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NEW YORK — Meridian Capital Group has arranged $180 million in financing for the Club Row Building office property located in Midtown Manhattan on behalf of APF Properties. A global investment bank provided the CMBS loan, which features interest-only payments for the entire 10-year term and a fixed rate in the mid-4 percent range. “We are pleased to have worked with APF Properties, a leading institutional sponsor, to facilitate the financing used to assume full control of this historic asset and continue its dominance of the best-in-class-B+ office niche in the Grand Central area,” says Tal Bar-Or, managing director in Meridian’s New York City headquarters who negotiated the transaction. The 22-story Club Row Building is located at 28 W. 44th St., between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas. The property totals 372,000 square feet and features 14,600 square feet of retail on West 44th and West 43rd streets. This section of West 44th Street is known as Club Row, and is one block north of Bryant Park. Club Row is one of the most prestigious streets in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, according to Meridian. The building recently underwent more than $9 million in capital improvements, including a new …

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Hawkeye Partners LP has committed $175 million from its Scout program to Blue Moon Capital Partners LLC (Blue Moon) to seed Blue Moon Senior Housing I LP (BMSH I). BMSH I will acquire, reposition and develop seniors housing properties throughout the United States. Scout is a series of real estate private equity funds that Austin-based Hawkeye manages that invest in and support the development of new and emerging managers. Hawkeye is currently investing Scout Fund II and anticipates seeding more new manager platforms. The new manager platforms Scout Fund I seeded have grown in excess of $3.3 billion in assets under management. “Seniors housing is a property type that institutional investors have limited exposure to and one where the fundamentals should remain favorable for the foreseeable future,” says Claudia Faust, managing partner of Hawkeye. “Blue Moon’s team has an exceptional track record of investing in the sector.” Seniors housing specialist Kathryn Sweeney and capital markets specialist Susan Barlow lead Boston-based Blue Moon. They are joined by other seniors housing industry veterans. Hawkeye is an independent real estate private equity firm founded in 2004 for the purpose of serving leading institutional investors. Hawkeye’s flagship program, Scout, begun in …

NEW YORK — TPG Real Estate, the real estate platform of global private investment firm TPG, has acquired a majority stake in a $2.5 billion portfolio of real estate loans from Deutsche Bank’s Special Situations Group. Under the terms of the agreement, TPG Real Estate will acquire a 75 percent stake in the portfolio, with Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) retaining a 25 percent stake. “We are very excited about this unique, proprietary opportunity to acquire the existing portfolio, as well as to expand the business as we grow the platform through new originations,” says Avi Banyasz, TPG partner and co-head of TPG Real Estate. “We are very fortunate to have the same strong Deutsche Bank team in place, which will provide continuity for current borrowers and open the door to relationships with the growing number of new borrowers in need of financing.” As part of the transaction, 11 origination and risk management professionals from Deutsche Bank’s Special Situations Group have joined a newly created mortgage REIT — known as TPG Real Estate Finance Trust (TRT) — that will own the existing portfolio, as well as originate new loans to existing and new borrowers. TRT raised capital from a group of …

NEW YORK — Columbia Property Trust (NYSE: CXP) has acquired three Class A office buildings located in major East Coast markets for a total of $588 million. The transaction includes a 341,330-square-foot office building in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park submarket, a 244,565-square-foot building in the Washington, D.C., submarket of Reston, and a 274,218-square-foot building in Boston’s Back Bay district. The Manhattan property is a historic office building located at 315 Park Ave. South. It was purchased as part of an office portfolio that included the D.C. building, located at 1881 Campus Commons Drive. They were acquired from Spear Street Capital in an off-market transaction for a total of approximately $436 million. The Boston property is located at 116 Huntington Ave. It was purchased from Broadway Partners for $152 million. The Manhattan property is 95 percent occupied, while the other two stand at 78 percent occupancy. “With these two significant transactions, we continue to execute our strategy of improving the overall quality of Columbia’s portfolio through investment in value- creation opportunities in our target markets,” says Nelson Mills, Columbia’s president and CEO. “These acquisitions provide us with a greater presence in Manhattan, as well as a significant foothold in Boston’s urban core …

NASHVILLE, TENN. ― Bridgestone Americas Inc. has broken ground on its new 30-story, $200 million headquarters to be located in the SoBro area of downtown Nashville. When completed in mid-to-late 2017, the new office building will house more than 1,700 employees, which will include the 1,100 currently in Nashville along with 600 new jobs from three out-of-state business units being relocated to the city. “Today is an historic day for our company, for Nashville and for Tennessee,” says Gary Garfield, CEO and president of Bridgestone Americas. “We proudly call Nashville home and are very eager to welcome our teammates from out-of-state as soon as possible. The leadership and support of the state and city are to be applauded for reaching this groundbreaking milestone — it marks the next step in our journey to shape tomorrow together.” The ceremony was also attended by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, Tennessee Economic and Community Development commissioner Bill Hagerty, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, Highwoods Properties president and CEO Ed Fritsch and Bridgestone executives and team representatives from the employee units to be relocated to Nashville. “Today is an exciting day for the continued partnership we share with Bridgestone,” says Haslam. “This is a company that …

DALLAS, TEXAS — Cobalt Capital Partners has sold a portfolio of 256 primarily light industrial assets for $1.6 billion to Colony Financial Inc. In addition to the portfolio sale, Cobalt’s management team, led by Lewis Friedland, has joined Colony to run the day-to-day operations of the business, including investments, asset and property management. The 256-property portfolio is leased to more than 600 tenants and comprises over 30 million square feet across 16 major U.S. markets, including Atlanta, Dallas and Chicago. “We’re pleased to have executed this sale on behalf of our investor partners, including our long-time partner USAA Real Estate Co.,” says Friedland, former managing partner of Cobalt Capital Partners. “Our entire team has done an excellent job over the last 10 years building this business into a leader in the industrial sector. We’re excited to be joining Colony, one of the real estate industry’s premier companies, and look forward to continuing to grow our portfolio.” Cobalt was represented in the transaction by an Eastdil Secured team led by Steve Silk and Jay Borzi, the CBRE National Partners team led by Jack Fraker and Chris Riley, and Gannon Gerrity Advisors, led by Kristin Gannon and Kevin Gerrity. Locke Lord served …

NEW YORK — Meridian Capital Group LLC (Meridian) has arranged a $135 million mortgage for the refinancing of the Holiday Inn Manhattan-Financial District. The Holiday Inn Manhattan-Financial District is a 50-story, limited-service hotel totaling 492 rooms. The hotel is located at 99-103 Washington St. and is two blocks south of the World Trade Center. The developers recently completed construction of the property, which is the tallest Holiday Inn in the world. The hotel opened in October 2014. Meridian arranged the mortgage on behalf of developers Sam Chang and Jubao Xie. The two-year loan, provided by a national balance sheet lender, features a competitive floating rate with interest-only payments for the full term. Emanuel Westfried, Meridian’s vice president, negotiated the transaction. According to Westfried, the loan was provided to recapitalize the current sponsorship. The existing debt was $45 million from Cathay Bank. New York-based Meridian was founded in 1991 and arranges financing for transactions ranging from $1 million to more than $500 million for multifamily, co-op, office, retail, hotel, mixed-use, industrial, healthcare, student housing, self-storage and construction properties. — Scott Reid