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A privately owned international real estate investment firm has acquired four office buildings at The Gateway near downtown Salt Lake City.

Hines, which maintains its European headquarters in London and its U.S. headquarters in Houston, said it purchased the four office buildings in partnership with a real estate fund managed by the Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management.

The four properties, which were acquired from The Boyer Co., contain a total of 440,708-square-feet of office space.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Hines previously purchased the Kearns Building on Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City, in 1988.

"Hines entered Salt Lake City in 1988, and we remain focused on growing our portfolio," said Dusty Harris, a Hines' managing director who heads the company's Utah development and investment office.

The acquisition announced this week is the second joint purchase by Hines/Oaktree in Utah. Last year, the two companies joined together to buy the South Towne Corporate Center, a two-building 248,352-square-foot office complex in Sandy.

Harris described the four Gateway buildings as best-in-class assets in the healthy downtown periphery market.

The buildings are 91 percent leased with tenants including Barrick Gold, the Bureau of Land Management, The Salt Lake Tribune, Sungard Financial and Ernst & Young, according to Hines.

The properties, Harris said, ``have proven to be resilient though a difficult economic recession." And their future value has been strengthened, he said, by the new FrontRunner and TRAX airport lines. Hines/Oaktree's new buildings at The Gateway:

One Gateway, a seven-story structure at 90 S. 400 West encompassing 161,704 square-feet and built in 2002.

Three Gateway, a six-story property at 440 W. 200 South, with 114,197 square-feet, built in 2001.

Five Gateway, at 178 S. Rio Grande, with four stories and 64,279 square-feet, built in 2001.

Six Gateway, 460 W. 50 North, five stores and 100,528 square-feet, built in 2012.