Transamerica sale: ‘It’s progressing’

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About six months after going on the market Baltimore‘s tallest building remains for sale.

But the 35-storyTransamerica building, located at 100 Light St., may not remain on the market for much longer. Jonathan Carpenter, managing director/principal at DTZ‘s Capital Markets, declined to discuss any details of a possible deal for the building.

“It’s progressing,” Carpenter said.

A commercial real estate executive with knowledge of the market said Corporate Office Properties Trust has interest in the building, but that April’s riots slowed progress toward making a deal. A spokeswoman for COPT said she could not confirm or deny any interest in the property because of the firm’s status as a publicly traded company.

The building was known as the Legg Mason Tower until 2009, when that company relocated to Harbor East. Transamerica Life Insurance Co. signed a 10-year lease at the building that started in November 2011 and currently has the branding rights on the tower.

The building, which is in the city’s thriving office submarket along Pratt Street corridor near the Inner Harbor, is 94 percent leased and features tenants such as DTZ, Miles & Stockbridge and Ober|Kaler.  Current owners,  Lexington Realty Trust, completed $44 million in renovations to the building in 2007 that included the construction of a 550-car parking garage across the street.

When the building sells, it will be one of the largest office transactions in Baltimore since Columbia-based COPT purchased 250 W. Pratt St. in March for $63.5 million. That 24-story Class A office building, with its tiered steps down, is one of the most recognizable buildings in Baltimore with views overlooking Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It was recently branded with a Pandora sign as part of that company agreeing to lease 87,265 square feet of space over five floors.

The downtown office market has seen improvements in recent years as the economy recovers from the 2008 financial crisis. According to the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore’s annual report released in the spring, the vacancy rate in the area’s Central Business District ticked up to 16.8 percent from 16.1 percent the year before. Commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle reported at the end of the first quarter that Baltimore’s overall office market had a 14.6 percent total vacancy rate and an average direct asking rent of $20.76.  Currently, the average rent in the traditional Central Business District is $22.77 per square foot.

Office market performance in the city has varied from submarket to submarket in the one-mile radius from the intersection of Light and Pratt Streets. Buildings in areas like Harbor East and the Pratt Street corridor continue to outperform areas west of Charles Street, which has much older building stock and continues to struggle with vacancy rates closer to 20 percent.