Top Stories

NorthStar, Colony to Merge Creating $17B REIT

by Christina Cannon June 3, 2016

NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES — NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc. (NYSE: NSAM), Colony Capital Inc. (NYSE: CLNY) and NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. (NYSE: NRF) have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which the companies will combine in an all-stock merger to create a diversified global equity REIT with a total capitalization of $17 billion. NorthStar Asset Management Group (NSAM), which is currently publicly traded but not a REIT, will elect to be treated as a REIT beginning in 2017. Additionally, NRF and Colony, through a series of transactions, will merge with and into NSAM. The company, to be named Colony NorthStar Inc., will have $58 billion of assets under management, placing it in the top quartile of the REIT sector overall. Upon completion of the transaction NSAM shareholders will own approximately 32.85 percent, Colony shareholders will own approximately 33.25 percent and NRF shareholders will own approximately 33.90 percent of the combined company. “We are incredibly excited to merge with Colony to create a global real estate leader well positioned for long-term growth,” says David Hamamoto, executive chairman of NSAM and chairman of NRF. “This strategic combination is the next logical step for NSAM and NRF, creating substantial value for shareholders and …

June 3, 2016

550 Madison Avenue Manhattan New York Sony Building

New York Northeast Office Top Stories

ING Capital Provides $570M Acquisition Loan for Sony Building in Manhattan

by John Nelson June 2, 2016

NEW YORK CITY — ING Capital LLC, part of Dutch global financial institution ING Group (NYSE: ING), has originated a $570 million bridge loan for the acquisition a 37-story skyscraper located at 550 Madison Ave. in Manhattan. ING Capital provided the financing to Olayan America, the U.S. investment arm of The Olayan Group, an international real estate investor based in Saudi Arabia. Olayan America will purchase the office tower, also known as the Sony Building, from The Chetrit Group for $1.3 billion, according to The Real Deal. Ron Cohen of JLL represented Olayan America in the transaction, and Doug Harmon of Eastdil Secured represented The Chetrit Group. Located within the Plaza District of Manhattan, the tower features 852,830 square feet of rentable mixed-use space, including approximately 776,000 square feet of office space, retail frontage on Madison Avenue, and exhibition and museum space. One restaurant tenant currently occupies 5,000 square feet at the tower, which is nearly 100 percent vacant, according to ING Capital. “The property has been maintained to a high standard and has never previously been available to the open market for office leasing,” says Tony Fusco, head of real estate at Olayan America. According to The Real Deal, …

June 2, 2016

Features Top Stories

AIA’s Architecture Billings Index Positive for Third Straight Month

by John Nelson June 2, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After beginning the year with a decline, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) has posted three consecutive months of increasing demand for design activity at architecture firms. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the April ABI score was 50.6, down from the mark of 51.9 in March but still in the positive territory. The score reflects an increase in design activity, with any score above 50 indicating an increase in billings. A barometer of future non-residential construction activity, the ABI reflects the roughly nine- to 12-month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending. The index is produced by The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Economics & Market Research Group. The score is tabulated based on a monthly survey sent to a panel of AIA member-owned architecture firms. The design contracts index jumped from 51.8 in March to 54.3 in April. The metric tracks trends in the dollar volume of signed design contracts, with any score above 50 reflecting a growing value of the design contracts signed by AIA member-owned firms. Because the design contracts index functions as an early indicator of construction contract awards, Kermit Baker, AIA’s chief economist, is confident that the growth in the …

