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Stecher

MIAMI — Shorenstein Properties, a privately owned investment firm with offices in New York City and San Francisco, has sold 2 & 3 MiamiCentral, a 320,000-square-foot office complex in the city’s downtown area. A fund backed by Blackstone purchased the property for $230 million. Constructed in 2018, the two-building complex is located within MiamiCentral, a transit-oriented, mixed-use development that spans nine acres and roughly 3 million square feet of residential and commercial space. The site’s history as a transit hub dates back to 1896, when it served as the southern terminus for Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway that ran throughout the Florida Keys. According to the Miami Herald, Florida East Coast was the original developer of the MiamiCentral project in 2007. The first office building rises 17 stories and includes a 288-space valet parking garage. The second building comprises four floors of office, eight levels of parking and a 33,000-square-foot Publix grocery store on the ground floor. Amenities include a conference room, caterer’s kitchen, fitness center with locker rooms and an outdoor amenity deck. In addition, the adjacent MiamiCentral train station houses an 18,000-square-foot food hall with more than 20 different food and beverage vendors. Blackstone is also a …

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125 West End Ave

NEW YORK — JLL Capital Markets has arranged $393 million in construction financing for a project that will convert a 399,029-square-foot office building at ABC/Disney’s former headquarters building in Manhattan into a life sciences facility with purpose-built research and lab space. The borrower, a partnership controlled by New York City-based developer Taconic Partners and investment firm Nuveen Real Estate, purchased the building at 125 West End Ave. in 2019 for $230 million. With the vacating of the property by its primary tenant, which operated out of the building from 1985 until its lease expired in January of this year, the partnership is set to begin construction. The senior lender on the four-year, floating-rate financing package was a fund backed by Apollo Global Management, while Oaktree Capital Finance also provided mezzanine debt for the project. Evan Pariser and Geoff Goldstein of JLL placed the financing. The 125 West End Ave. building is located less than a quarter-mile from Lincoln Square and is close to the 1, 2 and 3 subway lines as well as West Side Highway. Additionally, the project is situated just 18 miles from the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. The existing building’s specs allow …

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. — Google has announced plans to invest $7 billion in offices and data centers across the U.S. this year, creating 10,000 new full-time jobs across 19 states.  The investment will include over $1 billion in the state of California; office expansions in Atlanta, Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C.; and data center expansions in Nebraska, South Carolina, Virginia, Nevada and Texas. Further details on planned investments across the U.S. are below: South In the Southern U.S., Google will increase its investment in an existing South Carolina data center and its existing office campuses in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.; establish a new cloud engineering site in Durham, N.C.; open its first U.S. Google Operations Center in Southaven, Miss.; open a new office in Reston, Va.; and expand its data center in Virginia’s Loudon County. Midwest Earlier this year, Google established its first Minnesota office in Rochester and its new data centers in New Albany, Ohio, and Papillion, Neb., became operational. The company plans to expand its data center footprint in Nebraska over the course of 2021 and will begin further improvements at its Detroit, Chicago and Ann Arbor, Mich., offices.  Texas Google’s new data center in Midlothian, …

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AUSTIN, TEXAS — Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NASDAQ: HST) has acquired the fee simple interest in the 448-room Hyatt Regency Austin for approximately $161 million in cash. The purchase price represents a capitalization rate of 10 percent and a 20 to 25 percent discount to pre-COVID pricing, according to HST. Hyatt will continue to manage the hotel under a long-term agreement. The seller was undisclosed. Situated on nearly six acres along Lady Bird Lake, the waterfront property is located near the city’s South Congress District and Zilker Park. The hotel’s rooms were renovated in 2015 and its meeting space was expanded in 2018. The property features 45,000 square feet of meeting space, including two ballrooms. There are also two food and beverage outlets as well as an outdoor pool and a fitness center. “As travel resumes, we expect the well-located Hyatt Regency Austin to benefit from a strong rebound led by Austin’s multiple leisure and business demand drivers that are anchored in world-renowned music festivals, sporting events and blue-chip corporations,” says James Risoleo, president and CEO of HST. “Additionally, we are encouraged by the reported contraction in Austin’s hotel construction pipeline relative to pre-pandemic levels and by the market’s …

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GALVESTON, TEXAS — A public-private partnership between Royal Caribbean International and the Port of Galveston, located in Southeast Texas, is moving forward with development of a new $100 million cruise ship terminal. The partnership will develop the two-story property within an eastern section of the port known as Pier 10 and will harbor one of the Miami-based cruise line’s largest ships, the Allure of the Seas. Construction of the facility, which will span approximately 170,000 square feet and 10 acres, is set to begin in April for completion in fall 2022. The project was originally announced in December 2019. At that time, construction was expected to begin in April 2020 and wrap up in fall 2021. Those plans were significantly delayed by the outbreak of COVID-19, which hurt the cruise industry as part of the larger hospitality sector. The facility will feature state-of-the-art technology, including mobile check-in and facial recognition platforms to expedite guests’ arrival. The plans also include a staging and loading area; bus and taxi staging areas; and substantial parking space. The terminal is designed to meet LEED certification standards. The partnership between Royal Caribbean and the Port of Galveston dates back to 2002, when the luxury cruise …

