BY PERRY BROTHERS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Chiquita Center, one of the most recognizable office towers on Cincinnati's skyline, has been put on the seller's block. The building's owner, Atlanta-based ERE Yarmouth, said Wednesday that it has hired CB Richard Ellis to market the 29-story office building at 250 E. Fifth St.
"We want to take advantage of the . . . strong demand that exists in the marketplace . . . for institutional assets of this quality," said Joe Thomas manager of Yarmouth Capital Properties, the limited partnership that holds Chiquita Center.
The tower, with 537,400 square feet of Class A, or premium, office space, was built in 1984 during a construction boom that brought downtown other modern skyscrapers, such as the Atrium One and Atrium Two complex. The tower is the sixth-largest downtown; the 312 Walnut St. building is Cincinnati's largest, with nearly 868,000 square feet of space.
The Chiquita Center was sold in 1994 by Prudential Insurance to Yarmouth Capital Properties (YCP I Cincinnati LP) for $75 million. The Hamilton County auditor's office has appraised the Chiquita Center at $70.2 million.
The Chiquita Center houses the headquarters of Chiquita Brands International Inc. and several other high-profile tenants, including American Annuity Group, Eagle-Picher Industries, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, Information Resources and the law firm Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur.
Ninety-two percent of the building's space is leased.
Early this year, Eagle-Picher signed to move its 40-employee headquarters operation into 20,000 square feet at the tower from the 580 Building -- another major office building downtown. The estimated value of that lease was $2.5 million.
Mr. Thomas said the strength of the Cincinnati market makes it an opportune time to sell the office building.
"YPC I was designed to have a relatively short life (and) has undertaken a number of similarly opportunistic sales in other markets," he said.
ERE Yarmouth is member of the Lend Lease Group, a real estate fund management company with operations on five continents. Worldwide, Lend Lease has more than $30 billion in real estate under management.
