by Ben van der Meer
Sacramento Business Journal
A real estate investment firm from San Jose has made its first entry into the Sacramento market by buying a five-story office building in Point West.
Insight Realty Co. closed escrow last week on the 155,000-square-foot building at 2180 Harvard St. Dennis Randall, a partner with Insight, said his company felt it was the right time to look at secondary markets like Sacramento rather than primary markets like Silicon Valley.
“Our belief is the market is maturing here,” he said. “We think institutional investors are going to start looking at secondary markets and value them more appropriately.”
The Harvard St. office is about 90 percent leased now. But Randall said the building will be rebranded as “Harvard Square” as part of an effort to re-lease about 45,000 square feet of expected vacant space from expiring leases. “Basic blocking and tackling on leasing up,” he said.
Randall said he was encouraged when his firm polled current tenants and found unanimous support for new ownership and marketing.
“We’ll be more aggressive about marketing,” he said.
Insight is not stopping with one purchase. Randall said his firm is in negotiations to buy a second asset in the Sacramento region, though he did not provide further details.
According to public records, a limited partnership in Newport Beach previously owned the building. The sales price was not available. Insight worked with local developer Patrick Molloy and his firm Gavden Investments to buy the building.