the Editors of Commercial Property Executive
Suburban Chicago Hotel Comes Under New Ownership
Noble Investment Group has just acquired AmeriSuites in Schaumburg, Ill., a 126-room hotel just outside of Chicago. Noble made the purchase through its current discretionary private equity real estate fund, Noble Hospitality Fund L.L.C.The 11-year-old property came under the ownership of Global Hyatt Corp. in 2005 when Hyatt Corp. acquired the entire 143-hotel AmeriSuites chain from the Blackstone Group for $600 million. Located at the intersection of Highway 290 and Highway 90, AmeriSuites Schaumburg sits 13 miles from O’Hare International Airport and 25 miles outside of Downtown Chicago. In addition to its guest suites, the property also features a fitness…
Pep Boys Closes $74M Sale Leaseback Deal
Automotive retail and service chain Pep Boys has wrapped up its disposition of 23 properties in a deal valued at $74.3 million. The company’s retail operations will stay put, courtesy of lease agreements with the new owner.As per terms of the lease deals, Pep Boys will continue to occupy the stores for 15 years, with the option of renewing the agreement four times for a period of five years, each. The company will use proceeds from the sale, which is part of a larger disposition program, to pay down debt.The deal marks the third occasion that Pep Boys has closed…
Leasing Slows in D.C. Office Market as Developers Add 3.2M SF
In the first quarter of 2008, developers delivered about 3.2 million square feet of office space in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region but managed to lease only 1.3 million square feet. Most of the absorption was the result of pre-leasing activity that occurred several years ago, according to Rob Hartley, CB Richard Ellis’ research manager for the Washington-Baltimore market and the author of a CB Richard Ellis report, released today, on the Greater Washington Office Markets. “Looking back to 2005, the absorption rates were double and that’s when developers were breaking ground on those buildings,” Hartley (pictured) told CPN today….
Real Estate Financing Firm Plans $1B Merger with Development Company
Miami-based Omega Commercial Finance Corp. has executed a letter of intent to merge with a top California-based real state owner and developer. The assets involved in the deal are valued at an estimated total of $1 billion.”Part of our strategy is to acquire properties and initiate loans on properties to increase shareholder value,” Jon Cummings IV, Omega president & CEO, told CPN today. “We will do mid-range lending. A lot of lenders are strapped because of the current situation in the industry. This merger gives us the opportunity to take advantage of that with major developers who are stagnant.”The main…
W.P. Carey Finances Sale-Leaseback in Finland
W.P. Carey & Co.’s CPA: 16 – Global non-traded REIT affiliate has provided sale-leaseback financing to Mantsinen Group, a Finnish machinery production firm. CPA: 16 acquired and leased back Mantsinen’s office headquarters and industrial site, located in Ylamylly, Finland under the $18 million deal. Mantsinen produces material handling machinery and mobile harbor cranes, as well as offering logistics services to clients in the forestry, steel and port industries. “The sale-leaseback transaction with W.P. Carey is enabling us to recapitalize our balance sheet and pursue a number of growth initiatives further down the road, including expansion into Russia,” noted Mantsinen president…
NetLease Q&A: Get Used to a Slower Market, Says Robert Miller of Millco Investments
The impact of the credit crunch on every corner of the commercial real estate market is now well established, but the question remains: how much longer will financial markets be in a funk? And will a generalized slowdown in the economy slow the business down even more? Robert Miller, president and founder of Chicago-based Millco Investments, cautions that the net lease side of the business, while not in a state of collapse, is going to have to get used to the slowdown at least until after the presidential elections, and probably longer. Both buyers and sellers will have no reason…
Topland, Duet, SARE Move to the Next Stage of Indian Venture
South Asian Real Estate Ltd., or SARE, the Indian residential real estate developer partnered by Topland and Duet Group, has committed almost 70 percent of the $317 million of its funds to buy seven land parcels in India, it has reported. The land totals 800 acresPlans call for the property to contain 31 million square feet of developed real estate, ultimately worth approximately $1.4 billion. SARE has begun the process of permitting for one residential township at this point. Construction on all projects is slated to begin before the end of 2008. According to Rob Clayton, director of structured finance…
Oekos Buys Maryland Office Property for $44M
Oekos Management Corp. has acquired Rivers Corporate Center, a portfolio of nine single-story office buildings in Columbia, Md., from Rivers Center L.L.C. for $44 million. Manekin L.L.C. brokered the transaction. The company’s vice president George Santos and sales and leasing representative Ted Swingle will continue to serve as leasing agents for the project.Located in the Rivers Corporate Park, the portfolio totals 280,000 rentable square feet of space. The property is 93 percent leased to United Healthcare, Data Direct Networks, Applied Data Systems, Staples, Celsion Corporation, Segami and St. Agnes Healthcare.“This deal confirms the resilience of the market in uncertain economic…
Management Matters with Mike Myatt: Knowledge is Power
The ability of an executive to sort out who, what, why, when, where, and how while contemplating how decisions are made will largely determine the qualitative outcome of said eventual decisions. Even though people often treat theory as knowledge, and opinion as fact, they are not one in the same. In this week’s column I’ll address what I refer to as the hierarchy of knowledge which will provide you with some logic surrounding how to filter the various sources of inputOne of great challenges for any business is to learn to efficiently and cost effectively leverage knowledge on an enterprise…
Cushman Acquires Partner Firm in Turkey
Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield Inc. has acquired P&D Real Estate Consultants, a Turkish company that was already a Cushman Alliance Partner. Based in Istanbul, P&D became Cushman’s partner on 1991. Under the acquisition, P&D managing director Rahsan Cebe will become a partner of Cushman & Wakefield and managing director of Cushman’s Turkish office. The decision to acquire P&D was part of Cushman’s continuing effort to expand throughout Europe. “Turkey is on of Europe’s most dynamic markets,” said Cushman CEO EMEA Paul Bacon in a release today. “The country is attracting interest from a wide cross-section of clients;…