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Extended Stay America

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Blackstone Real Estate Partners and Starwood Capital Group have agreed to form a 50/50 joint venture to acquire Extended Stay America (NYSE: STAY) in a deal valued at $6 billion. Barry Sternlicht, CEO of Starwood Capital (NYSE: STWD), cited Extended Stay America’s performance amid the COVID-19 pandemic as a key factor behind the acquisition. “Extended Stay has demonstrated resilience over the past year despite persistent challenges due to government lockdowns and travel restrictions,” says Sternlicht. “We are excited about the company’s growth opportunity as restrictions ease and we’re confident that, in partnership with Blackstone, our team has the right experience to drive continued success.” “Travel and leisure is one of Blackstone’s highest conviction investment themes, and we have confidence in the extended stay model,” adds Tyler Henritze, Blackstone’s head of U.S. acquisitions. The Charlotte-based hotel owner operates 649 Extended Stay America hotels in the United States spanning over 69,000 rooms. The company’s subsidiary, hospitality REIT ESH Hospitality Inc., owns 563 of those hotels. The remaining 86 properties are franchised, according to Extended Stay America’s fourth-quarter 2020 earnings report. Blackstone and Starwood Capital’s cash offer is for $19.50 per share, a premium of 15.1 percent to Extended Stay …

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Inspir

NEW YORK CITY — Maplewood Senior Living and Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. have opened Inspīr Carnegie Hill, a high-rise senior living community in Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighborhood. Inspīr Carnegie Hill rises 23 stories at 1802 Second Ave. The property features 215 units of assisted living and memory care with a range of studio to two-bedroom options and over 50,000 square feet of amenity spaces. Community amenities include a salon, an open-air SkyPark, a lounge, library, fitness center, heated saltwater pool, screening room, two fine dining options with meals included, a 24-hour attended lobby, concierge, Mercedes-Maybach house car available daily and limousine service available upon request. Additionally, the community will offer residents Stage Access, an on-demand streaming platform that delivers performing arts content directly to residents via television or virtual reality. The seniors housing community also has a partnership with The Actors Fund, which integrates entertainment and arts professionals into the rhythm of each day through dance, music, storytelling and acting. Claire Davenport has joined the property’s integrated care team as house geriatrician through a collaboration with the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which was recently ranked the No. …

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Montreux

PHOENIX — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA) has brokered the $117 million sale of Montreux, a 335-unit luxury multifamily property located within the master-planned community of Desert Ridge in Phoenix.  Montreux offers a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units averaging 1,058 square feet with 9-foot ceilings; sound-absorbing mechanisms that assist in mitigating sound transfer; fiber-optic high-speed internet; keyless entry; and motion sensor management. Shared amenities at the property include a clubhouse, rooftop terrace, creative workshop, game room, fitness center, dog park, two resort-style swimming pools, a business center, and tennis, bocce and pickleball courts.  Completed in 2020, Montreux is located adjacent to Loop 101, State Route 51 and Interstate 17 — three of the most traveled freeways in Arizona. It is also near the corporate headquarters for Sprouts Farmers Market and offices for American Express, Vanguard, Nationwide, Axon and the Mayo Clinic Hospital. The community was 60 percent occupied at the time of sale. Steve Gebing and Cliff David of IPA represented the seller, The Statesman Group, in the transaction and procured the buyer, Pacific Development Partners. “The Phoenix MSA continues to be among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the nation with a wide range of industries that attract a …

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DENVER — Crescent Communities has started development of NOVEL RiNo, a $181 million apartment project in Denver’s River North (RiNo) Art District and Cole neighborhood. Located at 1300 40th St., the community will feature 483 multifamily units, 15,800 square feet of retail space with a 2,702-square-foot rooftop cocktail lounge. The property will feature a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom floor plans, with a portion of the units designated as affordable housing. Community amenities will include a sixth-floor pool deck, three outdoor courtyards, a covered outdoor pavilion and a food truck reserved for resident use. The project will embrace the artistic and industrial history of the neighborhood through art installations by local artists and industrial-inspired architecture, according to the developer. Crescent and its equity partner, Dart Interests, acquired the development site in February from EXDO Development. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. is providing project financing. “Denver is a place we identified years ago for its long-term potential, and we are excited to find an opportunity that matches our investment criteria,” says Jonathan Winson, senior vice president of investments for Dart. The first residences are slated to open in spring 2023. JLL is managing the retail leasing, additional details of which will …

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SAN FRANCISCO — Kilroy Realty Corp. (NYSE: KRC) has agreed to sell The Exchange on Sixteenth, a 750,000-square-foot office campus located at 1800 Owens St. in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood. The buyer was not disclosed, but the San Francisco Chronicle reported it was KKR, a private equity firm based in New York. The agreed purchase price is a little more than $1 billion, equating to approximately $1,440 per square foot. Kilroy Realty says this is the highest per-square-foot sales price for a “major property” in the history of San Francisco’s commercial real estate market. The Chronicle reports the sale represents the second largest transaction for a single property in the city’s history. “This transaction demonstrates that quality assets in quality locations remain highly attractive to buyers, and in this case generated a record price,” says John Kilroy, chairman and CEO of Kilroy Realty. Software storage giant Dropbox Inc. (NASDAQ: DBX) signed a 15-year lease for its corporate headquarters at the campus in 2017. The San Francisco Business Times reported last summer that the company listed 270,000 square feet of its space at the campus for sublease as the COVID-19 pandemic caused most of its staff to work remotely. Kilroy …

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