 | |
| Formerly | Equity Office |
|---|---|
| Company type | Privately-held |
| Founded | 1976 (as Equity Office Properties) |
| Founder | Sam Zell |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
Number of locations | 80 offices |
Key people | Alex Vouvalides, [1] CEO |
| Website | www |
EQ Office (originally Equity 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]
Notable properties owned by the company are as follows:
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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.
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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.
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