Company News

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BENTONVILLE, ARK. — Bentonville-based Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) posted growth in earnings during its fiscal third quarter of 2021, which ended Oct. 31. Walmart’s total revenue was $140.5 billion, an increase of 4.3 percent from a year earlier when it was $134.7 billion. These numbers were also higher than Wall Street’s predictions of $135.6 billion, according to CNBC. According to Refinitiv, the discount retailer’s earnings per share were $1.45 adjusted versus $1.40 expected. Additionally, Walmart’s e-commerce sales increased 8 percent during the fiscal third quarter and 87 percent over a two-year period. Walmart raised its forecast for the rest of the year, believing it will continue to see growth. Based on full-year guidance, now the retailer expects its adjusted earnings per share will be approximately $6.40 versus its previous projection of between $6.20 and $6.35. To prepare for the upcoming holiday shopping season, Walmart boosted its inventory by 11.5 percent. More customers shopped at Walmart during the third quarter due to the retailer’s low prices and amid an inflationary period that is causing household items to rise in price, according to CNBC. Despite the growth in revenue, Walmart’s net income decreased to $3.11 billion, or $1.11 per share. A year prior, …

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SAN DIEGO AND BALTIMORE — Realty Income Corp. (NYSE: O) has completed the spin-off of substantially all of its office assets into Orion Office REIT Inc. (NYSE: ONL), a new, independent, publicly traded REIT. Orion Office REIT specializes in the ownership, acquisition and management of a diversified portfolio of mission-critical and corporate headquarters office buildings in high-quality suburban markets across the United States. The portfolio is leased primarily on a single-tenant, net-lease basis to creditworthy tenants. Under the terms of the spin-off, Realty Income stockholders received one share of Orion common stock for every 10 shares of Realty Income common stock held as of the record date of Nov. 2, 2021. Wells Fargo Securities served as lead financial advisor, Moelis & Co. served as financial advisor and Latham & Watkins LLP acted as legal advisor to Realty Income in connection with the spin-off. Realty Income is based in San Diego, while the spin-off, according to SEC filings, is based in Baltimore.

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DALLAS AND DENVER — In two separate transactions exceeding $25 billion in value, data center REITs CyrusOne Inc. (NASDAQ: CONE) and CoreSite Realty Corp. (NYSE: COR) have agreed to be acquired. KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) are teaming up to acquire all outstanding shares of common stock for CyrusOne at $90.50 per share for a deal value of approximately $15 billion, including the assumption of debt. In the other mega transaction, telecommunications firm American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT) has agreed to acquire Denver-based CoreSite for $170 per share in cash. The total consideration for the transaction is approximately $10.1 billion, including the assumption and/or repayment of CoreSite’s existing debt at closing. The purchase price for CyrusOne, a Dallas-based company that owns and operates 50 data centers worldwide, reflects an approximately 25 percent premium over CyrusOne’s stock price on Sept. 27, which was the last day of trading before market speculation of a potential sale was published. KKR and GIP plan to grow CyrusOne’s global footprint of data centers following the closing of the acquisition. The company’s provides IT infrastructure for more than 1,000 clients, including 200 Fortune 1000 companies, according to CyrusOne. The transaction, which CyrusOne’s board of directors …

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Monmouth

NEWTON, MASS. AND HOLMDEL, N.J. — Industrial Logistics Properties Trust (ILPT) has agreed to acquire all the outstanding shares of Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE: MNR) for $21 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $4 billion. The agreement includes the acquisition of $409 million of debt and all of Monmouth’s industrial properties. The transaction is slated to close in the beginning of 2022. Under the agreement, ILPT will add Monmouth’s 126 Class A, single-tenant industrial properties totaling more than 26 million square feet to its portfolio. The Monmouth assets have an average remaining lease term of approximately eight years. The portfolio is over 80 percent leased to tenants that generate yearly rental revenue of $169.4 million. ILPT cites geographic diversity and tenant diversity as benefits of the acquisition. Also, the merger will allow ILPT to improve its tenant base with renters such as Home Depot, Mercedes Benz and Ulta. “This accretive transaction more than doubles the properties in ILPT’s mainland portfolio and this scale is expected to expand ILPT’s growth opportunities and access to capital, which we expect will drive cash flow growth and long-term value for our shareholders,” says John Murray, chief executive officer of …

