Manulife buys another San Francisco office complex for undisclosed price

SAN FRANCISCO – Manulife Real Estate, the real-estate arm of Manulife Financial Corp., has purchased another San Francisco-area office complex with the addition of Hawthorne Plaza for an undisclosed price.

The two buildings cover nearly 40,000 square metres in downtown San Francisco and join Manulife’s California portfolio, including the Market Center added last September.

Manulife Real Estate CEO Kevin Adolphe said San Francisco is one of its target growth areas.

“The acquisition of Hawthorne Plaza is the latest step in our ongoing strategy to invest in core office properties to complement our growing portfolio across the United States, Canada and Asia,” he said in a news release.

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Hawthorne Plaza’s main tenant is the Environmental Protection Agency, whose lease was renewed in June for 15 years.

In 2009, the buildings became the first multi-tenant office building in San Francisco to achieve LEED gold certification.

Hawthorne Plaza consists of two buildings – a 20-storey building constructed in 1987 and a five-storey building dating back to 1910 that was renovated in 1991.

Manulife Real Estate began its presence in the California real-estate market in the early 1970s. It currently owns 20 office and industrial properties covering 450,000 square metres, with a market value of US$1 billion.

Its total portfolio located throughout Canada, the United States and Asia is worth an estimated $6.3 billion.

Manulife Financial is a leading Canadian-based financial services group operating in 22 countries. It has $478 billion of funds under management as of March 31, operating under Manulife and John Hancock in the United States.