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FRISCO, TEXAS — A development partnership has unveiled plans for Fields West, a $2 billion mixed-use project in Frisco, a northern suburb of Dallas. The 180-acre project will be situated along the Dallas North Tollway within Fields, a 2,500-acre master-planned development that houses PGA of America’s new headquarters. The development partnership for Fields West comprises Hunt Realty Investments, Karahan Cos., Chief Partners LP, CrossTie Capital Ltd. and the heirs of Bert Fields Jr., the original landowner and namesake of the development. Dallas-based Hunt Realty purchased the site, then known as Headquarters Ranch, from the Fields estate back in 2015. While individual components for Fields West weren’t disclosed, the developers did sign an agreement with Marriott International to bring a new Ritz-Carlton hotel to anchor the development. The size and room count for the new hotel were not announced. The Dallas Morning News reports that Fields West will ultimately feature three hotels and offices totaling a combined 4 million square feet. The outlet also reported the property will feature shopping, dining and entertainment uses, as well as 2,800 apartments. Project architect Gensler announced that Fields West will be “three times” the size of Legacy West Urban Village, a retail project within …

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NEW YORK CITY — Affiliates of private equity giant Blackstone (NYSE: BX) have agreed to acquire PS Business Parks (NYSE: PSB), a Glendale, Calif.-based commercial owner-operator primarily focused on industrial assets, for $7.6 billion. The deal is scheduled to close in the third quarter. Under the terms of the agreement, New York City-based Blackstone will purchase all outstanding shares of PSB’s common stock for $187.50 per share, which represents a premium of approximately 15 percent over the weighted average share price over the last 60 days. Blackstone plans to take the company private as part of the acquisition. Public Storage (NYSE: PSA), which is also based in Glendale, currently owns about 26 percent of PSB’s common stock, and the self-storage REIT’s executives and shareholders have voted in favor of the sale to Blackstone. The transaction will also include the acquisition of Public Storage’s limited partner equity interests in PSB’s operating partnership at the same per-share price of $187.50. As of March 30, 2022, PSB owned and operated 96 commercial properties across the country, primarily in California, South Florida, Texas and Northern Virginia. Those assets span approximately 27 million square feet and are occupied by nearly 5,000 tenants. Though mainly comprised …

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Giant at Kingstowne

KINGSTOWNE, VA. — Avison Young has brokered the sale of a retail portfolio totaling 410,398 square feet in Kingstowne, located in Fairfax County approximately 13 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE: FRT) purchased the portfolio for $200 million. The deal will close in two parts, with the first half already completed and the second half scheduled to close in July. Dean Sands and Chip Ryan of Avison Young represented the seller, The Halle Cos. The portfolio is 97 percent leased to 61 tenants, including supermarkets Safeway and Giant. According to local news outlets, the properties also feature tenants such as T.J. Maxx, Ross, HomeGoods, &pizza and Cava. The retail portfolio includes a significant portion of Kingstowne Towne Center, a live-work-play power center in Virginia. The Halle Cos. developed Kingstowne Towne Center in the mid-1980s, converting 1,200 acres into a master-planned community. With large expanses of green space and a centralized town center, Kingstowne is considered one of Northern Virginia’s best places to live and work, according to Avison Young. “Kingstowne Towne Center, with its attractive demographics and significant barriers to entry, is reflective of our Northern Virginia growth strategy, and further demonstrates our corporate commitment to …

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KATY, TEXAS — Mirae Asset Global Investments, a global investment firm based in Seoul, South Korea, has purchased the headquarters campus of sporting goods retail giant Academy Sports + Outdoors (Nasdaq: ASO) in the west Houston suburb of Katy. Phoenix-based Tratt Properties sold the 1.5 million-square-foot campus, which is triple-net leased to Academy Sports on a long-term lease, for $190 million. The 93-acre campus includes a little over 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space, 250,000 square feet of flexible office space and mezzanine space totaling approximately 800,000 square feet. Located at 1800 N. Mason Road, the site has immediate access to Interstate 10 and Texas Highway 99, which circles Houston. “From a logistics perspective, this property is exceptionally well-located, with access to highways in all directions,” says Ken Hedrick, executive managing director of Newmark. “The scarcity and increasing value of land in the west Houston area further enhance the property’s value.” Hedrick, along with Newmark colleagues Jerry Hopkins, Andrew Ragsdale, Alex Foshay and Kristian Nielsen, represented Tratt Properties in the sale. Dustin Stolly, Jordan Roeschlaub and Nick Scribani, also with Newmark, arranged acquisition financing on behalf of Mirae Asset Global. Tratt Properties is an active logistics real estate investor …

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AUSTIN, TEXAS — Lincoln Property Co. (LPC) and co-developer Phoenix Property Co. (PPC) have partnered with DivcoWest to develop The Republic, a 48-story office tower in downtown Austin. The developers say they have secured the building’s first major tenant, enabling construction to move forward. The developers expect to break ground on the project in the second quarter of this year. Located at 401 W. 4th St. and spanning 833,000 square feet, The Republic will overlook Lady Bird Lake and offer a direct connection to Republic Square Park. The office tower will feature a green public plaza at its main entrance that will act as an extension of the park. A 19th-floor amenity level will boast more than 50,000 square feet of indoor-outdoor space, including conference rooms, a fitness center, clubroom and a 25,000-square-foot outdoor terrace covered by canopies. In addition to the 20,000-square-foot public plaza, the ground floor will feature restaurant and retail space. Floor plates will average 29,000 square feet, and each floor will feature a private terrace. The building design by Duda Paine Architects emphasizes both outdoor space and health and wellness. Features include touchless access technology and enhanced air-filtration systems. The developers are pursuing WELLv2 Core certification, …

