan. Along with focusing on their individual areas of expertise, such as leasing and investment sales, they’ll also be key players in the decision-making process, says Jaccom.

The idea of integrating Colliers International’s global platform with local expertise, Jaccom says, is to service clients “on a local, regional, national and global basis.” Globally, the combined Colliers International has 15,000 employees and 480 offices in 61 countries, and a services platform that includes global corporate solutions and institutional asset and property management. These platforms were launched amid FirstService REA’s expansion a few years ago; in a release, the combined company describes these as “tactical infrastructure enhancements that integrated essential service offerings in the United States and aligned with those of Colliers International offices globally.” The company says it generates worldwide revenues of $1.9 billion annually.

Jaccom is bullish on that global platform and on his company’s growth prospects in the current market. “At a time when our competitors are cutting back and reducing headcount, we’re expanding,” he tells GlobeSt.com. He points out that the Colliers International umbrella also includes PGP Property Valuation, PKF Hotel and Hospitality Consulting and MHPM Project Leaders, all acquisitions that Jaccom says expand the company’s reach.

The PGP, PKP and MHPM acquisitions occurred during an aggressive expansion into commercial real estate that began in 2004, with parent company FirstService becoming majority shareholder in what was then known as Colliers Macaulay Nicolls, the largest member of the Colliers network that began in 1976. The Toronto-based FirstService then expanded globally with significant equity interests in Colliers operations in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Russia and several other countries in Western and Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific. It acquired what was then known as GVA Williams in 2008.

With the Jan. 4 announcement that FirstService REA and Colliers International were joining forces, FirstService REA increased its ownership of Colliers globally to about 70%, with local operators owning the balance of the equity. “The strategic integration of our business and service brands not only facilitates maximum service levels to our clients, but also helps us attract the best and brightest in the industry–those who are entrepreneurial and client-centric by nature and who seek opportunities that match their industruy goals,” Dylan Taylor, newly named president of Colliers International in the USA, said in a release announcing the combination.

Portland, OR: Owens Corning leased 123,120 square feet at Bybee Lake Logistics Center, 7828 N. Leadbetter Road, Portland, from Real Estate Equity Fund, managed by Washington Capital Management. Toledo, Ohio-based Owens Corning will use it as a warehouse for insulation products storage. The company recently opened a manufacturing facility in Gresham. The transaction brings the 750,000-square-foot Bybee Lakes Phase II project to full occupancy. Paul Breuer and Jerry Matson of Colliers International brokered the deal.

The newly announced merger of Colliers International and FirstService Real Estate Advisors will spawn a blockbuster full-service brokerage along the lines of industry behemoths CB Richard Ellis and Jones Lang LaSalle.

The new entity will operate as Colliers International based in Seattle with centralized operations and services. What’s more, it will provide some much-needed clarity in the marketplace. In 2008, the combined companies generated annual revenues of $1.9 billion.

The parent company, Toronto-based FirstService Corp. (Nasdaq: FSRV), owns 70% of Colliers International, which includes controlling stakes in several other companies under its subsidiary, FirstService Real Estate Advisors. There was no cash component to the integration.

“One of the reasons we’re doing this is to bring clarity to the business model,” says Doug Frye, architect of the restructuring and chairman and CEO of Colliers International, which employs 15,000 people in 480 offices in 61 countries around the world.

The myriad services provided by the company include appraisal and valuation, brokerage, landlord representation, tenant representation, corporate solutions, investment services, project management and real estate management services.

Although much of the work has already been completed, Frye projects that the firms will be fully integrated by the end of the second quarter. The process already has been aided by more than a $20 million investment in an information technology platform that fosters a collaborative environment among the firm’s many parts, according to Frye.

Changing the network

Colliers International was originally launched in Australia in 1976. For years the brokerage operated using a network model, in which affiliate brokerages were owned locally but included the Colliers name in their branding.

