Downtown skyscraper sellathon gains steam

By STAN BULLARD10:50 am, January 29, 2007

KBS Realty Advisors, a real estate investment and asset management firm in Newport Beach, Calif., has put Eaton Center in downtown Cleveland up for sale with Granite Partners of New York and the Cleveland office of CB Richard Ellis, and likely will market the Penton Media Building by year-end.

That’s the word from Chuck Lindwall, KBS regional vice president, who said the company follows a strategy of holding assets a set period and exceeded it in both cases because the investors it represented liked the properties. KBS bought 28-story Eaton Center in 1997 and 21-story Penton, its first foray into downtown Cleveland, in 1996. It’s a rosier market to sell into than a few years ago, but Mr. Lindwall noted, “We didn’t know that then.”