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Tooker-House

NEW YORK CITY AND AUSTIN, TEXAS — Blackstone Inc. (NYSE: BX) has agreed to acquire American Campus Communities (NYSE: ACC) in a deal valued at $12.8 billion, including the assumption of debt. ACC is the largest publicly traded owner, manager and developer of student housing in the United States. Blackstone plans to take the company private through Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. and Blackstone Property Partners, which unlike its traditional private-equity funds can hold properties as long-term investments, according to media sources. This move comes as the price of public equity has been more expensive than private institutional capital over the past few years, according to Bill Bayless, co-founder and CEO of ACC, in a letter to employees. During that time, many of the private players in the sector were able to acquire and develop more aggressively than the cost of public equities permitted. The purchase price represents a premium of 22 percent against ACC’s 90-day, volume-weighted average share price as of April 18, and a 30 percent premium over the company’s closing stock price on Feb. 16, the day prior to ACC disclosing an indication of willingness from Blackstone to acquire the Austin-based firm. This transaction marks Blackstone’s largest investment …

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SEATTLE — BioMed Realty, a San Diego-based owner-operator of healthcare real estate and a Blackstone portfolio company, has acquired a life sciences development site in Seattle. The sales price was $127 million, according to The Puget Sound Business Journal. BioMed plans to develop 616,000 square feet of life sciences space at the site, which is known as Denny Park South and comprises two adjacent parcels totaling 1.6 acres in South Lake Union/Denny Triangle neighborhood. The location is also near a variety of healthcare facilities and research institutions, notes Jon Bergschneider, president of West Coast markets at BioMed Realty. “The South Lake Union/Denny Triangle cluster is flush with renowned research institutes like the University of Washington School of Medicine, Gates Foundation, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Allen Institute, as well as large tech users such as Amazon, Meta and Apple,” he says. Following this development, BioMed’s life sciences portfolio in Seattle, which includes the recently completed flagship Dexter Yard project in South Lake Union, will total approximately 1.8 million square feet. A tentative construction timeline for the Denny Park South project was not disclosed. The acquisition of Denny Park South follows BioMed’s purchase of T6 Innovation Center, located at …

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270 Park Avenue

NEW YORK CITY — JPMorgan has unveiled plans to build 270 Park Avenue, a 60-story skyscraper rising 1,388 feet in Midtown Manhattan, for the financial firm’s new global headquarters. Construction is scheduled for completion by the end of 2025. 270 Park Avenue replaces a previous building, which was designed in the late 1950s for about 3,500 employees. The new project will feature 2.5 million square feet of flexible and collaborative space. The asset will offer 2.5 times more outdoor space on the ground level of Park and Madison avenues, with wider sidewalks and a large public plaza. The office tower will also include a food hall, health and wellness center, communal spaces, HVAC filtration systems and a conference center. The property will be fully powered by renewable energy sourced from a New York State hydroelectric plant and will operate on net zero carbon emissions. The asset will include technology to help it run efficiently, including intelligent building systems that use sensors, AI and machine learning systems to adapt to energy needs; advanced water storage and reuse systems to reduce water usage by more than 40 percent; and automatic solar shades connected to HVAC systems for greater energy efficiency. JPMorgan is …

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Addison-1

ADDISON, TEXAS — AMLI Residential and Stream Realty Partners have been named master developers for a $472 million, 18-acre, mixed-use development in Addison, roughly 15 miles north of Dallas.  The Town of Addison has been acquiring land for the project since the inception of the DART Light Rail system in 1983 with plans for a transit-oriented development. The project is centered on a DART Silver Line station currently under construction near Addison Circle Park, a 10-acre, master-planned public park.  DART has partnered with the Town of Addison through a ground-lease structure that allows for the inclusion of both the train and bus stations in the development. Phase I of the project is set to include: A six-story, Class A office building with 150,000 square feet of leasable space and 9,000 square feet of ground-floor retail; a 13-story luxury multifamily community with 9,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space;  a seven-story luxury multifamily building with 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space;  a 650-stall parking structure with ground-floor retail;  and a 45,000-square-foot entertainment complex operated by The HUB, a Texas-based creator of entertainment and restaurant venues with an emphasis on daily events and festivals.  Cushman & Wakefield has represented the Town …

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ROCHESTER, MINN. — CBRE Investment Management has acquired The Berkman, a 350-unit luxury apartment complex in Rochester, a city in Southeast Minnesota. The purchase price was $187.6 million, according to local media reports. The sellers were Kayne Anderson Real Estate and Alatus LLC. Located at 217 14th Ave. SW, The Berkman sits across the street from the Mayo Clinic’s Saint Marys Campus, which is the nation’s largest intensive care unit. The property is also less than one mile from the Mayo Clinic’s downtown campus. The community opened in 2020. The Berkman features several environmentally friendly components, including low-flow plumbing fixtures, efficient electric heat pumping technology and sustainable building materials. David Selznick, chief investment officer with Kayne Anderson, says the objective of the development was to provide an environmental, social and governance (ESG)-oriented community to support the Mayo Clinic’s staff, patients and overall Rochester resident base. “We believe that this asset’s proximity to the area’s elite base of education, research and world-renowned medical institutions, combined with strong demographic fundamentals, will position this property as a quality asset that will capitalize on durable demand from ‘eds and meds,’” says Benjamin Green, managing director of residential transactions at CBRE Investment Management. Community amenities …

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