In 2004, Toronto-based FirstService Corp. bought controlling interest in Colliers International’s largest member, later named First Service Real Estate Advisors. Since then, First Service Real Estate Advisors has invested $250 million to acquire controlling stakes in FirstService PGP Property Valuation, PKF Hotel and Hospitality Consulting, MHPM Project Leaders and FirstService Williams, which is FirstService Real Estate Advisors’ New York Tri-State area brokerage hub.

Concurrently, FirstService Real Estate Advisors expanded globally acquiring significant equity interests in Colliers International operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Russia and several other countries in Western and Eastern Europe and Asia Pacific.

The acquisitions have typically ranged from 55% to 85% ownership, according to Frye, always leaving some equity at the local level.

“That’s what really creates the alignment. What differentiates the model is you have local people in a local market that have an interest in thinking long term and doing all of the things that an owner does,” Frye explains. At the same time, these equity partners have access to a global platform and services.

As for the remaining 30% of affiliate companies in the Colliers network in which the firm owns no equity, Frye says, “We will continue to look for partners and to purchase and merge with other Colliers firms that are now affiliates.”

Going forward

Where does Colliers International see the most growth this year? “It is in managing troubled assets,” Frye says, “and working with our clients to help them maximize the value of the assets that they have or to dispose of assets if they have a need to liquidate.”

Meanwhile, as many real estate services companies continue cutting back and laying employees off, Colliers is playing the role of the contrarian. For instance, the merger has spawned no job losses. Instead, it has posed an opportunity for the company to invest “heavily” in training, asset management and corporate services, according to Frye.

One casualty of the restructuring, however, will be the loss of long recognized and stalwart names such as PKF Hotel and Hospitality Consulting, whose legacy extends back to 1911 when the old Pannell Kerr Forster CPA firm was started in the basement of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York.

“PKF is a very well-known name, but we believe that Colliers is a very strong name,” Frye emphasizes. “We believe it’s in the best interest of everyone to go to the single brand so that the client has a better understanding of who we are and what services we offer.”

Pasadena,TX: Y&Y Pasadena Holdings, LLC has purchased a two story office building containing approximately 30,000 located at 524 Pasadena Boulevard in Pasadena, Texas.

The Seller, GSL Investments was represented by Marshall Clinkscales and Coy Davidson of Colliers International. The Purchaser was represented by Jonathon Adler, Broker.

Houston: Dr. Bryan Sweeney and Dr. Sherri Corning (Tenant) leased 3,136 square feet of office space at 1331 Gemini in the Clear Lake from Cole Gemini, Ltd (Landlord). Coy Davidson, Senior Vice President with Colliers International represented the tenant. Frank Cole, Vice President of Twenty-Twenty Properties represented the Landlord.

Houston, TX: PNC Mortgage leased 2,834 square feet of office space at The Onyx One Building located at 17225 El Camino Real in Clear Lake.

Howard Watkins with the Dallas office of Transwestern Commercial Services represented PNC Mortgage. Coy Davidson, Senior Vice President of Colliers International represented the Landlord (ONYX One Partnership).

Fremont, CA – Colliers International today announced that the previous home of Mervyn’s western distribution hub has been sold by MDS Realty II, LLC to a user group, Global Investors Team, Inc. The 365,842-square-foot building sits on 31.57 acres at 48200 Fremont Boulevard and is part of the prestigious Bayside Business Park, one of the largest distribution centers in the region. The site had been on the market for less than a year and was one of the largest recorded warehouse vacancies in the Bay Area during 2009.  The financial terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

Colliers Oakland brokers Greig Lagomarsino, Senior Vice President, SIOR, and Todd Severson, Senior Vice President, SIOR, represented the seller. Casey Ricksen, Senior Vice President with Colliers Oakland, was the procuring broker.

“This transaction has very positive ramifications for the health of the warehouse/manufacturing sector,” said Lagomarsino. “Demand for quality warehouse, distribution and manufacturing buildings is increasing as the region’s economy gains momentum. Investors and users are recognizing opportunities in strategically located distribution markets such as Fremont.”

