The Thomas Duke Company is pleased to announce the sale of the Sterling Business Center in Howell, Michigan. The multi-tenant, office/flex building totals 45,698 square feet and was fully occupied at the time of sale. This is the 2nd significant transaction our team has completed for this seller over the past year.
A unique characteristic of the building is approximately 25% of the square footage is comprised of a large shared workspace, which the previous owner would lease to individual tenants in need of a private workspace. The remainder of the building was split into more traditional 2,000 to 6,000 square foot spaces with varying percentages of office/warehouse buildout. This characteristic helped the former owner monetize a portion of the building which would otherwise need significant buildout, but also created a challenge in selling the building because of the additional management needed to oversee a shared office environment.
Eric Szerlag, Mark Szerlag and Blake Macek saw these characteristics as an opportunity- either to let the shared leases expire and repurpose the space, or to underwrite the sale of the property “As-Is” and include the current management expenses of the shared office space concept. The purchaser ultimately went with the latter, and all tenants (large and small) will remain with the building under new ownership.
Investment properties have been the most active property type in this low interest rate, cash-rich environment. All signs point to a continuation of this trend in 2022.
