NASHVILLE, TENN. AND GLASTONBURY, CONN. — Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) has acquired three assisted living and memory care communities in Tennessee and Connecticut for $110 million. Hearth Management, which previously owned the property through a joint venture partnership, has been retained by PREI as the property manager. The acquisition is the first investment for Senior Housing Partners (SHP) V, PREI’s newly launched fund focusing on seniors housing properties. PREI is the real estate investment and advisory business of Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: PRU). The three Class A communities, which comprise 341,000 square feet across 391 units of recently constructed communities for seniors, include: The Hearth at Hendersonville located in Hendersonville, Tenn., northeast of Nashville, which opened in April 2012 and has 130 units; The Hearth at Franklin located in Franklin, Tenn., southwest of Nashville, which opened in October 2014 and has 126 units; The Hearth at Glastonbury located in Glastonbury, Conn., southeast of Hartford, which opened in September 2014 and has 135 units. “We are pleased to add the Hearth Portfolio, a high-quality seniors housing portfolio with strong income potential, as the first investment for our SHP V portfolio,” says Noah Levy, who heads PREI’s senior housing business. “We …
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ATLANTA — Real GDP grew at 0.2 percent for the first quarter of 2015, but Rajeev Dhawan of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business doesn’t think the factors that drove this stagnation are here to stay. “After I read the GDP report, the word ‘WOW’ escaped my lips,” Dhawan wrote in his Forecast of The Nation, released on May 20. “‘WOW’ here stands for weather, oil and the world economy. The report showed clear damage from these three factors.” Unusually cold weather in the Northeast drove non-durable goods consumption growth down to negative 0.3 percent (especially grocery purchases) in the first quarter. On the flip side, spending on utilities (heating) rose, but overall gasoline savings were socked away. Dhawan says that the weather factor is temporary, except for the Western drought, but the low oil price will start to creep up as U.S. fracking production declines. “We’ve almost reached the bottom, with oil rig counts having dropped sharply with only a little bit to go,” wrote Dhawan. “But prices will not reach the heights of $120 a barrel anytime soon. I expect oil to start creeping up to $70 a barrel by …
NEW YORK — A joint venture partnership between NorthStar Healthcare Income Inc. and NorthStar Realty Finance Corp. (NYSE: NRF) has acquired an $875 million portfolio of independent living facilities, following an SEC filing reported in April. NorthStar Healthcare and NorthStar Realty are both real estate investment trusts (REITs) externally managed by NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc. (NYSE: NSAM), a New York-based asset management firm focused on managing real estate and other investment platforms. The portfolio is comprised of 32 independent living communities spanning 3,983 units and is 100 percent private pay. The communities are located in 12 states, with the largest concentration of facilities within California, Texas and Washington. As of March 31, the portfolio’s overall resident occupancy was approximately 93 percent. The joint venture has retained Holiday Retirement Communities, one of the largest operators of independent living communities in North America, to operate the portfolio. Holiday Retirement is the operating name of the portfolio’s seller, Harvest Facility Holdings LP. NorthStar Healthcare acquired a 40 percent interest in the portfolio, and NorthStar Realty acquired the remaining 60 percent interest. “The experience of our healthcare team and its extensive relationships within the healthcare industry have and will continue to play a …
HALLANDALE, FLA. — Beachwalk Resort, a 33-story, $150 million resort developed by Miami-based The Related Group and managed by Gemstone Hotels & Resorts, opened today in South Florida. Beachwalk Resort is comprised of 300 units, 216 of which are two-bedroom suites. Each of the units is a privately owned condominium. The resort’s owners and guests have access to a three-story beach club with pool, lockers, showers, restrooms, an outdoor bar and restaurant with chaise service and beach facilities, all accessible by a complimentary, electric trolley. “Because of their deep understanding of the luxury residential market, The Related Group has developed a vacation resort that speaks to the needs and desires of the modern family,” says Thomas Prins, principal of Gemstone. “With two more similarly positioned resorts coming on line in 2016 and in 2018, I expect that we will dramatically shift the mix of vacation options in this part of South Florida, and perhaps even define a new standard.” Beachwalk features interiors designed by Italian car design firm Pininfarina and contemporary Italian furnishings. The hotel also features original works of art from the collection of Jorge Pérez, patron of the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Other amenities on the property include …
When David Campbell started Boxman Studios in 2009, it was out of curiosity. A former real estate broker and developer, he was looking for a new concept after the 2008 crash of the real estate market. Campbell came across an article on shipping container architecture and saw the promise in potential uses, from hospitals to foodservice to retail. “He got a container, found a yard, had a buddy who could weld, and started cutting into it to see what he could come up with,” says Vinay Patel, the Charlotte, N.C.-based company’s marketing strategist. Boxman Studios ended up on the front end of a major trend: custom-fabricating shipping containers into portable shops and booths. In its first six years, the company has already moved four times to larger spaces. In 2014, Inc. magazine named Boxman the fastest growing company in Charlotte, noting that the company increased annual revenue more than 3,000 percent from 2010 to 2013, bringing in $4.3 million in 2013 alone. Clients purchasing customized shipping containers from Boxman include Google, Red Bull and Samsung. Going to the Consumer As online retailers continue to take market share away from brick-and-mortar shops, Patel says small, mobile, pop-up shopping is one …
