Orange County firm sells billion-dollar office portfolio to Singaporean trust

KBS Capital Markets Group, an investment firm based in Newport Beach, has sold a nationwide office portfolio for $1.2 billion a trust based in Singapore named Prime US REIT.

The deal includes 11 properties in nine states with nearly 3.4 million square feet of space. The offices are part of the 30-property portfolio, KBS Real Estate Investment Trust III, which is 94-percent leased to tenants.

KBS declined to comment.

The properties are located in California, Utah, Colorado, Missouri, Texas, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia. That includes a 217,000-square-foot office tower at the Towers of Emeryville office park, located near Oakland.

The deal has been in the works since at least 2017. The Real Deal reported that KBS opened an IPO in Singapore’s stock market that same year. And in 2016, a KBS-managed REIT became the first U.S.-based trust to raise bonds in Israel.

KBS manages properties throughout the country, including in Los Angeles County, Florida, and New York City, where it has secured some of the largest trades and leases of the year in the Big Apple. Last month, KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II sold a 139,500-square-foot property in West Palm Beach for $40 million. That same trust owns Union Bank Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles, but Union Bank is reportedly vacating about half its space there.