HK group to buy Seattle's Columbia Center: report

A GROUP led by Gaw Capital Partners has agreed to buy Columbia Center, Seattle's tallest tower, for more than US$700 million, said two people with knowledge of the deal. The price would be a record for an individual office building in the city.

Gaw Capital, the Hong Kong-based property investment company led by Goodwin Gaw, is joining with other Asian investors to buy the 76-storey building, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the sale is private.

The seller is Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners, which in 2007 paid US$621 million for the tower, at the time the highest price paid for a single Seattle office building, according to property-research firm Real Capital Analytics. Columbia Center is the second-tallest US building west of Chicago, after US Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles. Brokerage Eastdil Secured LLC is representing Beacon in the sale.