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GREENWICH, CONN. — Starwood Capital Group, a private investment firm, has acquired a portfolio of Class A suburban offices properties from Duke Realty Corp. in an off-market joint venture transaction valued at approximately $1.1 billion. A joint venture between Starwood Global Opportunity Fund X, Vanderbilt Partners and Trinity Capital Advisors acquired the portfolio. “We’re very excited by this substantial investment in a terrific portfolio of office buildings in these important and growing markets in the United States,” says Mark Keatley, senior vice president at Starwood Capital Group. “We expect the transaction to meet our return expectations through a combination of consistent cash flow and longer-term capital appreciation.” The acquisitions total 6.9 million square feet across 62 properties in Raleigh, Nashville, St. Louis and South Florida. The transaction also includes 57 acres of undeveloped land. “With this investment, we’re buying a portfolio with significant current yield in strong suburban markets within high-growth cities,” says Casey Wold, managing partner of Vanderbilt Partners, a Chicago-based real estate investment manager. Since its inception, Greenwich, Conn.-based Starwood Capital Group has acquired more than 60 million square feet of office properties around the world, and currently manages approximately 35 million square feet. “We believe that we are at an attractive point in the …

CHICAGO — The Esquire Theater, a former movie house built in 1938 and currently home to an upscale steakhouse and luxury retailers located on Chicago’s Gold Coast, has sold for $176 million, according to the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune first reported the sale, which according to Cook County records closed at the end of February, last week. Ponte Gadea, a Spanish investment group led by Amancio Ortega, the fashion tycoon behind the Zara brand, purchased the property from Chicago-based DRW Trading Group. DRW redeveloped the theater three years ago into a retail complex with tenants that include Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford and Christian Louboutin. The property is fully leased. Mark Hunt, a principal at Chicago-based M Development, had purchased the building in 2002 for $13.5 million, according to county records. The movie theater closed in 2006, and DRW purchased the property after Anglo Irish Bank began proceedings in August 2009 to foreclose on the property. According to Crain’s, Cushman & Wakefield leased the property and was the sole broker in the acquisition. According to a Tribune source, Ponte Gadea purchased 48,000 square feet from DRW, including the theater and adjacent new construction. The transaction equals …

NEW YORK — New Senior Investment Group Inc. (NYSE: SNR), a New York-based seniors housing REIT, has completed the previously announced acquisition of 17 independent living seniors housing properties from affiliates of Hawthorn Retirement Group for approximately $435 million. The acquisition was funded with cash on hand and proceeds from a first mortgage loan. “We are excited to add to our portfolio this collection of high-quality, independent living senior housing assets, which will further increase our private pay exposure,” says Susan Givens, CEO of New Senior Investment Group. The portfolio is 100 percent private pay, contains 2,082 units located across 10 states and had an average occupancy rate of 92.6 percent in February 2015. The average age for the 17 properties is roughly seven years. Holiday Retirement will operate the portfolio, and New Senior expects its newly acquired assets to generate a net operating income (NOI) yield of approximately 6.3 percent. The REIT also completed a $670 million first mortgage loan secured by 52 seniors housing properties. Walker & Dunlop arranged the Freddie Mac loan, which has a seven-year maturity and bears interest at 234 basis points over LIBOR. Proceeds from the loan were used to refinance existing floating-rate debt …

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Hillwood Investment Properties has broken ground on Alliance Gateway South Building Three, a 1.1 million-square-foot addition to its AllianceCalifornia development in San Bernardino. PCCP provided the non-recourse senior loan to Hillwood for the construction of the property, which is scheduled for completion this December. AllianceCalifornia Gateway South Building Three is in the heart of the Inland Empire’s industrial marketplace and is the largest speculative industrial building under construction in San Bernardino County. The facility is located at 555 Orange Show Road and has access to I-10, I-215 and I-210, all of which are major surface transit routes for cargo carriers. Companies with a presence in AllianceCalifornia include Amazon, Mattel, Kohler, Pactiv, Pep Boys, Kohl’s and Stater Bros. “We envision the project attracting Fortune 1000 tenants as earlier phases of AllianceCalifornia have done,” says John Magness, who is overseeing the development for Hillwood, a Dallas-based developer. “Within the immediate vicinity of Building Three are warehousing and distribution centers for some of the largest online retailers in the nation, as well as direct-to-market retailers. With the immediate access to air, rail and freeways, the development is suitable for all types of companies.” Gateway South will feature 36-foot ceiling clearances, …

SAN FRANCISCO — Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. has provided Donahue Schriber Realty Group with $118.5 million in financing to acquire four grocery-anchored shopping centers in California and Washington. The properties include Gilman District in Berkeley, Calif.; Village Oaks in San Jose, Calif.; Lakeland Town Center in Auburn, Wash.; and Westgate North in Tacoma, Wash. A Whole Foods Market and Office Depot anchor the 91,228-square-foot Gilman District, while the 320,000-square-foot Village Oaks is anchored by Safeway, Target and Lowe’s. These centers were recently built. Haggen, the largest independent grocer in the Pacific Northwest, anchors the 125,421-square-foot Lakeland Town Center, and the 129,229-square-foot Westgate North is anchored by Safeway and Ace Hardware. The four separate, 10-year, fixed-rate loans are cross-collateralized. “These properties are located in strong retail locations with dense populations and high median incomes,” says Elizabeth Velazquez, a director with Prudential Mortgage Capital Co.’s San Francisco office, who led the transaction. “The superior quality of these Class A properties, two of which are newly constructed, along with their strong grocery anchors, helped make this an attractive transaction for us,” continues Velazquez. “Another key factor in deciding to finance these properties was the experience and strength of Donahue Schriber. This is our …