Oakland, CA – Today, Ellis Partners, Transbay Holdings and DivcoWest announced that they have closed the sale of their ground leased interests and fee-owned development sites at Jack London Square to the CIM Group. The transaction covers 425,000 square feet of existing office and retail space in six buildings as well as two land sites that were recently entitled for up to 665 residential units. Terms of the transaction were not announced.
“We are very proud of our role in the renaissance of Jack London Square over the last fourteen years. Through good economic times and bad, the dedication of many has helped further the Square’s attraction as a world-class dining, entertainment, tourism and family destination on Oakland’s unique waterfront,” said Jim Ellis, Managing Principal at Ellis Partners LLC. “We are enormously grateful for our many years of partnership with the Port of Oakland and City of Oakland, the expert execution by our on-site property management team from Cushman and Wakefield, and the many affiliations and friendships that we’ve built with our tenants and the Jack London and Oakland community. Of course, we are also very thankful for the both the capital and strategic contributions of DivcoWest who joined us in shaping the evolution of Jack London Square since 2010,” said Melinda Ellis Evers, Managing Principal at Ellis Partners. “We are confident that CIM will continue to shepherd this beloved place with the care and attention that our entire team has brought to their work for so many years,” Evers added.
The team at Ellis Partners led work on Jack London Square that transformed the once sleepy area into a vibrant mecca for the region. Ellis led the efforts to build two new office and retail buildings, rehabilitate properties across the nine-block neighborhood, recruit high quality retail, food and entertainment entrepreneurs, and maintain a close connection with the community through a diverse slate of dozens of events held at Jack London Square throughout the year, including Pedal Fest, Waterfront Flicks, Eat Real and Dancing Under the Stars. “It has been an honor to be part of the Jack London Square story for so many years and I look forward to watching the Square continue to evolve in the years to come”, said Jim Falaschi of Transbay Holdings.
Stuart Shiff, CEO of Divco West, discussed the recent momentum at Jack London Square, “In just the past twelve months, the project has seen full occupancy in its office space, including the arrival of Sunset Magazine’s headquarters. We have added new tenants in each of the commercial buildings, seen the huge popularity of Plank as an entertainment destination, and received the approval by the City of Oakland for new residential development on two of our remaining lots. We continue to be big believers in the future of Oakland and are proud to have joined Ellis Partners in the Jack London Square revival over the last five years.”
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About DivcoWest:
DivcoWest was founded by Stuart Shiff, who founded DivcoWest Properties in 1993. DivcoWest is a vertically-integrated operating company with approximately 95 employees that provides asset, property and construction management and leasing services and has offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Boston. DivcoWest is comprised of a dedicated group of professionals with extensive experience in sourcing, structuring, acquiring, financing, developing, redeveloping, managing, leasing and selling primarily commercial real estate and other real estate-related assets. DivcoWest employs a disciplined approach to investing on behalf of a broad base of U.S. and non-U.S. public and corporate pension funds, institutional investors and high net worth individuals, with a focus on creating value through prudent acquisitions, active management and well-timed sales. www.divcowest.com.