the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Africa Israel Sells NYC Assets for $349M
Africa Israel Investments Ltd., a Yehud, Israel-based company owned by billionaire Lev Leviev that has real estate holdings in Israel, the United States, Russia and other countries, has agreed to sell some of its interests in three New York buildings that it acquired in 2007. The three properties are 23 Wall Street/15 Broad Street, the Clock Tower at Five Madison Avenue and the former New York Times Building. The buyer was an unidentified Asian investment fund. The company sold 23 Wall Street/15 Broad Street in its entirety for $150 million. The Downtown building, long headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co.–and…
310-Acre South Carolina Land Purchase Heralds 3 MSF Industrial Park
Trammell Crow Co. has just taken a 310-acre parcel of land in Summerville, S.C., off the hands of Eastway Properties, thereby paving the way for the company’s development of Omni Commerce Park, a 3 million-square-foot industrial complex. Located about 15 miles from Charleston, the property will be built in segments, with the initial phase kicking off in September with construction of a 772,000-square-foot structure. Omni will have a vital position near the Port of Charleston and the Charleston International Airport, as well as leading thoroughfares I-26, I-95 and I-526. In addition to Building I, which will be built to satisfy…
Sherwood Snaps Up 300,000SF NYC Office for $155M
The 307,000-square-foot office building at 370 Lexington Ave. in New York City’s Grand Central submarket has come under new ownership, courtesy of a transaction valued at $155 million. Sherwood Equities Inc., acting in a joint venture with institutional investors advised by JP Morgan Asset Management, acquired 370 Lexington (pictured) from a joint venture consisting of Broad Street Development and Crow Holdings. The deal included Sherwood’s assumption of $80 million in outstanding mortgage debt from CIGNA.For the seller, what a difference two years make. Broad Street and Crow Holdings paid La Salle’s Income & Growth Lexington L.L.C. $97.2 million for the…
A&B Takes Pacific American Services
Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has announced today that its Matson Global Distribution Services subsidiary has completed the acquisition of Pacific American Services, L.L.C., a leading regional, asset-light warehousing, packaging and distribution company. PACAM’s nearly one million square feet of warehousing and distribution space provides service coverage for the entire Bay Area and Northern California, and complements the firm’s recently acquired Savannah facilities to give Matson Global a truly national footprint, according to A&B Chairman & CEO Allen Doane. PACAM serves hundreds of local, national and international customers and has extensive industry expertise in handling high value goods in the food…
Health Care REIT Makes $643M Seniors Buy
Health Care REIT Inc. has agreed to acquire a 90 percent interest in a portfolio of 29 seniors housing properties from an affiliate of Arcapita Inc., an investment bank based in Atlanta, for $643.5 million. Sunrise Senior Living Inc. will continue to operate the properties, while retaining a 10 percent ownership interest in the portfolio.In a conference call this morning, George Chapman, chairman & CEO of HCN said that the transaction has been structured to take advantage of the recently enacted REIT investment Diversification and Empowerment Act of 2007 (RIDEA). According to an analysis issued today by the Memphis-based investment…
Gustav Not as Severe as Katrina
Context is everything, and hurricanes appear to be no exception. Though Hurricane Gustav’s impact on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi and Louisiana wasn’t a love pat, locals mostly seem grateful that the damage it caused, already estimated at possibly up to $10 billion, is a fraction of that created by Hurricane Katrina three years ago. That legendary storm caused more than $80 billion in damage and left more than 2,500 people dead or missing. The Category 2 Gustav, by comparison, was not only substantially weaker, but it made landfall farther from the densely populated areas around New Orleans. Lenny Sawyer,…
Equity Office Repositions, Refurbishes SoCal Portfolio
About 18 months after Equity Office Properties Inc. was acquired by The Blackstone Group, the company is still in existence with more than 300 properties totaling more than 50 million square feet. “As Blackstone purchased CarrAmerica (Properties), Trizec (Properties) and Equity Office Properties in 2006 and 2007, each of those portfolios was sold off. What is left is around 55 million square feet and that portfolio is primarily concentrated in New York, Boston, Northern California and Southern California with some in the Midwest, Texas and Denver,” Frank Campbell (pictured), market managing director for Equity Office in Southern California, told CPN….
U.S. Private Equity Firms Seek Bargains in Japanese REIT Market
Japanese REITs, which have lost more than 50 percent of their value on the Tokyo Stock Exchange since their peak last year, are increasingly attracting the attention of U.S.-based private equity firms like Oaktree Capital Management, which has launched the first tender offer for a REIT in Japan. Japan has been hit hard by the global credit crunch, particularly the REIT market, which relies on banks to fund investments. “Banks (in Japan) are really loath to go into property at all now, even if the underlying fundamentals are really strong,” Peter Culliney, director of research at Real Capital Analytics, told…
Survey of Seniors Shows Demand on Rise for Fitness Facilities
The days of relying solely on the golf course for exercise in post-retirement years are quickly disappearing, according to a survey conducted by Orlando-based Crossman & Co., Central Florida’s largest third-party leasing and management company. Crossman & Co. manages retail leasing for The Villages–a 26,000-acre active retirement enclave 50 miles north of Orlando in Sumter County, Fla., that carries the title of the largest single-site mixed-use development in the U.S.–and polled 11,000 residents on the subject of exercise. The findings were notable. Over 60 percent of the responding baby boomers and active adults affirmed that exercise and playing sports are…
Pros Say Hedge Funds May Step Up Role in CMBS, Refinancing
As a second summer of discontent for the capital markets draws to a close, finance experts are eyeing a new category of player that is helping fill the void. “The hedge funds are here to stay for the foreseeable future until the capital markets fix themselves,” declared Cliff Mendelson (pictured), a senior managing director for Transwestern’s structured finance group. Strictly speaking, of course, hedge funds are hardly newcomers to commercial real estate; the real novelty is their higher profile. It is no secret that hedge funds have taken a stepped-up role in providing mezzanine debt, preferred equity, and other products…