NBP Capital has acquired a three-building creative office portfolio in Portland from Swift Real Estate Partners for $19M. All of the properties are older structures recently renovated to modern creative standards.

The deal includes the sale of the Merchant Hotel, a four-story, 56K SF creative office building at 222 NW Davis St. originally built in 1888 and most recently renovated in 2017.

Also part of the portfolio is the Captain Couch, a two-story, 17K SF creative office building at 24-32 NW Second Ave. developed in 1912, and Norton House, a two-story, 13K SF creative office building dating from 1875 at 31-53 NW First Ave.

During its ownership, Swift did extensive capital improvements to the properties. The Merchant Hotel received the largest renovation, with a multimillion-dollar seismic upgrade and the addition of tenant amenity spaces, including a tenant lounge, a conference center and a bike storage room.

Swift also completed cosmetic upgrades to the interior common areas at the Norton House and Captain Couch buildings. The upgrades, according to Swift, enhanced the overall profiles of the buildings while preserving their historical features — the kind of authenticity hard to find in newer buildings.

Charles Safley and Trevor Kafoury of CBRE’s Portland office represented both the seller and buyer, while Nick Santangelo of CBRE’s Portland office, and Brad Zampa, Michael Walker and Megan Woodring of CBRE’s San Francisco office, secured the $17.5M acquisition bridge financing using 70% LTC floating rate debt.

“Investors and developers have taken an interest in Old Town,” Safley said. "There's a flurry of new capital investing in this district. Everywhere you turn, there's planned development, new construction, renovation projects and institutional investment coming in.”

According to NBP Capital, it will pick up where Swift Real Estate Partners left off and continue to upgrade the buildings to further enhance them as creative office environments.