News

A $1 billion initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is in the works for Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, the largest casino operator in Macau. According to an article published Monday by Thomson Financial, marketing for the Deutsche Bank-managed IPO–which will offer approximately 1.25 billion shares–was to have begun this week with a scheduled pricing of the IPO by Feb. 7.  Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho is the majority owner of the SJM, which had been Macau’s single gaming operator until 2002 when new regulations allowed foreign investors to be licensed operators. U.S. companies Las Vegas Sands,…

Stepping up its presence in The Netherlands, one of the top logistics and distribution hubs in the world, AMB Property Corp. has acquired a 100 percent occupied, 560,000-square-foot industrial facility in Tilburg. The San Francisco-based industrial real estate company has renamed the 100 percent-occupied facility AMB Tilburg Distribution Center 1. Tilburg has become a leading logistics hub abroad, providing convenient access to the Dutch distribution market, as well as to other regions of Europe. With a location off A58 motorway, one of the most vital transportation corridors in The Netherlands, AMB Tilburg sits within easy reach of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and…

A 370-acre site in Harrison Township, N.J., will soon become the home of the mixed-use Richwood Village, now that Madison Marquette has partnered with Canuso Communities to acquire the land and construct the sprawling commercial and residential development, which will boast a location about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia. The Richwood Village, also offering the convenience of sitting about an hour northwest of Atlantic City, will encompass a 300,000-square-foot town center, as well as an aggregate of as much as 700,000 square feet of office, commercial and additional retail space. Residential offerings will consist of 1,200 single-family, townhomes and multi-family…

The sale by ING North America Insurance Corp. of its nearly 1 million-square-foot Minneapolis office complex is partly “an asset efficiency play,” according to a party to the deal, and partly a response to a tightening office market in downtown Minneapolis.The campus, purchased by National Office Partners LP, an investment partnership between Hines and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, consists of three office buildings built over a 20-year span. ING’s Minneapolis headquarters, 20 Washington Avenue, is a six-story, 148,000-square-foot office building designed by Minoru Yamasaki & Associates and completed in 1964. It’s fully occupied by ING. The largest building,…

Regency Centers Corp. and its co-investment partner, the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, have acquired seven grocery-anchored retail centers in California and the Southeast. Aggregate value of the properties, which total 482,000 square feet, is $76.6 million. Regency will own 20 percent of the properties. The properties are:*  King Plaza, Atlanta, anchored by Publix, 81,400 square feet*  Island Crossing; Port St. Lucie/Ft. Pierce, Fla.; anchor: Publix; 58,400 square feet*  Lost Mountain Shopping Center, Atlanta, anchor: Publix, 72,500 square feet*  Surfside Beach Commons; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; anchor: Bi-Lo; 62,800 square feet*  Highland Knolls, Houston, anchor: Randall’s, 87,400 square feet*  Raley’s Supermarket;…

Aviva USA has just closed on the purchase of a 71-acre parcel in West Des Moines, Iowa, for the development of its new $150 million headquarters. The insurance company will build a 360,000-square-foot corporate campus where it will consolidate its three existing offices in downtown Des Moines.  Relying on the assistance of real estate services firm The Staubach Co. and commercial real estate advisory firm Knapp Properties Inc. and Commercial Midwest, Aviva scoured over 25 potential locales in Metropolitan Des Moines and in other states for a prime development sit for its new headquarters. The property it settled on, located…

Boston-based STAG Capital Partners has started the year with a clutch of industrial acquisitions in various secondary markets in Ohio, Kentucky and Georgia. All together, the deal adds about 1.35 million square feet of space to STAG’s portfolio. The company specializes in holding single-tenant, net leased properties.”We’re following where the opportunities take us,” David Pizzotti, vice president with STAG, told CPN this morning. “All the properties are stabilized and represent long-term, high-quality assets. We’re always on the lookout for that kind of asset.”In Seville, Ohio, near Cleveland, STAG bought two warehouse facilities totaling 345,000 square feet as part of a…

The office building at 25 Beaver St. in New York City will continue to be the home of four state government agencies, now that a lease renewal agreement has been set in stone. New York’s Department of Insurance, Division of Housing and Community Renewal, Department of Lottery, and Office of Court Administration will all stay put in a total of 500,000 square feet of space. The address of 25 Beaver St. denotes a separate entrance to the 1 million-square-foot tower at 60 Broad St. Real estate services firm Staubach Co. represented the four agencies in the lease renewal with property…

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and The Westfield Group have agreed to jointly develop and operate 488,000 square feet of retail at the World Trade Center site. The Port Authority will provide approximately $825 million, and Westfield will provide approximately $625 million toward the $1.45 billion retail project. Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, Westfield had net leased the World Trade Center retail components, which consisted of 427,000 square feet of space, which become one of the highest grossing shopping areas in the nation. In December, 2003, to accelerate the rebuilding at the World Trade Center site,…

Construction is set to begin on two new towers at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan as the Port Authority, which owns the site, nears completion of basement excavations for the buildings, known as Towers 3 and 4. The Port Authority said it would complete the excavation of Tower 4 by the middle of this month, with basement work on Tower 3 (pictured) finishing up two to four weeks after that. The announcement paves the way for Silverstein Properties, the developer of the actual towers themselves, to ramp up procurement and preconstruction work in anticipation of beginning work…