San Diego HP Investors, led by former Carlyle Group investment manager Sumeet Parekh, just entered the Portland market with the purchase of Block 90, a 48k SF creative office mixed-use property in the city's historic Pearl District. And Sumeet tells us the price per pound for the fully leased property—$12.9M or $279/SF—is actually a big discount in a market that has seen stabilized assets trade in excess of $400/SF. The value-add key? “The rents that are in place are materially below today's market rents,” he says. And it's not the last asset HP Investors plans to pick up in Portland. “Once we identify a market, we just buy everything that just makes sense,” Sumeet says.

It's part of HP's strategy to bulk up on West Coast projects, especially in San Diego, the Bay Area and Portland. Most recently, HP sold the freshly stabilized Hawaiian Gardens Town Center, a 125k SF retail center in LA, for $33M. And it continues to focus on co-developing Makers Quarter—where Alliance Realty Partners is moving forward on Broadstone Makers Quarter, a 269-unit apartment complex. Sumeet says HP is looking to break ground next year on a 40k SF boutique office building with 10k SF of street-level retail on spec, with partners planning to launch a high-rise multifamily tower at the site next year as well.