The Wells Fargo tower in downtown Raleigh has a new owner

The 30-story Wells Fargo tower in downtown Raleigh has changed hands.

Atlanta-based Preferred Apartment Communities (PAC) said in a press release Wednesday that it had acquired the 559,591-square-foot office building at 150 Fayetteville St. from HighBrook Investors.

PAC said it financed the acquisition through a non-recourse first mortgage loan with New York Life Insurance Company valued at around $114.4 million.

The sale hasn’t been recorded by the Wake County Register of Deeds yet.

“We aggressively seek opportunities like this one where both the property and the market are poised for growth. Wells Fargo Capitol Center presents a unique blend of stability from its existing rent roll and upside potential from a strong local market and the opportunity through repositioning to once again be the premier downtown Raleigh business address,” PAC Chief Executive Officer Boone DuPree said in a statement.

“We hope that this acquisition is the first of many for us in Raleigh and in North Carolina,” DuPree added.

HighBrook Investors had just completed its acquisition of the Wells Fargo tower last year, according to a report in The News & Observer. The firm had been building up its ownership stake in the building for years.

The Wells Fargo building had previously been owned by several dozen real-estate investors known as tenants-in-common, or TICs, according to the N&O. Tenancy-in-common allows investors to own partial interest in a single property that they can pass on to beneficiaries of their choice.

HighBrook started acquiring shares annually of the Wells Fargo tower, making three consecutive annual investments every December in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The office was built in 1990 and remodeled in 1998, according to Wake County property records.

This story was originally published August 1, 2018 at 1:37 PM.