Cap Rate v. Appreciation Play?

Anyone in my world of commerical building sales have any comments on this: “Storrar declined to provide the cap rate. ‘It wasn’t sold on that basis,'” from a Daily Journal of Commerce article on $49M in office building sales just west of I5 near Amazon. Is that another way to say: “It doesn’t make sense from a cap rate perspectivce. It’s an appreciation play.” ?

http://www.djc.com/news/re/12041569.html

June 1, 2012

2 office buildings are sold for $49M

By JOURNAL STAFF

SEATTLE — LBA Realty’s buying
spree in the Puget Sound area continues with the acquisition this week of two
Seattle office buildings.

The Irvine, Calif., company paid just over $49
million for the Republican and 500 Yale buildings. Both are located west of
Interstate 5 near Amazon.com’s current headquarters.

A group headed by Frederic Weiss, the former head
of CBRE’s Seattle offices, was the seller.

The 103,000-square-foot Republican Building is
fully leased. Three of 500 Yale’s four floors are vacant, and the building is
just under 73,000 square feet.

About 35 buyer groups toured the buildings, said
CBRE broker Steve Storrar, who marketed the properties with Kevin Shannon.

Storrar declined to provide the cap rate. “It
wasn’t sold on that basis,” he said.

LBA owns more than 2 million square feet of flex,
office and industrial space here.