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AcquisitionsCaliforniaCompany NewsIndustrialNew YorkNortheastTop StoriesWestern

Brookfield to Acquire Peakstone Realty Trust in $1.2B Transaction

by John Nelson

NEW YORK CITY AND EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. — Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE: BAM) has entered into a definitive agreement in which one of the firm’s private real estate funds will acquire the outstanding shares of Peakstone Realty Trust (NYSE: PKST), an industrial REIT that has a strategic focus on the industrial outdoor storage (IOS) sector. The El Segundo-based company, which sold off its final office assets in December, currently owns 76 industrial properties, including 60 IOS assets. At a proposed price of $21 per share, the all-cash transaction represents an implied enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The price represents a 34 percent premium relative to Peakstone’s share price on Jan. 30, the last full trading day prior to the announcement. “This transaction recognizes the value of our industrial portfolio and the progress we have made expanding our IOS platform,” says Michael Escalante, CEO of Peakstone. At the conclusion of the acquisition, Peakstone will be a privately held company and will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Founded in 2009 as Griffin Realty Trust, the company was rebranded as Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT in January 2023 and then as Peakstone Realty Trust in 2021. For Brookfield, the …

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Company NewsIndustrialMassachusettsNew YorkNortheast

Makarora, Ares Complete $2.1B Acquisition of Plymouth Industrial REIT

by Taylor Williams

NEW YORK CITY AND BOSTON — Affiliates of New York City-based investment firm Makarora Management and global investment firm Ares Management Corp. (NYSE: ARE) have completed the $2.1 billion, all-cash acquisition of Boston-based Plymouth Industrial REIT.   Under the terms of the deal, which was announced last fall, Plymouth shareholders will receive $22 for each share of common stock they own, and Plymouth will no longer be traded or listed on any public securities exchange. The transaction also calls for the acquiring entities to assume certain pieces of Plymouth’s outstanding debt. The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 50 percent to Plymouth’s unaffected closing common stock price on August 18, 2025. That date marks the last trading day prior to the filing of a Schedule 13D by affiliates of Sixth Street Partners LLC disclosing a nonbinding proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Plymouth’s common stock.

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AcquisitionsCompany NewsMarylandRetailSoutheast

MCB Real Estate Completes Acquisition of Epic Real Estate Partners

by John Nelson

BALTIMORE AND AUSTIN, TEXAS — MCB Real Estate, a privately held commercial real estate investment management and development firm based in Baltimore with more than $4 billion in assets under management (AUM), has completed the acquisition of Austin-based Epic Real Estate Partners. The transaction includes the operation of 15 grocery-anchored shopping centers totaling just over 2 million square feet of retail space across 10 states, with a total portfolio value exceeding $575 million, as well as the operating company encompassing 13 professionals. The assets were cumulatively 92 percent leased and occupied at the time of the merger, and the ownership structure of all property-level limited partnerships stayed intact as part of the transaction. The new AUM, which average 150,000 square feet in size, include: “The Epic Real Estate Partners portfolio, consisting of institutional-quality and high-performing grocery-anchored retail shopping centers, aligns perfectly with our existing national portfolio, while also providing a strong foothold and strategic presence into new submarkets with extremely favorable long-term growth opportunities,” says P. David Bramble, co-founder and managing partner of MCB. “We have known and respected the Epic team for years, and it was extremely important to retain the professional talent at Epic as part of this transaction, …

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Company NewsFloridaGeorgiaHospitalitySoutheast

Franklin Street Acquires Hospitality Brokerage Firm Hodges Ward Elliott

by John Nelson

TAMPA, FLA. AND ATLANTA — Tampa-based commercial real estate services firm Franklin Street has acquired Hodges Ward Elliott (HWE), a global hospitality brokerage firm based in Atlanta with offices in London, New York City, Miami, Tampa and Dallas. HWE will continue to provide its services under its current name and brand and will keep its leadership and brokerage teams intact. “HWE’s experience with executing institutional deals will benefit Franklin Street as we expand our reach and market share,” says Tony DeSisto, president and chief operating officer at Franklin Street. The company opened offices in Nashville and Dallas last year and recently hired a new regional managing director in Miami. HWE will join the Franklin Street platform and have access to the company’s multiple business verticals, including insurance, project management, capital advisory, leasing and property management. HWE team members have joined existing Franklin Street offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando and Tampa. Over the past five years, HWE has completed $17 billion in closed transactions, with 30 deals exceeding $100 million. In 2025, the firm closed $1.5 billion in transactions, including the sale of W London and Viewline Resort Snowmass, Autograph Collection in Colorado.

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Company NewsDevelopmentIllinoisLeasing ActivityMidwestRetailTop Stories

Aldi to Open 180 New U.S. Grocery Stores This Year

by John Nelson

BATAVIA, ILL. — Aldi, a German discount, small-format grocer, plans to open 180 new stores across 31 states this year. By the end of the year, Aldi will operate approximately 2,800 U.S. grocery stores, including its first Maine location in Portland and 10 new stores in the metro Phoenix area. The grocer has operated stores in the United States for 50 years and has gained a loyal following in recent years as the demand for discount grocery items increases in the face of inflation. The company disclosed that 17 million Americans shopped at Aldi for the first time in 2025. “One in three U.S. households shopped at Aldi this past year, and in 2026, we’re focused on making it even easier for customers to shop our aisles first,” says Atty McGrath, CEO of Aldi U.S. Aldi, whose U.S. headquarters is in Batavia, plans to continue its expansion over the next five years in the Southeast and West regions. In the Southeast, Aldi continues to convert former Winn-Dixie retail locations following Aldi’s acquisition of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket from Southeastern Grocers in 2023. Aldi plans to reposition 80 former Winn-Dixie stores by the end of the year and 200 total by 2027. …

