Building sale fulfills Persis' goals

Advertiser News Services

Honolulu-based investment firm Persis Corp., and its investment partner Citicorp North America Inc., yesterday announced the sale of a Seattle office building, marking the completion of a 24-month project by Persis to dispose of a portfolio of 21 properties in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

The company has been making a strategic transition from a portfolio of actively managed, multi-tenant properties to a portfolio of credit-based, net leased properties.

Persis is a privately held family company established in Honolulu in 1856 and was subsequently acquired by the Thurston family in 1898. Persis' new portfolio consists of 2.2 million square feet of institutional-quality properties in six Mainland states.

The sale also marks the start of the firm's initiative to provide real estate solutions for clients through its strategic partner, Persis Asset Advisors LLC. "We will continue to join with real estate partners, such as Citicorp North America, Inc. to acquire and develop properties," said Easton Manson, managing partner of Persis Asset Advisors.

For more than 100 years, the Thurston family owned and operated The Advertiser, in addition to several smaller daily and weekly publications in the Pacific Northwest. In the early 1990s, the firm sold its newspaper holdings and diversified into commercial real estate and private equity investments.