San Francisco-based Ellis Partners has acquired the 19,000 square foot building located at 4090 Halleck Street in Emeryville for $6.3 million, or just over $331 per square foot, according to sources familiar with the acquisition of the property.

Ellis Partners would not comment on what it paid for the property. The company used its own capital to acquire this asset.

The seller of the building was an end-user that was in the art re-printing business. It had sold the business a couple of years ago and no longer had any use for the building. The seller was represented in the sale by San Jose-based HealthMed Realty. The person working on the sale for the company was Kevin Heravi, co-founder of the firm.

Ellis Partners sees this investment as an opportunity for the company add value in the property. “Ellis Partners is excited to be purchasing another iconic building in Emeryville. We will be implementing an adaptive reuse of the property similar to what we did with EmeryTech,” says Andrew Pomerantz, an asset manager with Ellis Partners.

The new owner of the building is planning to renovate and expand the property up to 24,000 square feet. Given this timing, the leasing efforts on the building will likely get underway sometime during the first quarter of next year. No leasing broker has been hired yet for this assignment. “It’s our expectation that the property will become leased to one or two tenants. The target would be technology firms or maybe a lab or R&D companies,” says Jim Ellis, a managing principal with Ellis Partners.

The new owner believes that 4090 Halleck will fill a need for smaller tenants. “There currently are not a lot of options for small to medium size tenants in Oakland, and our property in Emeryville gives them an option. Another factor is rent is less in Emeryville than in Oakland. This situation was reversed 10 years ago,” said Ellis.

As appeared in The Registry by Jon Peterson.