Business Specialties

At the end of this week, Tony Thompson, chairman of real estate giant Grubb & Ellis Co., will step down from that position. He will not, however, be any less of a pioneer in the net lease, 1031 exchange and TIC industries. In 1998 Thompson formed Triple Net Properties L.L.C. He oversaw the company’s growth over the next decade, culminating in the 2006 reorganization of Triple Net and NNN Capital Corp. to form NNN Realty Advisors Inc., which merged with Grubb & Ellis late last year. Thompson took the Grubb & Ellis helm at that time. Thompson remains a major…

ProLogis has announced new lease agreements for more than 858,000 square feet of distribution space in Europe with DHL Exel Supply Chain. The leasee is a subsidiary of the Deutsche Post World Net group. DHL is ProLogis’ largest global customer. At the end of 2007, ProLogis had agreements in place for more than 7.8 million square feet of space with DHL in 10 European countries. The new transactions include: 420,000 square feet in a facility under construction at ProLogis Park Tarancon near Madrid, Spain; 247,500 square feet leased in a new, 915,000-square-foot industrial park ProLogis is developing near the city…

Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II has taken UnitedHealthcare Services’ five-story office building in suburban St. Louis, the fund has reported. The deal is a sale-leaseback, and UnitedHealthcare has signed a long-term lease for 100 percent of the property.The building has 188,500 square feet on five floors, and was built for UnitedHealthcare a decade ago in Riverpor-Earth City, the area’s largest mixed-use business park, northeast of St. Louis. The park offers direct access to Interstates 70 and 270, and is just five minutes from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. No other terms of the deal were disclosed.Wells REIT II specializes in…

Investment firm W. P. Carey & Co. has acquired a retail facility in Wroclaw, Poland, from German do-it-yourself retailer OBI, it reported. The $14 million deal is the third sale-leaseback W. P. Carey has arranged with the OBI Group over the last two years, providing more than $200 million in financing to the German Do-It-Yourself retailer.One of the leading DIY retailers in the world, OBI currently operates more than 500 stores in Central and Eastern Europe and is looking to further expand in this region. “The sale-leaseback and build-to-suit transactions we’ve completed with W. P. Carey have played a significant…

ProLogis has announced a new sustainability initiative. From now on all of its new development in the United States will comply with environmental standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.The initiative will include developments now in the design or planning stage, as well as future projects and ProLogis intends to register all buildings for LEED certification. Prologis had earlier moved towards green building, but the firm now felt, “the time is right to take our initiatives a step further,” Walt Rakowich, president & COO for ProLogis, said in a statement.The latest green move by the company has impact beyond…