Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT II Off and Running

Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT II (GCEAR II), the non-traded REIT sponsored by Griffin Capital Corporation (Griffin Capital), commenced operations yesterday. The REIT reached its minimum offering amount of $2 million and satisfied its escrow agreement.

The company also declared a daily distribution rate right out of the gate equal to $0.00150684932 per share of Class A and Class T common stock. The distributions will be given to stockholders from the date GCEAR II reached its minimum offering requirement and will continue through the end of the fiscal quarter, December 31, 2014. The distributions for Class T shares are subject to partial adjustments due to their servicing fee.

In addition, the Los Angeles-based REIT has two institutional-quality commercial properties lined up for acquisition with a combined purchase price of about $34 million. Griffin Capital secured the agreements for two separate transactions and has assigned the contracts to GCEAR II.

One acquisition is a to-be-built, 312,000 square foot distribution warehouse in Groveport, Ohio, which will be purchased for $16.148 million and fully leased to Exel Inc. The other is a 120,000 square foot office/R&D facility that is currently under construction and is located in Auburn Hills, Michigan which will be purchased for $17.75 million and fully leased to Atlas Copco Tools & Assembly Systems LLC.

GCEAR II’s objective is to invest in income-producing property and provide regular cash distributions to investors. It seeks to provide income through acquiring office and industrial properties that it deems to be essential to the corporate tenants that occupy the spaces.