NEW YORK CITY — Two construction management firms with offices in the Northeast will become part of the same operation on July 1. That’s when Consigli Building Group, a $1.6 billion company with five regional offices, acquires New York City-based T.G. Nickel & Associates. The acquisition will allow the new entity, which will be branded as Consigli, to take on new types of projects in the healthcare and academic spaces. Once the deal closes, Nickel CEO Thomas Nickel, who founded the company in 1998, will become CEO of Consigli’s New York City Metro Operations. Nickel co-founder Joseph Chiarelli will be promoted to president of the company’s New York City operations.
MAITLAND, FLA. — Equinox Development Properties Inc. has hired Genny Hall as senior vice president and a partner to oversee the leasing for all developments and retailer relationships. Hall has more than 15 years of retail brokerage experience. Prior to joining Equinox, Hall served as the managing director of retail services at Colliers International in Central Florida. Maitland, Fla.-based Equinox Development specializes in developing retail, mixed-use and boutique commercial projects.
RENO AND LAS VEGAS, NEV. — Eldorado Resorts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERI) and Caesars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) have agreed to merge operations in a cash and stock deal valued at $17.3 billion. Eldorado plans to purchase the assets and operations of Caesars, creating the world’s largest gaming company. If approved and executed, the combined company would operate under the Caesars name and continue to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The combined company would own and operate approximately 60 casino-resorts and gaming facilities across 16 states. The combined company will also oversee the completion of the $1.2 billion room remodeling program of Caesars’ Las Vegas Strip assets. Eldorado will acquire all the outstanding shares of Caesars using $7.2 billion in cash, approximately 77 million Eldorado common shares and the assumption of Caesars outstanding net debt, excluding face value of the existing convertible note (i.e. short-term debt that converts to equity). Eldorado and Caesars shareholders will hold approximately 51 percent and 49 percent of the combined company’s outstanding shares, respectively. The combined company’s board of directors will consist of 11 members, six from Eldorado’s board of directors and five from Caesars’ board of directors. The board of directors for both …
ATLANTA — State Farm Arena, home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, has received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Buildings Council (USGBC). Situated in downtown Atlanta, State Farm Arena was certified due to efforts that include a partnership with Rubicon Global to recycle 12,500 seats in 2018 following its $192 million makeover; the arena and surrounding area becoming a smoke-free campus; upgrading the lighting fixtures to LED lighting, which led to 41 percent lighting power reduction; installing more efficient plumbing fixtures that will save 540,000 gallons of potable water per year; and more than 900 tons of waste was sent to Atlanta’s Lifecycle Building for resale, instead of going to the dump. There are four levels of LEED certification, according to the USGBC: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. State Farm Arena, previously known as Philips Arena, is owned by the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority and operated by the Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club, which is owned by Tony Ressler along with a group of investors including Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Grant Hill.
ATLANTA — Choate Construction will celebrate its 30th anniversary this month. In its 30 years, the Atlanta-based general contractor has completed more than 5,200 projects, ranging from student housing to automotive plants to manufacturing facilities. Choate has also expanded to Nashville and has almost 500 employees. The company is 100 percent employee-owned. “While we have grown a lot, there are some things that haven’t changed: The core values that have guided us from the start. Safety, integrity, innovation, operational excellence, relationships, stewardship,” says Millard Choate, chairman and CEO. “They are the framework that will continue to shape us each and every day.”
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Cushman & Wakefield has acquired the office operations of office brokerage and management firm Peloton Commercial Real Estate. The acquisition does not affect Peloton’s other offices in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston. Under the terms of the deal, 40 Peloton employees, including partners Kevin Granger, Brian Liverman and Matt Frizzell, will join Cushman & Wakefield in the firm’s Austin office. Andrew McDonald, president of Cushman & Wakefield’s west region, cited Peloton’s intimate knowledge of a fast-growing market as an asset to C&W’s business, which will continue to serve both startup and established corporate office users and investors.
MAHWAH, N.J. — Dressbarn, a women’s apparel retailer, plans to eventually close all 650 of its stores nationwide. The New Jersey-based company is winding down its retail operations and plans to assist its 6,800 associates with transition support as individual stores close. “For more than 50 years, Dressbarn has served women’s fashion needs, and we thank all of our dedicated associates for their commitment to Dressbarn and our valued customers,” says Steven Taylor, Dressbarn’s chief financial officer. “This decision was difficult, but necessary, as the Dressbarn chain has not been operating at an acceptable level of profitability in today’s retail environment.” No information was made available about how the store closures will affect Dressbarn’s lease agreements in place with landlords, but the company has retained A&G Realty Partners to assist on all real estate-related matters during the wind down process. A&G Realty Partners is actively marketing Dressbarn’s available locations to interested tenants. According to A&G Realty’s marketing materials, Dressbarn’s available stores range in size from a 3,300-square-foot store in Michigan to a 15,000-square-foot location in Virginia Beach. Approximately 165 Dressbarn stores have leases that expire in 2020. In 2021, an additional 111 Dressbarn leases are expected to come due. The …
HONOLULU — San Diego-based Parallel Capital Partners has taken over asset management of a $300 million portfolio of office and retail properties in downtown Honolulu. As part of the deal, Parallel will oversee day-to-day management and leasing for the 1 million-square-foot portfolio. The assets include two office buildings — the 550,000-square-foot Waterfront Plaza and 375,000-square-foot Davies Pacific Center — and two retail assets known as Waikiki Marketplace and King Kalakaua. The principals of Parallel, along with Jay Shidler, are the existing owners of Davies Pacific Center and Waterfront Plaza, which the partnership originally acquired in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Additionally, the firm tapped Steven Sullivan, a former vice president of operations at The Shidler Group, as regional vice president for the Hawaii market. Serena Longo and Jack Roney of CBRE’s Honolulu office will oversee leasing at the properties.
DENVER — Amazon plans to expand its Denver Tech Hub and create 400 new high-tech jobs in a variety of fields, including software engineering, hardware engineering, cloud computing and advertising. To accommodate this growth, the company will open a 98,000-square-foot office at Invesco’s 1515 Wynkoop building in Denver’s Lower Downtown district. Currently, Amazon has more than 350 employees in the Denver area, building new products and services for the company’s retail, advertising and Amazon Web Services businesses. The company’s new office joins the company’s Boulder office, which opened last fall, and will allow Amazon to more than double its tech workforce in the Denver area. In total, Amazon has created more than 3,500 full-time jobs in Colorado. Over the last three years, Amazon has invested more than $1.5 billion in Colorado including infrastructure, compensation and Whole Foods Market.
THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS — Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) has entered into an agreement to acquire Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC), which is based in metro Houston, in a stock and cash transaction valued at $33 billion. Chevron expects the addition of Anadarko’s assets to improve operations in several ways, such as creating a 75-mile infrastructural corridor in the Permian Basin, bolstering the company’s production in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and elevating its presence in the midstream space. The deal will be structured as 75 percent stock and 25 percent cash. Based on Chevron’s closing stock price of $125.99 per share on Thursday, April 11, Anadarko shareholders will receive 0.3869 shares of Chevron and $16.25 in cash for each Anadarko share. The merger carries a total enterprise value of $50 billion via the assumption of debt. Chevron expects to be able to annually repurchase $5 billion of its stock in the coming years as a result of higher cash flow. The deal is expected to close during the second half of the year.