Regions

Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc. has closed the disposition of Main Plaza, selling the 607,000-square-foot trophy office complex in Irvine, Calif., to Shorenstein Properties L.L.C for $211 million including the assumption of $161 million of project level financing. The transaction reached completion two months after the parties entered into the agreement, and leaves Maguire with net proceeds totaling $48 million to be used for debt reduction and general corporate purposes. Maguire revealed in June that reducing debt through the sale of certain Orange County assets would be one component of its multi-faceted plan to revitalize the company, which has seen…

Los Angeles-based Wilshire Finance Partners has introduced Wilshire Income Fund II, its second real estate mortgage pool fund. The fund will raise $100 million to make commercial property loans. This time around, however, the company will be able to welcome investors and borrowers from beyond the borders of the State of California. Wilshire Income Fund II, like the first vehicle, is designed to tap into a market hungry for alternative lending sources in the face of a credit crisis and diminishing property values. The fund consists of several well-underwritten trust deed loans; investors purchase shares of the fund, and money…

In return for $126 million and change, Tel Aviv, Israel-based Elbit Imaging Ltd. has forked over part of its stake in a $3.4 billion mixed-use project portfolio in India via a new joint venture agreement. It’s a family arrangement, however. The investment comes from Elbit Imaging subsidiary Plaza Centers N.V., an emerging markets property developer focusing on projects in Central and Eastern Europe and in India. The deal leaves Plaza with a 47.5 percent ownership of Elbit India Real Estate Holdings Ltd., which owns interests in the aforementioned mixed-use development endeavors. Plaza actually contributed a minuscule amount for ownership of…

The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, owner of Uncasville, Conn.’s Mohegan Sun, a 3 million-square-foot casino entertainment destination and one of only two authorized gaming operations in New England, has just completed the first phase of its $925 million Project Horizon expansion endeavor. The new addition to the 240-acre property is the 64,000-square-foot Casino of the Wind, which cost $116 million to complete. Situated along Southeastern Connecticut’s Thames River on the Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut’s 405-acre reservation, Mohegan Sun first opened its doors in 1996 and underwent two major expansions prior to Project Horizon. Ground broke on Project Horizon’s…

A&B Properties Inc. has sold Boardwalk Shopping Center–a 184,600-square-foot retail center on 21 acres in the Austin submarket of Round Rock, Texas–with intent to reinvest the proceeds in another the burgeoning Savannah, Georgia, industrial market. A&B Properties, the real estate subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc., sold Boardwalk Shopping Center to affiliates of Gemini Real Estate Advisors L.L.C.. A&B plans to apply the proceeds as part of its Section 1031 reinvestments program to a previously acquired logistics warehouse facility in Savannah with the balance to be reinvested in other replacement properties. Among A&B’s Savannah industrial properties are 1020 and 1024…

Hot on the heels of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s call to install wind turbines on the city’s high-rises and bridges as part of a green-energy plan, a California company has offered to donate a wind turbine to the city to demonstrate that the idea is indeed workable. Marquiss Wind Power, of Folsom, Calif., manufactures a patented ducted wind turbine (pictured) that little resembles the 200- to 300-foot-high turbines used in major wind farms. Marquiss’s Aeropoint turbines are in fact specifically intended for use on commercial and industrial buildings. According to information from Marquiss, its roof-top turbines are 19…

Demographic factors, rising gas prices and changes in Dallas zoning laws have all combined to create a movement toward revitalizing Dallas Fort Worth’s urban core, according to Ted Hamilton (pictured), president of Hamilton Properties, who keynoted this morning’s CPN-sponsored Dallas-Fort Worth Property Opportunities Conference.Hamilton, whose company specializes in converting historic, vacant buildings into modern multi-family and hotel projects, said that Dallas is following a nationwide trend of migration back into urban centers. He noted that this in-migration has proved truly revolutionary in Dallas, which as recently as 1997 had but a single Downtown multi-family property. In 2007 and 2008, Hamilton…

Parsippany, N.J.-based Wyndham Hotel Group has made a move to increase the visibility of its Ramada properties in South Korea with the signing of an exclusive agreement with Seoul-headquartered AT Hotels Management to open 20 Ramada Encore destinations over the next six years. AT Hotels will develop and manage the properties, which will offer 80 to 200 guestrooms. Wyndham flies its value-conscious Ramada Encore flag at hotels outside the U.S. and Canada. Details on the designated locations of the new properties have not been disclosed; however, the South Korea Ramada portfolio presently consists of two hotels in Seoul, and one…

Sydney-based Lend Lease Corp., a multi-national real estate investor and manager, has engaged Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. to sell its 50 percent interest in the 2.6 million-square-foot King of Prussia Mall, in metro Philadelphia. John Pelusi, HFF’s executive managing director, along with Glenn Whitmore and Chris Turner, senior managing directors, will lead the sales team. Pelusi noted in a prepared statement that both the rollover of leases with below-market rents and the redevelopment of the former Strawbridge’s department store represent opportunities to continue to grow the mall’s revenue. Though Minnesota’s Mall of America is larger in total square feet, the…

Kenco Logistic Services L.L.C. has obtained management rights to a Whirlpool distribution center in Ohio. Kenco will assume control over the 1.6 million-square-foot Whirlpool Distribution Center in Columbus, Ohio, upon its opening in October. Kenco will also manage the firm’s existing facility, located within a mile of the new site, and oversee the transition between the facilities. This agreement continues the relationship that Kenco and Whirlpool have had since 1979, when Kenco first began providing the firm with its logistics services. Kenco presently manages over 5 million square feet of Whirlpool facilities. Kenco expects that it will maintain the current…