Colliers International has been a part of some of the region’s largest industrial deals of late.  These included the sale of Circuit City’s 610,000-square-foot former distribution center in Livermore, Overton Moore Properties’ 506,490-square-foot lease to Solyndra in Fremont and a 2 million-square-foot East Bay portfolio sale. Lagomarsino and his team have leased over 1.6 million square feet and sold over 3.3 million square feet of space throughout 2009.

“This continues a fourth quarter trend of larger transactions across all product sectors in Silicon Valley,” said Colliers International Senior Managing Partner Jeff Fredericks, SIOR.  “This latest transaction is an important contribution to the health of the Bay Area economy. Together, our East Bay professionals leased and sold more than 6.5 million square feet of industrial assets in 2009, demonstrating growing confidence in our commercial real estate market. We are extremely proud of our firm’s latest accomplishments and to be a part of this transaction.”

Raleigh, NC: Syngenta Biotechnology has paid $10.7 million to buy a building and 50 acres of land that neighbor the company’s Research Triangle Park campus.

Syngenta (NYSE: SYT) purchased the 131,262-square-foot office building at 9 Davis Drive, but real estate sources say the company likely will demolish the structure, which was built in 1967.

The 50 acres put Syngenta is position to expand its RTP campus, but the company has not set a timeline or disclosed details for the future expansion.

Syngenta had announced in early December that it had the 50 acres of land under contract, as well as a new lease agreement for about 100,000 square feet of office space at Keystone Park in Durham to allow for the expansion of the company’s research and operations.

Swiss company Syngenta’s biotechnology arm, Syngenta Biotechnology, is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, and has grown to about 200,000 square feet of laboratories, greenhouses and office space since moving to RTP in 1984. Syngenta Biotechnology currently employs more than 400 people in RTP.

Kathy Gigac and Jim Anthony of Anthony & Co. in Raleigh represented the owners of the 9 Davis Drive building, Rivercrest Realty of Raleigh, in the sale negotiations. Jim Allaire of Colliers Pinkard in Raleigh represented Syngenta in the lease and property acquisition negotiations.

Originally, the sprawling structure at 9 Davis Drive was used for the manufacturing of denim textiles, but it was later converted into office space that used by employees of IBM for about 20 years. IBM (NYSE: IBM) moved out of the building in 2006, and the space has been vacant ever since.

Syngenta Biotechnology does research and development on genetic traits for various crops, including studies of a crop’s tolerance to herbicides and resistance to insects.

Source: Triangle Business Journal

Colliers has orchestrated the sale of the former Payless Shoe Source distribution center in Topeka.

Whitney Kerr Jr., who worked on the deal, said the 812,700-square-foot building had been the largest building available for sale in the region.

Kerr, a principal of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker in Kansas City, represented the seller and the buyer in the transaction, which closed Monday.

The building, at 5040 N.W. U.S. Highway 24, was bought by PTMW Inc., a Topeka manufacturer of railroad signal houses.

“It’s great to get a sale done to a manufacturer in this kind of economy,” Kerr said. “They’re going to add over 100 jobs.”

PTMW, which employs 140, will move from another Topeka location and more than quadruple its square footage with the new space. Kerr would not disclose the purchase price but said the building and about 70 acres of adjacent land had been listed for $11.5 million.

Earlier this year, Kerr also helped Home Depot secure a Topeka location for a new 465,000-square-foot distribution center.

Indianapolis Performance United LLC has bought a 380,000-square-foot warehouse at 5352 Performance Way in Indianapolis. The 9-month-old building is leased by LaCrosse Footwear. The seller, a joint venture of Browning Investments and ProLogis, was represented in the deal by Colliers Investment Services Group.

Dallas, TX: Bexel Corp., a national broadcast equipment and services company, leased 19,285 square feet at Union Bower Business Park, 1001 N. Union Bower Road in Irving. Kevin Brookmole, Matt Thompson and Phil Rosenfeld of Colliers International brokered the lease with Bryan Lewitt and Christopher Isola of Cushman Wakefield.

