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Taking advantage of the availability of a collection of convenience stores and fueling kiosks in an already familiar market, Valero has acquired 72 Albertson’s sites for an undisclosed amount. Upon completion of the deal, Valero’s company-owned retail presence will grow in Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Louisiana. Currently, Valero operates around 950 company-owned Corner Store locations. The transaction should close in August, at which time the newly purchased sites will be changed to the Corner Store brand selling Valero-branded fuel.  “These stores we’re acquiring are in areas where we already have a retail presence,” a Valero spokesperson told CPN today. “This…

HRPT Properties Trust, a REIT that primarily owns office buildings in the United States, said today it would sell 48 medical offices, clinic and biotech laboratory buildings to Senior Housing Properties Trust for $565 million.The properties have a total of 2.2 million square feet of space and will be sold in phases over the next year, according to the Newton, Mass.-based REIT. HRPT has owned the buildings for an average of nine years, the company stated in a press release. The REIT did not break down the locations or square footage of each property to be sold. HRPT officials could…

The Chicago office of Transwestern has received the assignment to market and lease 1.2 million square feet of Class A office space in Chicago’s western and northwestern suburbs from owner Prime Group Realty Trust. The space is in three projects totaling six buildings: Olympian Office Center in Lisle; 800 and 810 Jorie Boulevard in Oak Brook; and Continental Towers I, II and III in Rolling Meadows. These buildings had previously been marketed and leased in house; Julie Mertins of Prime will continue to be involved with the marketing/leasing efforts. Transwestern has its work cut out for itself. Fred Ishler, a…

Forest City Ratner Cos., developer of the $4 billion mixed-use Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, just unveiled the most recent renderings of the development. The presentation of the new renderings by celebrated architect Frank Gehry were accompanied by Forest City’s reiteration that it will build the project in its entirety with over 2,250 affordable housing units, despite claims from angry groups that the project is detrimental to the city and will not produce the benefits promised.The new group of designs, in the planning phase since December 2006, includes the first three buildings that will grace the 22-acre Downtown Brooklyn project….

War? What war? Violence? What violence? Those words literally don’t appear in “Stuck (Happily) in the Middle (East) with… Money!” a new report from NAI Global, which suggests that diversifying economies and rapid growth are well on their way to transforming the region from its energy-only past into a future with a more solidly based prosperity. The report, written by NAI Global chief economist Peter Linneman, Ph.D., is available free at www.naiglobal.com/docs/may08_middleeast.pdf. Average annual real GDP growth in the Middle East, the report notes, climbed from under 4 percent in the late ’90s to 6 percent in 2007. Among the…

Duke Realty Corp. and CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust have just entered into a partnership to which Duke will contribute as much as $800 million of new industrial projects over a three-year period. The first properties the joint venture will acquire–with purchasing taking place this year–account for an aggregate 5.2 million square feet of new bulk industrial build-to-suit projects valued at an estimated $250 million. Down the road, the partnership will also acquire certain industrial properties that Duke plans to develop upon their completion and the start of leasing activity. Duke will provide asset management, property management, construction management and…

Berkshire Income Realty Inc. has completed the sale of St. Marin/Karrington Apartments, a 600-unit multi-family apartment community located in Coppell, Texas. The sale price of the property was $62 million, or $103,000 per unit. According to a SEC filing, the Berkshire originally acquired the property from WHCO Real Estate L.P. a Delaware limited partnership, in October 2003 for $26.1 million. Along with the sale, the buyer assumed the principal balance outstanding on the mortgage loan, which is secured by the property. The principal balance outstanding was $31.4 million and was credited against the purchase price to the seller at closing. The buyer…

New York City-based iStar Financial Inc. has taken a single-source $960 million loan against a portfolio of 34 triple-net-leased single-tenant properties. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler L.P. (HFF) arranged the adjustable-rate, interest-only loan through GE Real Estate.   “Normally a publicly traded, investment grade REIT such as iStar would just borrow unsecured,” Janet Krolman (pictured), an HFF director, told CPN today. “But that market is pretty tough right now, and the most cost-effective way to raise capital is by doing a secured financing such as this.” The portfolio loan has been cross-collateralized and cross-defaulted. “A cross collateralized pool gives the lender more security…

As the Energy Corridor of Houston moves outward toward the suburb of Katy, Houston-based KBR plans to ink a deal for almost 1 million square feet of office space in a long-term lease in a campus off Grand Parkway and Interstate 10. Financials of the deal were not disclosed.KBR signed an earnest money agreement with plans to enter into a long-term lease for the new facility. The new facility is expected to be more than 910,000 square feet. Despite the new facility, KBR plans to maintain its downtown Houston location for a corporate and operations presence. No contract has been…

Plans for the Dacono Gateway Centre between Denver and Boulder, Colo., have come closer to fruition with the selection of a firm to design the project’s master plan. Denver-based Norris Design got the nod recently from the developer, Orlando-based Jupiter USA. The project will encompass more than 500,000 square feet of retail, hotel, restaurant and office space on 132 acres, according to Jupiter USA. The site is at the southeast corner of the junction of I-25 and Colorado 52 about 10 miles east of Boulder, in the town of Dacono, population 4,200. I-25 is a major artery running through both…