Top Stories

PALO ALTO, CALIF. — Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. (NYSE: HPP) has acquired the leasehold interest in Page Mill Hill, a five-building office campus totaling 182,676 square feet in Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, for $150 million. HPP acquired the leasehold interest from a joint venture owned by Lionstone Investments and CalSTRS. The campus is currently fully occupied by legal and accounting firms including Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Frank, Rimerman + Co.; Manatt, Phelps & Phillips; and Perkins Coie. Stanford Research Park is affiliated with Stanford University, and was founded in partnership with the city of Palo Alto in 1951. The 160-building park focuses on innovation, housing predominantly startups and research and development companies. Office tenants include Google, Tesla, Ford, Skype, Nest, Hewlett-Packard, Toyota Research Institute and Lockheed Martin. Hudson Pacific is the largest office landlord in the park. The company owned the leasehold interest in six buildings totaling more than 1 million square feet prior to the recent acquisition of Page Mill Hill. Hudson Pacific also claims to be the largest institutional leasehold owner of office space in Silicon Valley, with 22 assets totaling over 7 million square feet. Among its properties in the region are Palo Alto Square; Foothill …

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Ten-X Top Buy and Sell Markets

IRVINE, CALIF. — The U.S. hotel market faces many long-term challenges, including a slowdown in international travel, an increase in supply and a decrease in demand, according to the most recent Quarterly Hotel Monitor report from Ten-X, an online real estate marketplace. The leading “buy markets” for hotels will be those that most strongly fight against these negative trends, while the top “sell markets” reflect the strongest negative forecast indicators. According to the Ten-X reports, the top buy markets for 2017 are (1) Las Vegas; (2) Jacksonville, Fla.; (3) Sacramento, Calif.; (4) Los Angeles; and (5) Indianapolis. The top sell markets are (1) Houston; (2) New York City; (3) Pittsburgh; (4) San Jose, Calif.; and (5) Northern New Jersey. In Las Vegas, occupancy jumped 110 basis points in the third quarter alone to 73.4 percent and room rates also spiked dramatically, according to Ten-X. Meanwhile, supply has dwindled due to the closing of underperforming hotels, and the new supply pipeline is relatively small. These factors combined to make Las Vegas the top buy market. In Houston, the top sell market, the prolonged oil price slump continues to take its toll. Energy and manufacturing jobs dropped 6.8 percent year-to-date through the …

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Selig Enterprises, Midtown Atlanta

ATLANTA — Atlanta-based Selig Enterprises Inc. has launched a new division known as Selig Development Corp., whose first development will be a $400 million mixed-use project located at 1105 W. Peachtree St. in Midtown Atlanta. The project will feature 645,000 square feet of Class A office space, 80 residential units and a 150-room boutique hotel, along with street-level retail space. The 32-story office tower leads the project, encompassing an entire city block. Totaling more than 3.5 acres between the 10th Street and Art Center MARTA train stations, the site is situated across from the new Northside Hospital Medical Office and a Whole Foods Market currently under construction. Selig Development expects to begin construction on the project in mid-2017. The office portion is expected to be ready for occupancy beginning in the fourth quarter of 2019. Selig Development is in discussions with several tenants for the new office tower, and plans open nearly 50 percent pre-leased. The boutique hotel will feature an outdoor pool, pool bar and event space within a 38,000-square-foot, deck-top plaza. The 80 residential units will start above the hotel rooms in the same tower and feature two- and three-bedroom units. The residential portion will have access to hotel amenities, …

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SAN FRANCISCO — Oceanwide Holdings has broken ground on Oceanwide Center, a mixed-use development in San Francisco. The project consists of two towers at First and Mission streets. The First Street tower will be the second-tallest structure in San Francisco at 910 feet and will include 109 high-end condos and flexible office space. The Mission Street tower will include the Waldorf Astoria San Francisco hotel and 156 condos. Oceanwide Center contains 2.4 million square feet in total, of which 26,000 square feet will be dedicated to new public spaces and pedestrian connections. A 68-foot-tall public square or “Urban Plaza” adjacent to First Street will highlight a large and interconnected set of open spaces and public plazas. The project is slated for completion by 2021. The architectural design team includes Foster + Partners and Heller Manus Architects. Designed by landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson, the “Urban Plaza” will feature outdoor seating, a bicycle hub and a special events terrace for live music, farmers’ markets and cultural exhibitions. Oceanwide Center also includes the renovation and restoration of the historic buildings at 78 and 88 First St. These buildings will provide additional office and retail space. Swinerton and Webcor are the builders on the …

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FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — Tavistock Development Co., an Orlando-based real estate development firm, has acquired the Pier Sixty-Six Marina and Hyatt Regency hotel in Fort Lauderdale. The sales price and seller weren’t disclosed, but the South Florida Business Journal reports that Tavistock purchased the assets from an affiliate of Blackstone (NYSE: BX) for $163.3 million. Situated on 22 waterfront acres along the Intracoastal Waterway, Pier 66’s 17-story tower features a rotating panorama rooftop. The property’s 127-slip yacht marina is one of the largest in the state and recently served as a host location of the 56th Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. Tavistock has retained Interstate Hotels & Resorts to operate the 384-room hotel and marina. Pier Sixty-Six also has approved entitlements for the addition of 58 residential units in two 11-story buildings with 30,000 square feet of retail and office space. “When we first discovered that this special property was available, we knew there were incredible opportunities to leverage the collective experience of our teams and further establish this iconic hotel and marina as one of Fort Lauderdale’s defining destinations,” says James Zboril, president of Tavistock Development, which is owned by Tavistock Group. CBRE Group Inc. facilitated the deal between …

