John Kilroy
Analyst · Morgan Stanley
Thanks, Tyler. Hello, everyone and thank you for joining us today. Before we get into the quarterly - KRC’s quarterly activities, I’d like to say on behalf of all of us here at Kilroy that we know many of you and your families and colleagues have been hit with a horrible storm and we want you to know that everyone affected is in our thoughts and prayers.
Going back to Kilroy, our forward momentum continues at KRC as we are making significant progress on all fronts. We've signed 558,000 square feet of office leases since the end of the second quarter, at cash rent 7% higher than the prior rent and increased our pipeline of office LOIs to approximately 670,000 square feet. The cash rents on the LOIs are 25% higher than the prior rents. We made significant progress at our 410,000 square foot, 360 Third Street Building in San Francisco, which is now 80% committed, up from 37% last quarter. We executed a letter of intent at one of our Brannan Street Buildings for over $60 per square foot on a full service gross basis, which equates to more than $50 a foot on a triple net basis. Our pro forma rent for that building was in the $30 triple net range.
For the first time since 2008, we estimate that rent levels in our overall portfolio are now at current market levels. We reached definitive agreements to sell our entire Orange County industrial portfolio at a very attractive price. We closed the acquisition of a West LA office building, the acquisition of a site in Hollywood for a mixed-use development, and the acquisition of a site in San Francisco for the development of a 27-story office tower. And finally, while we remain cautious about the general macro environment, we are pursuing select additional acquisitions and pre-lease development opportunities that could add to our near-term and medium-term growth.
Let me start with some comments about our markets and then I will review our latest acquisition and growing development activities. We are seeing meaningful improvement in all of our markets at varying rates. In San Francisco, there has been a significant increase in traffic with more tours and visible demand and with the bulk of the activity in the 25,000 square foot to 75,000 square foot range. CAC, the large brokerage outfit in San Francisco has reported a continual inflow of tenants into San Francisco as it has become a have-to-have location for knowledge based companies.
Given the very limited supply of desirable space available in the SOMA, we have seen rent grow more than 90% on a triple net basis since 2009. Our recent leasing activity is with tenants in a variety of industries, including technology, entertainment, sports, advertising, software, and retail services.
After a slower second quarter, the Peninsula and Silicon Valley have rebounded with 700,000 square feet of net absorption in the third quarter, the highest volume since 2001. Brokers are reporting that 2012 absorption should be on track to equal a very strong 2011. Most significant large blocks of quality space have been taken, driving rental rates up more than 34% on a triple net basis over a one-year period.
We increasingly see pre-lease development opportunities in the better Peninsula, Silicon Valley submarkets. We expect continued demand and rental growth in the Bay area well into next year and beyond, although it is obviously harder to forecast too far out.
The Seattle markets are also performing extremely well, as they are leading the nation in job growth. Vacancy rates are falling and rents are increasing. Southern California is more mixed, although we are seeing a lot of activity in West LA and significant interest in our Hollywood opportunities that we will touch on later in the call.
Finally, San Diego has experienced its twelfth straight quarter of positive absorption and we are making significant leasing progress, both in Del Mar and in Mission Valley.
Moving to our latest acquisition, in early October we acquired Tribeca West, a 151,000 square foot, 97% leased office complex directly across the street from our headquarters building in West LA. The purchase price was $73 million, and the first year cap rate is 6.3%. The multi-tenant property was significantly improved and upgraded by the previous owners.
Together with KRC’s recent Sunset Media Center and Columbia Square acquisitions in Hollywood and our other Westside properties, including Westside Media Center and Santa Monica Media Center, we have created a significant platform of media-related properties in Los Angeles that will cater to KRC’s expanding roster of entertainment-oriented tenants, generating marketing synergies for the company across the region.
As we have discussed for several quarters now, core asset pricing has become increasingly aggressive in top West Coast markets. Given current market pricing, we don’t anticipate being able to acquire high-quality core assets in scale at attractive returns. We will continue to pursue the occasional core building, but in general we are primarily focused on value-add and highly accretive development opportunities.
We are proceeding with discipline and pursuing opportunities with attractive economic returns in locations with transportation and retail amenities in markets with strong fundamentals and visible demand. We will develop new product that is ideally suited for what the market wants and will pay for. We won’t get over our skis in terms of spec development, and in most cases intend to have significant preleasing before starting a project.
Let me quickly review the status of our near-term pipeline that we discussed on our last call. 690 Middlefield, a $200 million, 341,000 square foot fully leased office campus in Mountain View is under construction and on schedule. 333 Brannan Street, a site in one of the strongest sections of SOMA is forecasted to receive final entitlements in 2013. We bought the land at an extremely attractive price and plan to start an $85 million, 175,000 square foot office building late next year that includes all the features, amenities and systems that the tech and media tenants need to accommodate their increased densities. As I mentioned rents have - here are in the $50 range on a triple net basis, 25% above our underwriting.
And we have 2 projects that are pending. First, we expect to close on the acquisition of a 100% pre-lease development site in Silicon Valley by the end of the year. We will build a 90,000 square foot office building for a tech tenant under a 10-year lease for a projected investment of approximately $45 million. Second, with respect to the Caltrain adjacent site in Redwood City that we were awarded last quarter, we are working with the City on the development agreement for a 300,000 square foot, $150 million office project. We are on schedule to acquire the land early next year.
