BOSTON, Sept. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Beacon Properties Corporation (NYSE: BCN)
announced today that it plans to develop a 22-story, 207,000 square foot
Class A office tower on a parcel of land it has contracted to acquire at
150 California Street in San Francisco.
    Located directly across from 101 California Street -- widely considered to
be the heart of San Francisco's financial district -- 150 California Street
will contain 198,000 square feet of office space and 9,000 square feet of
retail space.  It will be purchased from CalProp, Inc., a company formed by
Highridge Partners.  The development will be Beacon's first downtown San
Francisco property.  The company currently owns three Silicon Valley office
parks containing 1.3 million square feet.
    According to Alan M. Leventhal, president and chief executive officer of
Beacon Properties: "To be in downtown San Francisco is strategically
important, and we are very pleased to announce our upcoming purchase of the
150 California Street site.  This will be the first downtown commercial
office development in five years; we have been impressed by the rapidly
improving market conditions in the city and believe the prospects are
excellent for this new building."
    The Class A vacancy rate in the NOMA (North of Market) submarket of San
Francisco, in which 150 California Street is located, is currently 2.9%.
Local market sources report that this is the lowest CBD vacancy rate in the
last 16 years.
    The San Francisco development project is the second in California to be
announced by Beacon.  The company has also disclosed plans to co-develop
with J.H. Snyder Company a 585,000 square foot office complex in the Media
District of Burbank district of Los Angeles.  In addition to the California
projects, Beacon has targeted three office developments along Boston's
Route 128 corridor in Massachusetts, as follows:

    -- Three office buildings totaling 256,000 square feet at Crosby Corporate
    Center, Bedford, MA, to be completed by Spring, 1998.

    -- A 500,000 square foot office property on Route 128 near the Mass
    Turnpike in Newton, MA.

    -- A 350,000 to 450,000 square feet office property on Route 128 in
    Waltham, MA.

    As announced on September 15, Beacon Properties Corporation and Equity
Office Properties Trust (NYSE: EOP) have entered into a definitive agreement
and plan of merger.
    Beacon Properties Corporation, with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts,
is one of the nation's largest real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Established in 1994 as a self-administered and self-managed REIT, the
company owns or has an interest in a portfolio of office properties located
in major metropolitan areas, including Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Los
Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC.  Beacon's office portfolio
currently totals 118 buildings containing 18.8 million square feet.  The
properties are approximately 97 percent leased with over 1,250 tenants.
Additional information about Beacon is available at the company's Internet
site at http://www.beaconproperties.com.
    Certain matters discussed in this press release may constitute
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal securities
law.  Although Beacon believes that the expectations reflected in such
forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can
give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved.  Factors that
could cause actual results to differ materially from Beacon's current
expectations include general economic conditions, local real estate
conditions, timely releasing of occupied square footage upon expiration,
interest rates, availability of equity and debt financing and other risks
detailed from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, reports on
Form 8-K and annual reports on Form 10-K.

Link to this page: