A 302,262 SQUARE FOOT CARRIER HOTEL

Real estate and investment manager JLL Capital Markets, has just announced the closed sale of the Pittock Block, a 302,262 square foot data center building located in the central business district of Portland.

The acquisition deal which was closed at $326 million, represents the highest priced single-asset sale in Oregon since 2015, according to JLL. In this transaction, JLL represented the seller, Alco Investment Company, and procured the buyer, a joint venture between Harrison Street and 1547 Critical Systems Realty.

“About the same time, the Internet became more widely adopted and Internet Service Providers that were also interested in gaining access to the neutral telecommunications infrastructure, built data centers in the building. As a result, we oversaw a major retrofit of the building in 1999 that set the building up to take on these types of tenants,” said Doug Rosen, Chief Investment Officer of Alco.

The acquired building was developed by a subsidiary of the Northwestern Electric Company and several other investors, primarily as an office building with an electrical and steam generation plant in the three-story sub-basement serving the Portland westside.

Alco Investment Company purchased the property in 1986, and shortly after, several companies expressed interest in leasing space at the building due to its proximity to one of the major telecom companies, whose regional switching hub was located near the building, making the Pittock Block the primary neutral cross-connection point in the Portland Metro.

The Pittock Block now provides a combination of data center space, office suites, telecommunication, and retail space. The building is also one of the internet exchanges (IX) for the Pacific Northwest, hosting cloud-based and e-commerce companies. In addition, the property contains 16 fiber-optic carriers and 179 other service providers exchanging data in its self-managed, carrier-neutral Meet-Me Room.

The Pittock Block is named after Portland publishing magnate Henry L. Pittock, whose house was located on the property until construction.