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MENLO PARK, CALIF. AND NEW YORK CITY — BowX Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: BOWX), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) has completed its purchase of WeWork and will take the company public with an initial public offering (IPO) on Thursday, Oct. 21. Silicon Valley-based BowX originally announced its plan to acquire WeWork, which will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “WE” in March of this year in a deal that was then valued at $9 billion. “With a strong leadership team in place and new platform offerings that will leverage WeWork’s decade of expertise and proprietary technology, we can’t imagine a business better equipped to lead continued growth in the flexible space market,” said Vivek Ranadive, the CEO and chairman of BowX Acquisition Corp. who also owns the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. “While the pandemic has created many uncertainties, flexibility is here to stay and WeWork has the space and technology to power this global shift.” WeWork opened its first concept more than a decade ago in New York City, where the pioneering coworking office firm is also headquartered, and first announced its intent to go public in August 2019. Subsequent investigation into the company’s financials revealed …

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Greystone

NEW YORK CITY — Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) and Greystone have announced a strategic joint venture to deliver advisory services and capital solutions to existing, joint and new clients of both firms nationwide. Under the terms of the agreement, Cushman & Wakefield will make a strategic investment of $500 million to acquire a 40 percent stake in Greystone’s agency, HUD and servicing businesses. Greystone intends to use the capital to create new product offerings. The joint venture transaction is slated to close in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. Greystone is a multifamily lender focused on bridge, Fannie Mae DUS, Freddie Mac Optigo and HUD loans. The joint venture will allow Cushman & Wakefield to access a broader range of debt products for property acquisition, refinancing, rehabilitation and new construction. “We’re excited to offer a new integrated capability to our investor clients with more direct access to Greystone’s balance sheet and capital solutions, including debt financing with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD,” says Andrew McDonald, Cushman & Wakefield’s chief executive, Americas. This investment expands Cushman & Wakefield’s presence in the multifamily sector. In early 2020, the firm acquired Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC, the …

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AUSTIN, TEXAS — Tesla (NYSE: TSLA) will relocate its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, CEO Elon Musk announced at a company shareholder meeting on Thursday night. Information on where the company’s new headquarters office will be located and when the move will commence was not immediately available. The electric vehicle manufacturer announced in July 2020 that it had selected a development site near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport for its $1 billion Gigafactory. Vehicle production at the Gigafactory, which will span more than 2,500 acres and employ some 7,000 people, is expected to begin in 2022. Musk’s other signature company, SpaceX, operates a rocket production facility and test site near the South Texas city of Brownsville. In explaining the move, Musk cited rising home prices and lengthy commute times for employees as primary deterrents to the company continuing to operate out of the Silicon Valley. Tesla joins Oracle and Digital Realty Trust as one of the latest major tech firms to announce a relocation from the Bay Area to the Texas state capital. The stock price of Tesla, which was founded in 2003, opened at $785.46 per share on Friday, Oct. 8, following the breaking of the news. The company’s …

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Palasciano-Henry

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —The Carolinas leasing team of Darrell Palasciano and Matt Henry has joined The Providence Group’s landlord division. Palasciano and Henry combined have nearly three decades of experience as landlord advisors. Matt Henry started working in commercial real estate in 2014, and Darrell Palasciano has about 18 years of retail development and leasing experience. The two have $600 million in career transaction volume with a total of 3 million square feet. Most recently, the team was with the Carolinas Division of The Shopping Center Group. Starting earlier this month, Palasciano and Henry joined The Providence Group as brokers, working from the firm’s new office in Charlotte. The Palasciano-Henry team continue to work as strategic retail advisors with national, regional and local owners and developers throughout both North Carolina and South Carolina. Palasciano currently serves as ICSC State Chair for both North and South Carolina, previously serving as Government Relations Chair and Carolinas Conference Chair. Henry has previously worked with clients including Kimco Realty Corp., Slate Asset Management, Echo Realty, Vanguard, Westwood and Seritage.

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BENTONVILLE, ARK. — Walmart, a Bentonville-based discount retailer, has released plans to hire approximately 150,000 new store associates, with most of the job positions being permanent and full-time. The retailer wants to hire new employees ahead of the holiday season to ensure its stores are highly staffed for the predicted busy months. This July, the discount retailer announced it will invest approximately $1 billion over the next five years to pay college tuition and books for employees via its education program called Live Better U. Walmart also offers an average hourly wage of $16.40, with some jobs at the stores paying as much as $34 an hour. Other benefits include on-the-job and classroom training, affordable health insurance, a 10 percent discount on general merchandise and food for associates, as well as paid time off, no-cost counseling, 401(k) and parental leave. This hiring news follows the announcement the retailer made at the beginning of September in which Walmart planned to hire 20,000 new supply-chain employees in order to keep up with the company’s recent revenue growth. The company saw an increase of 2.4 percent year-over-year in revenue in its fiscal second quarter of 2021, which ended on July 31. The company …

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