BRIEF: Big Overlake office park up for sale [The Seattle Times]

May 02--Bellevue's sprawling QBE Corporate Campus, probably still better known as Unigard Park, is for sale.

Brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle said Tuesday it has been retained to market the nine-building, 46-acre office complex.

The Overlake-area campus, at 156th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 24th Street, was developed by Unigard Insurance as its headquarters starting nearly 40 years ago. Unigard was acquired by QBE Insurance Group, Australia's largest insurer, in 2007.

QBE occupies part of the wooded campus and leases the rest. The complex is about 39 percent vacant, according to commercial real-estate database Officespace.com

QBE representatives could not be reached for comment Tuesday to discuss reasons for the sale, or its implications for the firm's Bellevue operations. But QBE is downsizing, according to several sources, and Real Estate Alert, an industry newsletter, said the firm will occupy just 70,000 of the complex's 326,000 square feet.

It's unclear how much space QBE occupies now.

QBE hopes to fetch $80 million for the property, Bloomberg News reported.

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or [email protected]

___

(c)2012 The Seattle Times

Visit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services