 | |
| Formerly | Equity Office |
|---|---|
| Company type | Privately-held |
| Founded | 1976 (as Equity Office Properties) |
| Founder | Sam Zell |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
Key people | Alex Vouvalides, [1] CEO |
| Website | www |
EQ Office is a real estate investment company that owns 80 office properties comprising 40 million square feet. The company is owned by funds managed by The Blackstone Group. The company was formerly known as Equity Office.
The company was founded in 1976 by Sam Zell. [2] In 1997, the company acquired Lakeside Square in North Dallas for $60 million. [3] In 2003, the company gained control of the San Francisco Ferry Building. [4]
In 2005, the company sold 5 buildings in San Francisco for $400 million. [5] The company also acquired a portfolio in California for $263 million.[ citation needed ] In 2006, the company acquired Pointe O'Hare I, an office building near O'Hare International Airport for $59 million [6] and a property in Boca Raton, Florida for $29.5 million. [7] The company also acquired half-interest in two Miami office buildings for $249.8 million. [8]
In February 2007, after a bidding war with Vornado Realty Trust, funds managed by The Blackstone Group completed the acquisition of the company for $39 billion and sold 8 buildings to affiliates of Harry Macklowe for $7 billion. [9] In April 2007, the company sold its portfolio in Washington, D.C. to Beacon Capital Partners for $6.5 billion. [10] Later in 2013, the company acquired the Hughes Center, an office and retail development in Las Vegas, for $347 million. [11]
In January 2014, the company sold 1-3 Center Plaza in Boston to Shorenstein Properties for $307 million. [12] In April 2014, the company sold 28 State Street for $345 million. [13] In December 2014, the company sold its portfolio in Silicon Valley to Hudson Pacific Properties for $3.5 billion. [14] In 2015, the company acquired the Willis Tower for $1.3 billion. [15]
In 2017, the company sold a property in San Jose, California for $82 million. [16] The company also sold a two-building medical office campus in San Diego, California for $97 million. [17] In June 2018, the company changed its name from Equity Office to EQ Office. [18] In 2019, the company purchased Seattle office buildings U.S. Bank Center and Docusign Tower for $1.2 billion. [19]
In December 2024, EQ Office merged with ShopCore Properties, another Blackstone-owned real estate company specializing in retail properties. This merger created a diversified real estate operating platform focused on both retail and office assets. As part of this consolidation, Alex Vouvalides, who was already serving as CEO of EQ Office, assumed leadership of the combined entity. The merger aimed to leverage shared talent, local market insights, operating expertise, and cost efficiencies across the two companies. Prior to the merger, ShopCore managed over 65 shopping centers totaling approximately 14 million square feet across 15 states, while EQ Office operated more than 20 million square feet of office space in major U.S. markets.
Notable properties owned by the company are as follows:
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman Brothers. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate across the globe. Blackstone is also active in credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, secondaries, growth equity, and insurance solutions. As of May 2024, Blackstone has more than US$1 trillion in total assets under management, making it the world's largest alternative investment firm.
Samuel Zell was an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist primarily engaged in real estate investment. Companies founded by or controlled by Zell include Equity Residential, Equity International, EQ Office, Covanta, Tribune Media, and Anixter.
BXP, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in premier workplaces in Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned or had interests in 188 commercial real estate properties, aggregating approximately 53.3 million net rentable square feet.
Tishman Speyer is an American multinational corporation based at 45 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. The conglomerate invests in high-profile real estate properties, has developed multiple buildings around the world, and has owned famous buildings and land plots, including the Chrysler Building.
100 Montgomery Street, also known as the Equitable Life Building, is an office tower located in the financial district of San Francisco, California. The 354-foot (108 m), 25-floor tower was completed in 1955 and served as headquarters to the Equitable Life Insurance Company.
Equity Residential is a United States–based publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in apartments.
Thomas Properties Group was a real estate investment trust based in City National Plaza in Los Angeles, California.
Regency Centers Corporation is a real estate investment trust based in Jacksonville, Florida and is one of the largest operators of shopping centers with grocery stores as anchor tenants. As of October 21, 2020, the company owned 415 properties comprising 56 million square feet of space. Notable properties owned by the company include Serramonte Center and a 30% interest in Village District.
