KOIN Center History: The Paul Principle
One of the largest commercial real estate transactions in Portland history was completed at the end of December 2009 when American Pacific International Capital purchased the office portion of KOIN Center. The KOIN Center is Portland’s ninth largest office building with 415,425 square feet and its largest mixed-use project in a single building. While terms of the deal have not been revealed, the Oregonian reported that the sale price was between $50 and $60 million. This is approximately half of the $109 million that the California Public Employees Pension System (CalPERS) paid for the same property in 2007, and less than the $70 million loan which encumbered it.
After CalPERS defaulted on the loan, the mortgage holder, New York Life Insurance Inc. sued to take control of the building and completed the transaction with APIC. Calpers and CommonWealth Partners LLC were joint owners of the office portion of the building and decided to submit a deed in lieu of foreclosure after Ater Wynne LLP vacated 50,000 square feet in the building, relocating to the Lovejoy Building, a mixed-use complex in the Pearl District that also houses a new Safeway and rental apartments. The story of the KOIN Center’s development and transitions, with its colorful cast of characters, makes instructive reading for students of Portland’s urban development history.
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