June 2, 2016

Office Texas Top Stories

JLL Arranges $450M in Financing for JPMorgan Chase Tower, Chase Center in Houston

by Haisten Willis June 1, 2016

HOUSTON — JLL has secured a total of $450 million of financing for Prime Asset Management to recapitalize JPMorgan Chase Tower and Chase Center, two Class A office properties located in downtown Houston. The 75-story Chase Tower is Houston’s tallest building at 1,002 feet. Combined with the 20-story Chase Center, the complex totals 2.4 million square feet. An underground pedestrian tunnel connects the buildings. Chase Tower includes office space, retail and a sky lobby observation deck. Chase Center includes office and retail space along with a parking garage. Chase Tower is located at 600 Travis St. and was built in 1981. Chase Center is a shorter building adjacent to Chase Tower at 601 Travis St. MetLife provided a fixed-rate senior mortgage, while JPMorgan provided mezzanine financing for a term of 11 years. The mezzanine loan has a floating interest rate for the first year and then converts to a fixed rate for the following 10 years. Prime Asset Management, an international investment group that owns the two properties, will partially use the loans to replace its existing senior mortgage debt with MetLife, which was due at the end of 2017, according to the Houston Chronicle. Tom Melody and John Ream led …

June 1, 2016

Healthcare Texas Top Stories

HCA Holdings to Acquire Forest Park Medical Center in Dallas for $135M

by Katie Sloan May 31, 2016

DALLAS — An affiliate of HCA Holdings Inc. has agreed to purchase the Forest Park Medical Center facility in Dallas, a 190,000-square-foot medical campus featuring 20,000 square feet of green space, for $135 million. The physician-owned hospital will require approval from bankruptcy court to sell the property. If the transaction is approved, $124.6 million of the purchase price will be used to pay back the facility’s main debt holder, Sabra Health Care REIT Inc. (NASDAQ: SBRA). The publicly traded real estate investment trust refinanced the facility’s mortgage loan for $110 million in October 2013. The owners of the Forest Park Medical Center health system created the Neal Richards Group LLC, headed by real estate developer Derrick Evers, to build the hospitals under the Forest Park umbrella and serve as landlord, according to reports by D Magazine. Ascension Group Architects designed the Dallas campus, which features 84 luxury private inpatient rooms, 12 intensive care units, 22 operating suites, three special procedure and endoscopy suites, ancillary services and an imaging center. Drs. Richard Toussaint and Wade Barker founded the Forest Park Medical Center system in the late 2000s. In March, Toussaint was found guilty of committing $10 million in healthcare fraud and …

May 31, 2016

Features Office Top Stories

U.S. Office Market to Benefit from Surge of Foreign Capital, Says Office Roundtable

by John Nelson May 31, 2016

MIAMI — Volatility in world markets affected capital flows to the U.S., contributing to a slowdown in office deals in the first quarter of 2016, but foreign funds are expected to surge in the second half of the year, according to an office roundtable held at Accesso Partners’ second annual Capital Markets Conference in Miami. Commercial brokerages attending the conference included CBRE, Eastdil Secured, JLL, HFF, NAI Global and NGKF. The majority of brokers in attendance said the opportunities today are in Class A suburban office properties with walkable amenities. “In almost every market, there are trophy suburban assets that offer a stronger risk-adjusted return than comparable properties in the central business district,” said Jim Postweiler, managing director of JLL’s Chicago office. “In strong submarkets, a suburban property can command yields that are difficult to obtain in CBDs today.” Other brokers and office acquisition specialists said office towers and mid-rise buildings in CBDs are experiencing rising demand from institutional investors eager to invest in “repositioned” assets. “There is still good leasing activity in these markets and more importantly, a good rent growth story,” said Will Yowell, vice chairman of CBRE’s Atlanta office. “We think the markets have another 18 to …

May 31, 2016

Maryland Office Southeast Top Stories

Carr Properties Acquires Office Property in Metro D.C. For $105M

by Christina Cannon May 27, 2016

BETHESDA, MD. — Carr Properties has acquired a 163,000-square-foot office building in the Central Business District of Bethesda for $105 million. The seller was an entity controlled by American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Carr intends to redevelop and expand the four-story building into a mixed-use property that will include over 900,000 square feet of office, residential and retail space. The project will also include the addition of the Bethesda Purple Line Station, a new entrance to the Metro Red Line and a below-grade tunnel for the Capital Crescent Trail. The property is located at 7272 Wisconsin Ave. “We believe that the Apex site, as redeveloped, will be the new commercial hub of the Bethesda market with unparalleled access to public transportation, bike trails and the thriving restaurant and retail of Bethesda Row,” says Oliver Carr III, CEO of Carr Properties. “We could not be more excited about this opportunity for our company.” In a related transaction, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists will relocate its headquarters to Carr’s recently developed LEED Platinum-certified office building located at 4500 East West Highway in Bethesda. Carr Properties is a private REIT that owns, acquires and develops commercial real estate, predominately office properties, in …