Docusign Tower, previously the Wells Fargo Center, is a skyscraper in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. Originally named First Interstate Center when completed in 1983, the 47-story, 574-foot (175 m) tower is now the ninth-tallest building in the city, and has 24 elevators and 941,000 square feet (87,400 m2) of rentable space. The design work was done by The McKinley Architects, and it is owned by Chicago-based EQ Office.
U.S. Bank Center, formerly U.S. Bank Centre, is a 44-story skyscraper in Seattle, in the U.S. state of Washington. The building opened as Pacific First Centre and was constructed from 1987 to 1989. At 607 feet (185 m), it is currently the eighth-tallest building in Seattle and was designed by Callison Architecture, who is also headquartered in the building. It contains 943,575 sq ft (87,661 m2) of office space.
Trizec Properties, Inc., previously known as TrizecHahn Corporation, was a real estate investment trust headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It was originally a Canadian company. The name is derived from the initials of the three groups (Tri) that formed Trizec Properties Ltd: Zeckendorf, Eagle Star, and Covent Gardens.
Lincoln Center is a multi-building office complex in Tigard, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1981, the six-building complex was built over a decade and includes the 12-story Lincoln Tower, the tallest building in Washington County. Located on S.W. Greenburg Road at Oregon Route 217, Lincoln Center is adjacent to the Washington Square shopping mall in the Portland metropolitan area.
Umpqua Bank Plaza is a 19-story office building in Downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Faced with red brick, the structure is 263 feet (80 m) tall and has 265,000 square feet (24,600 m2) of space. Opened in 1975 at a cost of $16 million, the building was designed by Wolff, Zimmer, Gunsul, Frasca. Originally named the Benjamin Franklin Plaza after tenant Benj. Franklin Savings and Loan, the building was later renamed after current tenant Umpqua Holdings Corporation.
Prologis, Inc. is a real estate investment trust headquartered in San Francisco, California that invests in logistics facilities. The company was formed through the merger of AMB Property Corporation and Prologis in June 2011, which made Prologis the largest industrial real estate company in the world. As of December 2022, the company owned 5,495 buildings comprising about 1.2 billion square feet in 19 countries across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. According to The Economist, its business strategy is focused on warehouses that are located close to huge urban areas where land is scarce. It serves about 6,600 tenants. Prologis began to expand its non-real estate business, Essentials, in 2022, offering customers solar power, racking systems, forklifts, generators, EV charging infrastructure, and other logistics tech equipment for purchase.
Beacon Capital Partners is an American real estate investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1998, after Beacon Properties, Inc., Beacon's predecessor, was acquired by EQ Office in a $4 billion transaction. The company focuses on office and life science properties in major markets across the United States. Its European presence formerly included buildings in London, Paris, and Luxemburg.
RXR Realty is a vertically integrated real estate and infrastructure owner, investor, operator, and developer headquartered in New York City. The firm’s portfolio of commercial, residential, multifamily, infrastructure, and logistics projects includes 91 commercial real estate properties and investments held across the country as of 2023. RXR is a privately held company that employs around 450 professionals with experience in operations, real estate development, construction, investment, and asset management.
Brookfield Property Partners L.P., headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, owns office buildings and shopping centers / shopping malls as well as minority limited partner interests in investment funds sponsored by affiliates that invest in other types of commercial property.
TruAmerica Multifamily is a Los Angeles-based multifamily investment firm that specializes in the acquisition and renovation of large class B apartment properties across the United States. Since its founding in 2013 by real estate investor Robert E. Hart, the company has acquired and/or asset manages a portfolio of more than 55,000 apartment units valued at roughly $16.1 billion.
CIM Group invests in commercial property on behalf of large institutions such as pensions. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned $29.2 billion worth of commercial property.
Hudson Pacific Properties is a real estate investment trust with 15.8 million square feet of office buildings, 1.5 million square feet of sound stages, and undeveloped rights for 3 million square feet of additional commercial property. Its properties are on the West Coast of the United States and Vancouver. It is organized in Maryland and headquartered in Los Angeles. It is the largest independent operator of sound stages in Los Angeles.