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Dr Pepper Snapple Group made two announcements today, indicating a turn toward improving efficiency through its real estate portfolio. An agreement to open a $120 million production and distribution center in Victorville, Calif., was announced. The facility is expected to employ 200 people with six manufacturing lines with the capacity to produce 40 million cases annually. Opening in 2010, this facility will become the company’s Western hub serving California and parts of the Southwest or 20 percent of the U.S. population. Construction is set to begin in October 2008 at the Southern California Logistics Airport, an 8,500-acre master planned multi-modal…

Behringer Harvard announced today that it would invest in the 168-unit Alexan Russell Lofts apartment community in Las Vegas, six miles southeast of the Strip and three miles east of McCarran International Airport. Trammell Crow Residential will develop the 163,000-square-foot property (pictured). TCR developed the Alexan brand as a luxury upscale apartment community for young professionals interested in maintaining liquidity and geographic flexibility for job changes. Alexan properties offer extensive amenities and provide access to employment, shopping, cultural activities and transportation. This is the second TCR Alexan development in which Behringer Harvard has invested. The first is the Alexan Prospect,…

General Growth Properties has unveiled the details of a plan to redevelop South Street Seaport in Lower Manhattan, a mall and tourist center the Chicago-based REIT acquired the with its purchase of the Rouse Co. in 2004. The plan would replace the existing enclosed mall with a pedestrian district, and add more than two acres of additional open space and circulation areas connected to the street grid of the historic Seaport District. According to General Growth, the thrust of the redevelopment plan would be to reconnect South Street Seaport to the fabric of the surrounding neighborhood. New shops and restaurants,…

Nemours has finalized the acquisition of 60 acres of land in the heart of Lake Nona’s medical city in Orlando, and plans to build a $400 million top-tier pediatric health care facility, anchored by a children’s hospital. The pediatric health system company tapped Skanska USA Building Co. as the construction manager to oversee the building process for the facilities. The 600,000-square-foot project is expected to break ground next year and will start receiving patients in 2012. It will be located in proximity to the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and the Orlando…

Ownership of Braddock Place, a 348,200-square-foot office complex in the Old Town submarket of Alexandria, Va., has just changed hands. MGP Real Estate L.L.C. purchased the four-structure property (pictured), located approximately five miles from Washington, D.C., from ING Clarion. ING, which relied on real estate services firm Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers to market Braddock Place, turned a decent profit on the deal, having acquired the property in 2005 for approximately $80 million. Braddock Place is located in the 1300 block of Braddock Place, just a stone’s throw from a Metro station, and within close proximity to the Capital Beltway and…

Continuing its capital recycling strategy, Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc. has closed on the disposition of the Hyatt Regency Montreal and the Hyatt Dulles Airport in Herndon, Va., in deals totaling $135.5 million. The 605-room Hyatt Regency Montreal (pictured) brought in $57.5 million from Swedish hotel company Pandox AB. Built in 1976, the hotel features 34,000 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant and a fitness center. Ashford came into possession of the lodging facility as part of its $2.4 billion acquisition of a 51-property former CNL Hotels & Resorts Inc. portfolio from Morgan Stanley Real Estate. Located about 25 miles…

Noble Investment Group is a real estate private equity fund manager, and an integrated hotel operator and developer. They specialize in value-added investments in the North American lodging sector. Noble’s senior managing director, Mit Shah, talks about Noble’s plans, and what his forecast is for the hotel industry. CPNHospitality: Please talk about some recent initiatives that Noble has launched? Shah: We’ve invested 40 percent of our current fund, about $400 million over the last 12 to 13 months. We’ve acquired three assets so far this year: the Kansas City Marriott at Country Club Plaza. We also bought an Amerisuites in…

Prudential Real Estate Investors has launched a joint venture with Beekman Helix India Partners L.L.C. to invest in middle-income residential development projects and office parks in India for institutional investors. Operating as Pramerica BHI, the private equity real estate platform will be headquartered in Guragaon near New Delhi. The launch strategy initially will be to invest up to $500 million, a PREI spokesperson told CPN today. The spokesperson said the joint venture would be starting where there is the greatest need in India, which is for middle-class residences to house the rapidly expanding population. Eventually investments would be made across…

Phase II of the redevelopment of Boston’s Franklin Hill has received a boost via a $45 million capital infusion from Enterprise Community Investment Inc.The first phase of the Dorchester-area project (pictured) was completed in the spring. Development partners are Trinity Financial Inc. and the Boston Housing Authority (BHA). Franklin Hill Phase II will create 152 additional affordable rental units, making for a total of 266 affordable units at Franklin Hill. The $45 million in capital came from Enterprise Community Investment Inc., marking the program’s largest Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity investment. “This is the second and final phase of the…

Toronto-headquartered Calloway REIT has completed the acquisition of six open-air shopping centers in Canada from SmartCentres and Wal-Mart Canada Corp. The portfolio, which Calloway snapped up for a total of $371 million, will encompass an aggregate 1.7 million square feet upon completion. All six properties are to be expanded, and $86 million of the total acquisition cost will be shelled out over the next three years to accommodate construction. Calloway’s financing of the deal was a multi-faceted endeavor. The REIT relied on cash, in addition to $123 million of mortgage debt and acquisition loans secured by the portfolio; an additional…