May 27, 2016

Northeast Office Top Stories

New York REIT, JBG to Merge, Creating $8.4B REIT

by Nellie Day May 26, 2016

NEW YORK CITY — New York REIT (NYSE: NYRT) has agreed to acquire all properties of JBG Cos. and some of its private funds, creating an $8.4 billion real estate investment trust (REIT) named JBG Realty Trust. JBG Realty Trust’s portfolio will span more than 14.5 million square feet of office, residential and retail properties across the gateway markets of New York City and Washington, D.C. The properties are concentrated in transportation-served, urban-infill submarkets. The combined company will be headquartered in Chevy Chase, Md., with a regional office in New York City. JBG has received all required approvals for the transaction from its owners and JBG Fund Advisory Committee members. The board of directors of NYRT has approved the merger agreement and recommended that its stockholders approve the issuance of common stock and operating partnership units in the transaction. JBG Cos. will receive 319.9 million shares of common stock and operating partnership units of NYRT in exchange for the contributed JBG properties. NYRT stockholders will own about 34.8 percent of the combined company’s shares and units, while JBG equity holders will own about 65.2 percent once the deal is complete. The Eastdil Secured group of Wells Fargo Securities acted as …

May 26, 2016

Features Top Stories

Viability of Surface Level Parking Declines Amid Retail Shift to Pedestrian Mixed-Use Environments

by Katie Sloan May 26, 2016

The United States devotes a lot of land to parking, with nearly 500 million parking spaces nationwide. That equates to around 4 million acres or 6,000 square miles of surface parking — an amount of space roughly equal to the land area of Hawaii. With about 250 million cars on the roads today, that’s more than 700 square feet or two surface parking spaces for every single car. It probably doesn’t seem like it when you are circling the block for the tenth time looking for that perfect space, but trust me — we have plenty of parking in this country. Remember, that’s just surface parking — nothing above or below those spaces. It doesn’t account for parking structures, mixed-use projects or garages attached to suburban single-family homes across the U.S. If those are added, the total spaces skyrockets into the billions by some estimates. It is no mystery how we got here. The growth patterns of the United States are well documented. The sprawling development of most American cities has solidified the dependence on the automobile, with cars and roads claiming more and more real estate. This, in turn, continues to spread development out further, which fosters the need …

May 26, 2016

Florida Office Southeast Top Stories

Sumitomo Buys Iconic Miami Tower For $220M

by Haisten Willis May 25, 2016

MIAMI — Sumitomo Corp. of Americas, a New York City-based subsidiary of a Japanese trading company, has acquired Miami Tower, a 47-story, 631,672-square-foot office tower in Miami’s central business district, for $220 million. LaSalle Income & Growth Fund V sold the 93 percent-occupied property. HFF arranged the transaction. LaSalle purchased the property in December 2010 for $105.5 million, according to the Miami Herald. The property was built in 1987 and was previously known as the CenTrust Tower. “We are excited to add Miami Tower to our portfolio of commercial properties here in the U.S.,” says Robert Obringer, vice president of Sumitomo Corp. of Americas. “As part of our constant management of assets, we are always looking for opportunities that will maximize return on investment, and this property offers a strong upside potential for in-place cash flow and the opportunity to increase value.” Renowned architect I.M. Pei designed the building, which consists of 37 stories of office space situated above 10 stories of parking, a Metromover station and ground-level retail space. The building is well known for its unique exterior lighting system and boasts tenants including Carlton Fields, TotalBank, UBS Financial Services, Genovese Joblove & Battista, Ver Ploeg & Lumpkin and the …

May 25, 2016

Newer Posts

Older Posts