Now let me review our 2 new fully entitled development opportunities that we have added to our pipeline since our - since last quarter’s call. Both will be state-of-the-market product with unique benefits, have an attractive cost basis and be deliverable in this cycle.
In Southern California, we announced earlier this month that we acquired Columbia Square, an historic media campus encompassing an entire city block located in the heart of Hollywood, two blocks from the corner of Sunset and Vine. The 4.7 acre site is fully entitled for the development of an office, retail and multifamily mixed-use project under a 15-year development agreement that includes 3 existing buildings, including the original home of the CBS network’s Los Angeles radio and television operations. KRC acquired this site in an off-market transaction for $65 million and we currently expect to invest an additional $250 million upon full development of all phases. Our plan is to create a mixed-use campus that preserves the historic character, while establishing an entirely new center of gravity for the region’s many entertainment and media companies. Working in phases, we’ll develop the 3 existing buildings, which total about 96,000 square feet, and develop approximately another 500,000 square feet of office, retail and residential space.
We are big believers in the Hollywood market, which has received billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure and amenities over the past decade. It offers all the ingredients for the urban ‘live, work and play’ lifestyle with proximity to public transportation, significant rail amenities, retail amenities and housing options. Prospective tenants are telling us that they have a strong interest in the proposed project, given the paucity of alternatives in Hollywood. We expect to commence redevelopment of the historic buildings and initial construction of the office component in early to mid-2013, with completion of phase one targeted for 2015. The estimated investment in the project upon the build-out of all phases, including land, will total approximately $315 million.
And in Northern California, just last week we announced the acquisition of 350 Mission Street, a 0.43 acre fully entitled development site located in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission Street Corridor, a premier location for both technology and media tenants as well as traditional users moving from North of Market Street. The site is at the corner of Mission and Fremont streets, in close proximity to BART and immediately adjacent to the new Transbay Transit Center. The property is scheduled to be LEED Platinum certified, the first ground-up development property in the city to receive this designation. We purchased the site for approximately $52 million and we expect to invest an additional $200 million developing a 400,000 square foot, 27-story office tower that adapts our open plan workspace concept to a high-rise office environment. Given that the building is fully approved and the plans are 85% complete, we can start next year and deliver the building in early 2015.
This is a rare opportunity for KRC to create a cutting-edge office tower in one of the nation’s hottest office markets at a cost basis that is highly attractive relative to existing Class A properties that have recently sold for over $800 per square foot. And given the scarcity of large contiguous spaces available in this market today, we believe there are strong opportunities to pre-lease a substantial portion of the building. In fact, we are already having multiple discussions with several prospective tenants.
The Skidmore Owings & Merrill design features a concrete and glass structure with open floor plates, high ceilings, abundant natural light and energy efficient operating systems. I point this out because these are the features that the high-density usage type tenants, knowledge based companies and collaborative work spaces require. The heightening impact of the building’s prominent location, we are creating a 50-foot open area entry lobby featuring a 40 foot by 75 foot electronic media display, the first of its kind in San Francisco.
In summary, the 6 development projects I have just reviewed have the - have an aggregate total investment of approximately $1.1 billion, the estimated total investment per square foot in the mid-$500 range and the average projected stabilized cash returns in the 7% to 7.5% range are very attractive when compared to where market pricing for existing product is today. This is highly accretive to our earnings and creates a significant value for our franchise. We have the team in place, the development experience, and the operational controls of balance sheet to execute on this pipeline.
But I also want to reiterate that we are approaching these opportunities with an abundance of caution. We’re developing in phases, as appropriate. We’re strongly biased to starting projects that are pre-leased or offer the potential successful pre-leasing and we’re choosing projects that fully leverage our original operating platforms, providing a return on investments, we’re making a talent in local market experience.
Now, before we move on to Jeff’s market review, let me give you some color on the sale of our industrial portfolio. We are selling the portfolio in 2 tranches, are including our largely vacant Camarillo buildings in the sale. We expect both transactions to close by the end of the year, generating gross proceeds of approximately $355 million. Property dispositions and capital recycling remain important parts of our business strategy to create long-term value. As we have mentioned on previous calls, we expect significant additional sales in the next year or so.
All in all, it remains a very exciting and active time for us at KRC. Our core real estate markets are for the most part experiencing steady economic improvement, positive year-over-year job creation, and growing demand for high-quality workspace. We’re seeing general improvements in rent levels, strong growth in the highest demand locations and an increasing willingness among large organizations to once again make long-term real estate commitments. These factors should help drive internal growth over the near-term, while our development activities will drive external growth over the medium to longer-term.
Our visibility and credibility as a leader in West Coast commercial real estate is driving more opportunities into our path. We’ve built the organizational strength and capacity from Seattle to San Diego to take full advantage of attractive opportunities as they emerge. And we are approaching these opportunities with a financial discipline and focus on long-term value creation that have always defined our core business strategy.
With that, Jeff will review our markets. Jeff?