COS Capital - Portman US und I completed the Charlotte project

In June 2018, the office building development project of 615 South College Road in Charlotte, North Carolina, invested by COS-Portman USF I, officially completed its exit, with a total price of USD$222 million. The buyer is a famous US pension insurance agency represented by CBRE Global Investors. The transaction also set a record high unit price for the Charlotte office market at a price of $590/square feet. The tenants are well established financial institutions such as Regions Bank, large-scale startups such as WeWork, as well as professional agencies such as BDO and Direct Digital. The final performance of this project well exceeded the expectations, and the exit price and profit were much better than underwriting, which offered investors a lucrative return.

The project cost USD$127 million and was co-invested by COAMI, represented by COS Capital, and Portman Holdings in August 2015. PCCP provided loans to this project. The building is 18 floors, and has the total construction area of about 390,000 square feet and leasing area of about 370,000 square feet, a standard floor area of 25,000-27,000 square feet, and over 1,400 parking spaces.

Charlotte is one of the target markets under COS Capital's investment strategy for a long time. As the third greatest investment potential city in the US ranked by PWC in 2015, Charlotte is the second largest financial center in the US, and has seven headquarters of Fortune Global 500 companies, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Duke Energy, and etc. Since 2008, sustained economic recovery and growth have reduced unemployment and office vacancy rates to historically low levels, while rents have also risen. At the time of investment, the vacancy rate of Grade A office buildings in the city center was 7.8%, and the occupancy rate was as high as 99.5% for the four newly completed office buildings. While the demand for high-quality office space was strong, the supply of Grade A office buildings available for rent was close to zero. COS Capital seized the opportunity and invested in the development of this project in downtown Charlotte. The project's final performance proves this strategy. In addition, reliable partners, close communication with all parties in the project process, professional operations management team and a little luck were also essential for the success of this investment.