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Company NewsData CentersFloridaSoutheast

SoftBank Agrees to Acquire DigitalBridge in $4B Deal

by John Nelson

TOKYO AND BOCA RATON, FLA. — SoftBank Group Corp. has agreed to acquire DigitalBridge, a global asset manager based in Boca Raton that invests in data centers, cell towers and fiber networks. The Tokyo-based investment firm is looking to grow its AI and digital infrastructure platforms and capabilities with this acquisition. SoftBank has agreed to indirectly acquire all outstanding shares of DigitalBridge (NYSE: DBRG) for $16 per share, giving the acquisition a total enterprise value of approximately $4 billion. The acquisition price is a 50 percent premium to the unaffected 52-week average closing price as of Dec. 4, 2025. Upon completion of the transaction, which is expected for the second half of the year, DigitalBridge will continue to operate as a separately managed platform led by Marc Ganzi. The board of directors at DigitalBridge has unanimously approved the transaction.

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AcquisitionsCompany NewsHawaiiIndustrialOfficeRetailTop StoriesWestern

Joint Venture to Acquire Alexander & Baldwin in $2.3B Deal, Take Hawaiian Company Private

by John Nelson

HONOLULU — A joint venture formed by locally based MW Group Ltd. and funds affiliated with Blackstone Real Estate (NYSE: BX) and DivcoWest has entered into a definite merger agreement with Alexander & Baldwin Inc. (NYSE: ALEX), a Honolulu-based owner-operator of shopping centers and other commercial real estate properties. The deal is valued at $2.3 billion, inclusive of outstanding debt, and would take Alexander & Baldwin private. The joint venture plans to acquire all outstanding shares of Alexander & Baldwin for $21.20 per share in an all-cash transaction. The company’s stock price closed last week at $15.22 per share, giving the acquisition price a nearly 40 percent premium. Alexander & Baldwin is the largest owner of grocery-anchored shopping centers in Hawaii. The firm’s overall portfolio spans approximately 4 million square feet and includes 21 retail centers, 14 industrial assets and four office properties, as well as fee interests in 146 acres of ground lease assets. Upon closing of the deal, which is scheduled for the first quarter of 2026, Alexander & Baldwin will become a privately held company but will retain its Honolulu headquarters and maintain its name and brand. The new investment group has announced it will invest $100 million …

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Affordable HousingCompany NewsDistrict of ColumbiaLeasing ActivityMultifamilySeniors HousingSoutheastStudent Housing

Justice Department, RealPage Settle Lawsuit Over Use of Revenue Management Software in Apartment Rental Pricing

by John Nelson

RICHARDSON, TEXAS AND WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division has reached a settlement with RealPage Inc. as part of its ongoing enforcement against algorithmic coordination, information sharing and other anticompetitive practices in rental housing markets across the country, according to details disclosed in a North Carolina federal court on Monday. The proposed consent judgment, which still requires court approval before it can be implemented, would help restore free market competition in rental markets for millions of American renters, the Justice Department stated in a press release. “Competing companies must make independent pricing decisions, and with the rise of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools, we will remain at the forefront of vigorous antitrust enforcement,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, RealPage is a provider of revenue management software and services for the conventional multifamily rental housing industry. In a civil antitrust claim filed in North Carolina in August 2024, the Justice Department and the attorneys general of eight states alleged that RealPage’s revenue management software relied on nonpublic, competitively sensitive information shared by landlords to set rental prices. The plaintiffs also alleged that RealPage’s software included features designed …

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Company NewsData CentersDevelopmentTop StoriesWashingtonWestern

Amazon to Invest Up to $50B to Expand AI Infrastructure for U.S. Government

by John Nelson

SEATTLE AND WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has announced an investment up to $50 billion to expand artificial intelligence (AI) and supercomputing abilities for Amazon Web Services (AWS) U.S. government clients. Amazon will break ground beginning next year on advanced data centers that will add 1.3 gigawatts of AI and supercomputing capacity. AWS currently supports more than 11,000 government agencies. The cloud computing software provides security, compliance and governance tools for the government control of unclassified and classified data. The new investment is expected to enable federal government agencies — including defense, healthcare and energy departments — in their discovery and decision-making processes using simulation and modeling data with AI. Amazon’s investment directly supports the Trump Administration’s AI Action Plan outlined in June 2025. “Our investment in purpose-built government AI and cloud infrastructure will fundamentally transform how federal agencies leverage supercomputing,” says Matt Garman, CEO of AWS. “We’re giving agencies expanded access to advanced AI capabilities that will enable them to accelerate critical missions from cybersecurity to drug discovery. This investment removes the technology barriers that have held government back and further positions America to lead in the AI era.” Amazon’s investment is the latest deal in the private sector’s …

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Company NewsNorth CarolinaOfficeSoutheast

Maersk Selects Charlotte for New North American Corporate Headquarters

by John Nelson

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Maersk, a global integrated logistics and shipping company, has selected Charlotte for its North American corporate headquarters. The company will invest $16 million in Mecklenburg County and will grow its Charlotte workforce to 1,300 jobs. The location of the company’s new offices and identity of the landlord were not disclosed. Maersk is a subsidiary of Danish firm A.P. Moller-Maersk and was founded in 1904. The new headquarters in Charlotte will house key corporate functions —  including finance, human resources, commercial strategy and technology — for its 10,000 North American employees. Maersk’s lease is the second headquarters relocation for Charlotte within a week as Scout Motors, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, announced its $206 million investment to move its regional headquarters to Charlotte.

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