News

This past week the global sales campaign for the Chicago Spire, a 2,000-foot condominium now under construction on the Lake Michigan shore, continued into Asia, beginning a five-city tour with a presentation in Singapore. The campaign, which began in Dublin in January, was slated to swing through Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Kuala Lumpur before moving on to cities in Europe and South Africa. Designed by celebrity architect Santiago Calatrava, the Chicago Spire will feature 1,194 residences–no two alike. The project is slated for completion in late 2011. The residences will range from gallerie and suites to one- to four-bedroom…

Peak Development L.L.C. has acquired 21 acres in Bolingbrook, Ill., from Forest City Enterprises.  The parcel is at the southwest corner of Janes Avenue and Falcon Ridge Way, at the northwest corner of Forest City’s 1.1 million-square-foot The Promenade Bolingbrook open-air town center, which is anchored by Macy’s and Bass Pro Shops.  The site is also located near other new large retail developments, including IKEA, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Meijer and Staples. In addition, according to a prepared statement, Forest City will begin site work this summer for Phase II of The Promenade Bolingbrook, to include two hotels and a…

IDS Real Estate Group has revealed plans to develop a 277,600-square-foot office building in Los Angeles’s Westside on a 3.3-acre parcel of land it just acquired in Culver City. The company will shell out $115 million to complete the project.The new Class A office building, Corporate Pointe Tower, will sit within the 1.6 million-square-foot Corporate Pointe office campus just off the 405 Freeway, one of the busiest thoroughfares in a city of incredibly busy thoroughfares. Carrying the address of 700 Corporate Pointe, the structure will be designed by global architectural firm Gensler and will be developed to adhere to LEED…

American Realty Capital II, an affiliate of American Realty Capital Trust, has entered into an agreement with Wachovia Bank N.A., to acquire the bank’s surplus branches nationwide on an exclusive basis. A prepared statement from American Realty Capital II stated that this year it anticipates purchasing more than 100 such branches with a total value of more than $100 million. CFO Brian Block told CPN that this transaction is the first for ARC II, a holding/sponsor company that began operations just last August. The typical locations of the surplus Wachovia branches, he explained, are freestanding lots at major intersections or…

Ventas Realty L.P., a subsidiary of leading healthcare REIT Ventas Inc., has entered into revised unsecured credit facilities. The move raises the company’s total borrowing capacity to $850 million and an option to expand that capacity to $1 billion  Ventas last altered an unsecured credit facility in July 2007, bringing its borrowing limit up to an aggregate $750 million. Terms of the newly revised credit facilities, which mature in April 2009, also provide Ventas with an optional one-year extension. Additionally, a total of $150 million of the borrowing capacity is being made accessible in either U.S. or Canadian dollars. While…

Sunrise Mall, a 1.2 million-square-foot retail property in Citrus Heights, Calif., has come under new ownership thanks largely to the orchestration of a financing package valued at $84 million. Steadfast Commercial Properties acquired the asset from Cordano Associates and Sunrise Mall Associates for over $100 million.The financing, originated by Capmark Finance Inc., came in the form of a fixed-rate loan from AXA Equitable. Located about 15 miles north of Sacramento, Sunrise Mall was originally developed in 1972 and has since undergone a handful of renovations, including a $10 million upgrade in 1999 at the hands of the sellers. Just last…

Odyssey HealthCare Inc. has received a $160 million senior secured credit facility from GE Healthcare Financial Services in connection with Odyssey’s acquisition, finalized last week, of VistaCare Inc. With its acquisition of VistaCare, Odyssey is now one of the nation’s two largest providers of hospice care, Dirk Allison, Odyssey’s CFO, told CPN. The company owns or operates approximately 110 Medicare-certified hospice care locations in 30 states totaling an average daily census of more than 12,000 patients. Before the acquisition, Allison said, Odyssey had annualized revenues in the $410 million to $420 million range, and VistaCare’s revenues were in the area…

The Ritz Carlton Hotel Co. is fortifying its presence in Hawaii with three hotel developments currently underway that contain significant wholly-owned and fractional ownership components. The company recently completed a complete $160 million renovation at its Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, including a full-ownership component. Also, its nearby property on Kapalua Bay is being readied to open next year, offering private and fractional ownership residences. And on Kauai, Ritz-Carlton Residences and fractional Ritz-Carlton Club residences are being built on a costal bluff at the Kauai Lagoons resort. The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua reopened in January following a $160 million renovation. The hotel’s 463 guestrooms, six…

CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. has acquired Redstone Real Estate Advisors Inc., an Akron, Ohio-based boutique firm specializing in retail clients. Terms of the acquisition were not released.Redstone principals Tom Flynn and Dan Masteller will become senior vice presidents at CB Richard Ellis. The firm, founded in 2002, has five employees including Flynn and Masteller, a CB Richard Ellis spokesperson told CPN today. Redstone specializes in retail tenant representation in the Midwest, particularly Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky. Main clients include Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club.“The Redstone acquisition significantly augments our retail tenant representation practice in the Midwestern United States,” Jim…

First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. has acquired 61 acres of land in Vaughan, Ontario, north of Toronto, in anticipation of future industrial development. The site is located in the Highway 427 Corridor, one mile south of the Greenbelt, which circles the greater Toronto area. Toronto has seen a fairly strong industrial market recently. According to Colliers International, some 7.7 million square feet of industrial space was absorbed in greater Toronto in 2007, but the average availability rate remained the same from the fourth quarter of 2006 to the fourth quarter of 2007; 5.4 percent. Vaughn itself has been a busy…