ST. LOUIS — A Los Angeles investor has purchased the Shaw Park Plaza office building in Clayton and plans to redevelop it into a more lifestyle-focused office building with modern common areas better suited for the new hybrid office environment.
Tryperion Partners purchased the 280,000-square-foot structure at 1 N. Brentwood Blvd. for an undisclosed price in a deal that closed Thursday. Toronto-based property management firm BentallGreenOak previously owned the building through a real-estate fund, Multi-Employer Property Trust. The latest appraisal for the building was $47.2 million.
Tryperion plans to invest $12 million to upgrade the building's common areas, including converting the ground-floor retail space that was a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse into an “amenities center” for tenants that will feature 9,000 square feet of new common areas including a modern fitness center, cafe, tenant lounge and conference facilities.
Modern touches like that will be key to encouraging employees to want to come to work in a world were they can also work from home, Tryperion co-founder and Head of Asset Management Joe Kessel told the Business Journal. The thinking is that if offices modernize to provide amenities like fitness centers and lounges where employees could work from anywhere in the building, working from the office becomes more attractive.
“We’re just a big believer in the Clayton market and specifically, but more generally, believe that office demand will be disproportionately gravitating towards more amenitized, walkable office locations with walkable amenities or amenities within the properties,” Kessel said.
True to its name, the 15-story Shaw Park Plaza is directly across the street from Shaw Park, and that walkability and access to amenities is something Tryperion has looked for in other properties it’s acquired and successfully upgraded in suburbs like Carmel, Indiana, and Chandler, Arizona, that Kessel sees as similar to Clayton.
Other than the ground floor, Shaw Park Plaza is all Class A office space, and existing common areas will also be upgraded to more modern standards. Upgrades to office space will also be finished as new tenants move in.
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