PASADENA, TX-Sunoco Chemicals has shut down its polypropylene manufacturing facility due to obsolescence and is putting it, and the 150 acres on which it operates, on the market. The total acreage makes this one of the largest industrial listings to hit the market in 2009.

Located at 9802 Fairmont Pkwy. in the Bayport Industrial District, the property contains more than 45,000 square feet of buildings. The asset, which is being sold in its entirety, also is rail-served which Colliers International’s principal Gary A Mabray believes is a positive selling point.

“The focus here is going to be on rail users, as there is rail service already in place,” says Mabray, who has the listing assignment with Colliers International colleagues Michael J. Taetz and Brad Beauchamp. The property has more than 7,000 lineal feet of rail, and is served by the Union Pacific Railroad.

Mabray tells GlobeSt.com that the property will be offered through a traditional marketing effort, at least, at first. There is no deadline on a call for offers at this time. “This isn’t a distressed asset,” he remarks, “but the seller would like to have this off the books in 2010.”

He goes on to say that logical users would be those who could take advantage of the rail service, as well as the pipeline connectivity and proximity to other chemical and plastics manufacturers in the area. According to Sunoco Chemical’s website, the company acquired the polypropylene facility in spring 2003 from Equistar Chemicals.

LOS ANGELES, CA-Office tenants have signed five new leases totaling more than 91,000 square feet in Los Angeles and its submarkets, according to brokers involved in the deals. The largest of the leases is a five-year commitment for 37,772 square feet by entertainment software firm Nexon America Inc. in El Segundo.

Nexon’s space is at 222 N. Sepulveda St. and is valued at approximately $4.4 million, according to Colliers International, which represented the software firm in the deal with building owner Pacific Corporate Towers LLC. Nathan Pellow, senior vice president in Colliers international’s Downtown Los Angeles office, says that Nexon is expanding and relocating from the Mid-Wilshire area because of the lower taxes, close proximity to Los Angeles International Airport and surrounding neighborhood in El Segundo. Pellow and Geoff Ludwig, senior vice president in Colliers International’s Torrance office, represented Nexon.

Pellow adds that Nexon was also attracted to Pacific Corporate Towers because of its amenities, including an on-site restaurant, fitness center and basketball court, along with park-like common areas and plentiful parking. The 24-story building, built in 1974, is part of Pacific Corporate Towers. Nexon America will occupy the second and third floors as its North American headquarters.

In another deal in which Pellow represented the tenant, the law firm of One Bunker Hill Law LLC signed a five-year lease renewal for 15,874 square feet of office space at 601 W. Fifth St. in Downtown Los Angeles. According to Pellow, the law firm will cut costs and the landlord will update the space as part of the new agreement, which is valued at $1.7 million.

The tenant will continue to occupy the eighth floor of the historic building, known as One Bunker Hill. Formerly called the Southern California Edison Building, it was one of world’s first all-electric buildings and the first in the Western US. Constructed in 1931, the building features Art Decco-style architecture and a lobby with more than 25 different types of marble. The landlord, Downtown Properties, LLC, was represented in-house by Eric Bender.

Dublin,CA: Perquest Inc., a fast-growing online payroll company, has struck a deal to move its head offices and entire local operation to Dublin.

By February, Perquest will leave its existing offices in downtown Oakland and head to Dublin Corporate Centre, an office complex that has been landing new tenants lately besides Perquest, including Tria Beauty.

“In terms of recruiting, affordable housing, retaining employees, it sounded good to be out in the Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, San Ramon area,” said Thomas Sinton, Perquest’s president and chief executive officer.

About 75 employees will relocate to Dublin in the move, Sinton said. Perquest scouted sites all over the East Bay before picking Dublin.

“A lot of our employees live in the Tri-Valley already,” Sinton said. “We even have people commuting from Mountain House (near Tracy) and Modesto.”

