Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT Inc. has acquired the LPL Financial Carolinas Corporate Campus for $130 million, Griffin Capital Company LLC announced today.

The building, in Fort Mill, S.C., is one of LPL’s three national offices and is the firm’s largest, with almost 2,000 employees and over 450,000 square feet.

“The assets meet our criteria of investing in income-generating properties leased to established corporate tenants on a long-term basis,” said Michael J. Escalante, Griffin Capital’s chief investment officer. “Given that these assets are critical to LPL Financial's ongoing operations, they represent the type of investment that fits well with our own investing objectives as well as those of Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT Inc.”

The campus includes two adjacent, six-story office buildings with almost 452,000 square feet of rentable area, a six-level structured parking deck situated on two parcels totaling 16.3 acres.

Located 17 miles south of Charlotte, N.C., the property is in Fort Mill’s award-winning Kingsley master-planned development and is less than a 30-minute drive from downtown Charlotte and 15 minutes from high-end housing in suburban Charlotte.

“We’ve been focused on the greater Charlotte metropolitan area due to its well-diversified economy and significant growth over the past two decades,” said Don Pescara, Griffin Capital’s managing director of acquisitions. “The acquisition of the LPL Financial Campus adds to our portfolio two well-located, high-quality buildings leased to a premier tenant.”

Griffin Capital is a leading alternative investment asset manager with approximately $9.6 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2017. Founded in 1995, the privately held firm is led by a seasoned team of senior executives with more than two decades of investment and real estate experience and who collectively have executed more than 650 transactions valued at over $22 billion.

To learn more about Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, please visit https://www.griffincapital.com/griffin-capital-essential-asset-reit.