Highwoods Properties has purchased the 0.62-acres site of a stalled high-rise office project at the southeast corner of Wilmington and Martin streets in Raleigh.
The Raleigh-based real estate investment trust has signed a contract to acquire the site from an affiliate of developer Gregg Sandreuter’s Beacon Partners. Sandreuter has long been planning an office building, Edison, on the site, Triangle Business Journal has reported.
“We have that Edison site under contract, but really there are no immediate plans for us to build a tower,” said Highwoods spokesman Brendan Maiorana. “At some point in the future we hope we’ll be able to build a project there.”
The Edison Office site, as the property was previously known, was at one time slated for a $75 million, 19-storey tower.
Highwoods president and CEO Ed Fritsch said in August that its building could be even bigger.
The land transaction with Highwoods, however, did not include a 0.07-acre lot in the center of the block that had been previously owned by Raleigh businessman Phillip Horwitz. That lot was retained by Edison Retail LLC, according to Wake County records. Edison Retail is managed by Cary developer Gregg Sandreuter of Beacon Partners, who was also the seller of the Edison Office land to Highwoods. Neither Sandreuter nor Fritsch were available to comment about this quirk in the deal.
The Highwoods land purchase was expected to be partially funded with $3.8 million of the proceeds that Highwoods received from its $660 million sale of a Kansas City property in March.
Image: Google Street View of the area of the proposed development