Perquest agreed to lease 38,000 square feet at 4160 Dublin Boulevard in a deal arranged through Colliers International realty brokers.

The move brings into the Tri-Valley market a company that may well be on a growth path.

“Perquest is the type of company that has the potential to expand in this market,” said Ted Helgans, senior managing partner with Colliers.

Other tech firms located in the area, such as Pleasanton-based Polycom Inc., Sybase Inc. and Workday Inc., along with Dublin-based Taleo Inc., have experienced solid employment growth. And now-defunct PeopleSoft Inc. was agrowth rocket for a number of years before Oracle Corp. bought it.

 ”Perquest also found the labor pool, the area, and the financing package offered by the building owner to be attractive,” Helgans said.

Yet the deal, along with other recent transactions, is a welcome development for a market that has suffered its share of vacant office spaces.

“These tenants are benefiting by taking space that was left over from the old dot-com days,” said Brian Lagomarsino, a Colliers broker. “Perquest and Tria both did that.”

Other deals could arrive before long, brokers said.

“I have a proposal out for another 27,000 square feet in this area,” Lagomarsino said. “Hopefully, we can start to chip away on our vacancy.”

Sinton, who took over in 2006 as Perquest’s CEO, is no stranger to the Tri-Valley area.

In 1986, Sinton founded ProBusiness Services, which was based in Pleasanton. In 2003, Automatic Data Processing (ADP) bought ProBusiness for $441 million.

At the time of the deal, ProBusiness was generating $170 million in yearly sales.

Sinton wouldn’t disclose revenues for privately held Perquest, which was founded in 2001.

But a database check disclosed Perquest landed at least two rounds of venture capital financing during 2009.

The financing totaled $43.1 million. A February round of financing raised $25.8 million from an undisclosed European fund. A July round raised $17.3 million from venture capitalists StarVest Partners, Spring Mountain Capital, Vermillion Capital and Baroda Ventures.

Perquest’s products are Web-based software for company payroll, human resources, 401(k) accounts and benefits operations. Perquest has roughly 1,000 clients serving over 25,000 employees.

“This move provides us with a great vehicle to growth our business,” Sinton said. “We are rapidly growing the business.”

[Source: Jan Buchholz, Phoenix Business Journal] – Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.’s decision to vacate one of downtown Phoenix’s high-rises in the middle of an economic recession will leave a prominent building with a significant hole to fill.  As city and downtown officials herald the deal to combine the mining giant’s corporate headquarters with a Westin hotel in the new One Central Park East building, the potential loser is Mitsubishi Estate New York Inc., which purchased One North Central in March 2008 for $127 million.

With Freeport-McMoRan vacating 185,000 square feet and another major tenant, Ryan Cos., vacating about 20,000 square feet, Mi­tsu­bishi will be faced with 50 percent vacancy — and the challenge of filling the space in a very difficult real estate market.  Ryan, which developed One North Central in part as a build-to-suit for Phelps Dodge Corp. in 2000, is moving into a new building it will finish soon at 3900 E. Camelback Road.  Phelps Dodge merged with Freeport in 2007, creating a much larger mining company.

Colliers International in Phoenix is the leasing agent and representative for the 410,000-square-foot One North Central, but could not get permission from Mitsubishi to discuss that company’s plans to fill the space.  According to research firm CoStar, the building currently is 97 percent leased — but that will drop to 50 percent within six to seven months, when Freeport and Ryan vacate.  “I don’t think the folks who bought One North Central knew what they were getting into.  No question, One North Central will face difficulties,” said Tyler Wilson, senior associate with Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial LLC in Phoenix.

Andrew Cheney, a Phoenix broker with Lee & Associates, is more optimistic. “Mitsubishi will feel pain in the short term, but has the staying power to re-lease it at recessionary lease rates,” he said. [Note: To read the full article, visit Looming vacancies will leave downtown Phoenix high-rise half-empty.]