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The multifamily industry has entered a phase in the development cycle where the velocity of starts and completions is decreasing. Through the first 10 months of 2016, multifamily starts nationally are down 1.8 percent year-over-year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Completions are down 3.1 percent during the same period. One of the governors on construction today is the ample supply of existing multifamily product in the top markets nationally, according to the development panel at the seventh-annual InterFace Multifamily Southeast conference. Alan Dean, region president of multifamily development firm Terwilliger Pappas Multifamily Partners, cited Nashville as an example of an overheated market. “Nashville delivered a record 5,300 units in the past 12 months. Next year, they’re going to deliver 10,000 units,” said Dean at the conference, which was held on Thursday, Dec. 1 at the Westin Buckhead in Atlanta. “Nashville in large part has been redlined by the financing community because of those supply numbers. Looking at it, it’s probably a healthy thing that the pipeline is slowing down and banks are pulling back.” Michael Blair, managing director of development at Atlanta-based Pollack Shores Real Estate Group, doesn’t believe overbuilding is …

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GLEN COVE, N.Y. — RXR Realty has broken ground on Garvies Point, a $1 billion waterfront redevelopment in the Long Island city of Glen Cove. The project will restore 56 acres of Glen Cove’s waterfront, creating more than 1,100 LEED-certified residences and 75,000 square feet of shops and restaurants. The project will also feature approximately 28 acres of public open spaces with parks, playgrounds, esplanades, marinas, an amphitheater and dog park. The residential units will include 569 condominiums and 541 apartments for lease. Garvies Point will also feature thee separate marinas with a total of 120 boat slips. Garvies Point is a partnership between RXR Realty and the City of Glen Cove. The project represents the culmination of a 20-year, $120 million effort to transform Glen Cove into a sustainable community. The first phase of Garvies Point, which includes 28 acres of public open space and amenities, is scheduled for completion in 2018. The entire project will take between five and seven years to build, according to RXR. RXR Realty is a private real estate company that specializes in investment management, property management, development, design, construction, leasing and financing. RXR’s growth strategy is focused on New York City and the …

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REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. — Equinix Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) has agreed to acquire a portfolio of 24 data center sites and their operations from Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) for $3.6 billion. The portfolio consists of 29 buildings across 24 sites in North and South America, including Atlanta and Norcross, Ga.; Bogotá, Columbia; Boston; Chicago; Culpeper, Va.; Dallas, Houston and Richardson, Texas; Denver; Los Angeles, Santa Clara and San Jose, Calif.; Miami and Doral, Fla.; New York City; São Paulo, Brazil; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. The NAP of the Americas facility in Miami was formerly a flagship facility for Verizon, and will become a strategic hub and gateway for Equinix customer deployments servicing Latin America. Approximately 250 Verizon employees, primarily in the operations functions of the acquired data centers, will become Equinix employees. The all-cash transaction is expected to close by mid-2017. Evercore, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP advised Equinix in the acquisition. At the close of the transaction, Redwood City, Calif.-based Equinix’s total global footprint will be 175 data centers in 43 markets with approximately 17 million gross square feet across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Equinix’s stock price closed at $332.08 per share …

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How are apartment communities adapting to the sharing economy? That’s the central question that multifamily developers need to ask themselves going forward, according to Wes Taubel, co-founder and managing partner of TWO Capital Partners, a private multifamily developer and investor based in Atlanta. The sharing economy is a term given to the online-driven practices of consumers shopping and ordering food online, renting out their apartment or house via AirBNB and uploading their experiences via social media. “From a development perspective, the biggest thing is a holistic assessment of how you design your community to incorporate the renters’ lifestyle. We’re working with hotel and office interior designers to think about how do we authentically design our amenity and community offerings that work with how this group lives their lives,” said Taubel, who spoke at the seventh-annual InterFace Multifamily Southeast conference on Thursday, Dec. 1 at the Westin Buckhead. Taubel served as a speaker on the development panel entitled “Walking the Tightrope: Will New Development Stay in Balance or Is There Too Much Supply Coming? An Overview of Today’s Development Environment,” which was moderated by Ron Cameron, senior vice president and principal of Colliers International. The sharing economy also includes co-working office …

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Dominion Towers, Denver

DENVER — Franklin Street Properties Corp. (NYSE: FSP), a Massachusetts-based REIT, has acquired the Dominion Towers office property in downtown Denver for $154 million. The property includes a 19-story tower and a 28-story tower that are connected. The Class A buildings total 613,527 rentable square feet, resulting in a purchase price of $251 per rentable square foot. Dominion Towers is situated in the center of downtown Denver, within one block of light rail access and adjacent to the 16th Street Mall. The towers are 89 percent leased, and EOG Resources Inc., an oil and gas company, is the largest renter, taking up 29 percent of the property through December 2026. FSP funded the acquisition of Dominion Towers with cash on hand and the proceeds of a $150 million unsecured, two-year bridge loan with JPMorgan Chase Bank NA as administrative agent. FSP plans to implement $3 million in capital improvements to the property. “We believe that the acquisition of Dominion Towers will provide additional opportunities for value creation by growing our presence in downtown Denver to almost 2 million rentable square feet,” says Jeffrey Carter, president and chief investment officer of FSP. FSP’s stock price closed at $12.25 per share on …

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