BRENTWOOD, TENN. — GBT Realty Corp. has announced plans to build a $100 million mixed-use development in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood. The project, called Crestview at The Summit, will be situated at the peak of The Summit, which offers the highest unobstructed views of the city. Crestview at The Summit will feature a Class A office complex with up to 480,000 square feet, in addition to a 40,000- to 60,000-square-foot hotel with a signature restaurant. The build-to-suit facility will include two office towers with about 1,400 parking spaces and on-site walking trails. The 15-acre site is situated off an I-65 interchange. “Brentwood is one of the most desirable markets in the region,” says Ben Owenell, GBT’s co-managing director of the company’s new Diversified Development Division, which targets urban mixed-use and lifestyle centers, medical office buildings, urban infill residential communities and corporate campuses. “With very little Class A office currently available in this growing submarket, this site is an opportunity for a company to gain tremendous visibility but also offer its employees a community with a high standard of living, recreational amenities and quality public school system,” adds Owenell. Crestview at The Summit is the inaugural development of GBT’s new …
HOUSTON — Moody National REIT I Inc. has signed a contract to acquire a 149-hotel portfolio from a third-party seller for an aggregate purchase price of $1.73 billion, excluding acquisition costs. Multiple media outlets are reporting that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is selling the portfolio to the non-traded REIT through its Whitehall Street funds. The portfolio includes 14,000 units spread across 32 states, with a large concentration of hotels in California, Arizona, Texas and the Northeast. The majority of the portfolio consists of Marriott and Hilton branded select-service hotels. “This is a great concentration of assets in key states which will benefit from several years remaining in the expanding hotel cycle,” said Brett Moody, Moody National REIT I’s CEO and chairman. “These are well-branded and well-managed assets.” While a bulk of the Marriott and Hilton assets have undergone renovations (Courtyard Refreshing Business, Residence Inn Gatehouse Re-Inventions and Hampton Inn Forever Young Initiative), the REIT plans to accelerate and complete all remaining brand required renovations. The acquisition of the portfolio is subject to substantial conditions to closing, including the REIT’s ability to obtain financing for the acquisition. Houston-based Moody National REIT I owns select-service hotels in major markets across the United …
By Nellie Day LAS VEGAS — The changing nature of retail and what it means to the future of the shopping center industry was a hot topic of discussion throughout RECon 2015, held May 17-20 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The topic took center stage during the “Envision 2020 Town Hall: Redefining Our Industry” panel where six experts outlined the trends they believed would be critical to remaining relevant in the ever-evolving retail world. “There is so much change going on in our business right now that it makes your head spin,” said moderator Stephen Lebovitz, chairman of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and president and CEO of Chattanooga, Tenn.-based CBL & Associates Properties. “The holy grail, as far as property owners and retailers are concerned, will be the ability to communicate better with customers — to translate their interests into specific transactions. There will be unprecedented intimacy with the customer going forward,” added Lebovitz. Communication is Key Panelists conceded that rather than work against the online retail vessel, many brick-and-mortar retailers and shopping center owners need to embrace the omni-channel way of communication if they plan to successfully forge that bond with consumers. “The common thinking …
Commercial Real Estate Deal Volume Hit All-Time Peak in First Quarter, Says Auction.com Report
by Jeff Shaw
IRVINE, CALIF. — In the first quarter of 2015, U.S. commercial real estate deal volume reached an all-time high, pushing capitalization rates to multi-decade lows, according to online real estate marketplace Auction.com’s “Commercial Real Estate Market Monitor.” Deal volume in the first quarter reached $124.3 billion across all sectors of commercial real estate, which is a 47.4 percent increase from a year ago and a 0.1 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2014. Since the fourth quarter commonly has the highest deal volume of the year, this represents the first time the first quarter represented a quarter-over-quarter increase since 2007. “Investors continue to drive up market prices and compress cap rates, which suggests that they’re probably ahead of what the underlying fundamentals would support, especially in some of the hotter markets and sectors,” says Rick Sharga, Auction.com executive vice president. “Part of this is due to the availability of capital and the low interest rate environment we’re in.” Another reason for the high deal volume, Sharga says, is a wave of foreign investment in the U.S. market. “The continuing infusion of foreign capital is also a big factor — China and Singapore in particular have ramped up their U.S. …
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. — Cushman & Wakefield has closed a sale-leaseback transaction valued at $650 million for the 1.4 million-square-foot Verizon operations center in Basking Ridge. Cushman & Wakefield’s real estate investment banking group worked closely with its New York brokerage and New Jersey investment sales teams to arrange the transaction. Cushman & Wakefield acted as financial advisor and exclusive placement agent for Verizon on the transaction, which represents the largest sale-leaseback ever completed in suburban New Jersey. The sale value represents one of the highest sales prices per square foot of any suburban sale-leaseback in the United States, according to media reports. Mesirow Realty Sale-Leaseback Inc., a division of Mesirow Financial, a financial services firm headquartered in Chicago, acquired the facility, which employs 3,900 full-time employees. “This real estate deal provides our company with immediate financial benefits and allows us to extract significant value from this asset while continuing to occupy the entirety of its office space,” says John Vazquez, senior vice president and head of global real estate for Verizon. “Cushman & Wakefield achieved our strategic objectives by maximizing value and flexibility through the best possible deal structure.” As part of the transaction, Verizon will lease back the entire facility …