Benefitfocus building sold to Chicago investment firm

One of Daniel Island’s largest employers has a new investor after a Class A corporate headquarters office building transaction took place earlier this month. 

 

Business will remain as usual at software developer Benefitfocus, one of Charleston’s largest employers that has been a fixture for the past 20 years.

 

Since 2015, Benefitfocus has been the sole tenant that leases the office space in the four-story, 145,800-square-foot structure. However, the ownership of the building will be switching hands. The new owner is a company that has been in operation for more than 30 years and hails from the Midwest. 

 

Chicago-based commercial real estate investment and development firm Zeller purchased the building for $61.5 million, according to commercial real estate services and investment firm Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE), which facilitated the acquisition. 

 

The seller of the property requested their information to remain undisclosed, according to CBRE Vice Chairman Patrick Gildea. Although he noted that the building in question was put on the market in the fall of 2021. 

 

Benefitfocus CFO Alpana Wegner clarified that the software company will continue to occupy the building in its long-term lease with no disruptions in their hybrid-remote work plan.  

 

“There’s no change to the tenancy or to Benefitfocus and their use of the building,” Gildea said. “This was just the investor who owned the building selling it to another investor.”

 

Zeller owns and operates a portfolio of approximately 10.2 million square feet valued at $2.9 billion. The firm has been an active investor in the Southeast since 2017, with currently over 1.3 million-square-feet of assets under management in the region.

 

Benefitfocus’ building is Zeller’s first and only investment in Charleston. Gildea suggested that the Lowcountry’s population and job growth are two big factors that attract investment capital deals such as this one.  

 

“I would have to look and see where this one ranks in terms of statewide office sales, but I would imagine it’s probably fairly close to the top for South Carolina,” Gildea added. “... It’s a big deal for Charleston and especially Daniel Island.”  

 

Since 2016, Charleston has seen more than 4,000 technology jobs added to the city, making it the No. 1 mid-sized U.S. metropolitan area for information technology job growth, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.