WASHINGTON, D.C. — A joint venture comprising The JBG Cos. and CBRE Global Investment Partners has purchased Trilogy NoMa, a 603-unit, five-story apartment building in Washington’s NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue) neighborhood, for a reported $213 million. The purchase price equates to approximately $253,000 per unit. The transaction closed on July 31, according to the Washington Business Journal. The seller of the property, Mill Creek Residential Trust, retained HFF to market the project last year. Former HFF brokers Dave Nachison, Alan Davis, Brenden Flood, Tim Stanton and Bret Thompson, now with Eastdil Secured, represented Mill Creek in the sale. Mill Creek and Berkshire Property Advisors developed Trilogy NoMa in 2012. JBG and CBRE Global formed the joint venture late last year to invest approximately $250 million in equity, which they hope to leverage to acquire $500 million in office, retail and multifamily properties. The entity’s first acquisition was The Foundry in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood, which it purchased for $79.5 million. Amenities at Trilogy NoMa include a movie room with a 110-inch screen and theater seating. The JBG Cos. is an investor, owner, developer and manager of real estate properties in the Washington metropolitan area. CBRE Global Investors is an independently operated …
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NEW YORK — CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) has completed its acquisition of IMB Holdco for $3.4 billion in cash and stock. IMB Holdco is the parent company of OneWest Bank. The combined company has more than $65 billion in assets and more than $30 billion of deposits. The merged company will now operate as CIT Bank. The company operates an Internet banking franchise, as well as a network of 70 retail branches throughout Southern California as OneWest Bank, a division of CIT Bank. New York-based CIT Group will continue to be led by John Thain, chairman and CEO. Steven Mnuchin, former chairman of IMB Holdco, joined CIT Group as vice chairman and a member of its board of directors. Al Frank, a former independent director of OneWest Bank, is joining the CIT Board, which will grow from 13 to 15 members. “The completion of this transaction advances our strategic efforts to build a leading commercial banking franchise,” says Thain. “Through the combination of our national lending and leasing platform with OneWest’s wholesale lending and branch banking franchise, we’ve created a differentiated provider of banking services for small and middle-market businesses.” The transaction has received all required regulatory approvals. Per …
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) has entered into a binding agreement for the sale of a Class A office building located at 505 9th St. NW in Washington, D.C. for approximately $318 million, including the assumption of $117 million in mortgage debt. The buyer of the 321,943-square-foot building was undisclosed. Boston Properties developed and built the property in 2007. Boston Properties owns a 50 percent interest in the office building as part of a joint venture. The completion of the sale is expected by the end of the third quarter. 505 9th St. NW is located midway between the White House and the U.S. Capitol and just two blocks from both Pennsylvania Avenue and the Verizon Center. The site is situated in the heart of the Penn Quarter in Washington D.C.’s East End submarket. The property features three levels of below-grade parking, two outdoor/roof top decks, a fitness center and in-building retail amenities, including an entertainment club. The primary tenant is law firm DLA Piper. Other tenants include AARP, law firm Duane Morris LLP and American College of Radiology. Boston Properties reported that its funds from operations (FFO), a closely watched metric among REITs, were $208.7 million in …
CHICAGO — The number of new construction projects increased in several markets across the country in the second quarter, according to Chicago-based BidClerk, which tracks construction activity in the United States and Canada. The BidClerk Construction Index (BCI), which is compiled quarterly, reported more than 75,000 new projects valued at over $188 billion nationally in the second quarter, an increase of 15,000 projects and $40 billion compared with the same period a year ago. (The BCI data represents projects that actively bid in 2015 and is not a full representation of BidClerk’s full project database.) Particularly hot markets and regions for construction — showing growth rates above 15 percent compared with the second quarter of 2014 — were Washington, D.C., Ohio, Texas, the greater Atlanta region and major metros in the Southwest. Washington, D.C., and the surrounding region recorded a 17 percent uptick in construction projects out for bid in the second quarter. Over 500 of the 1,600 projects charted were valued at more than $1 million, including the $70 million Banner Hill Apartments in Baltimore and the $35 million Archer Park Apartment Building designed by SK+I Architectural Design Group. In the second quarter, Ohio recorded an 18 percent increase …
ECHO Realty Purchases Eight Grocery-Anchored Shopping Centers in the Southeast for $125M
by John Nelson
PITTSBURGH — ECHO Realty has purchased a portfolio of eight Harris Teeter- and Publix-anchored shopping centers in the Southeast for $125 million. The assets span more than 500,000 square feet. “We are very excited to have the opportunity to add these high-quality, grocery-anchored centers to our portfolio,” says Tom Karet, CEO of ECHO Realty. “The centers fit perfectly with ECHO’s strategy of acquiring well-located centers anchored by the No. 1 or 2 grocer in the market.” The portfolio comprises four Harris Teeter-anchored shopping centers in North Carolina, including Beau Rivage Marketplace in Wilmington, The Shoppes at Highland Creek in Charlotte, The Village at Byers Creek in Mooresville and a freestanding Harris Teeter on Croatan Highway in Kill Devil Hills. The other properties in the portfolio include two Publix-anchored properties in Florida: Partin Village in Kissimmee and Shoppes at Price Crossing in North Port; a freestanding Harris Teeter on Baltic Avenue in Virginia Beach; and one Publix-anchored property in Georgia: Riverwood Town Center in Evans. ECHO Realty is a privately held developer, owner and operator of commercial real estate. The company is headquartered in Pittsburgh with offices in Indianapolis and Washington, D.C. ECHO Realty’s portfolio consists of 190 properties totaling more …
CHICAGO — GLP, a global provider of logistics facilities, has entered into an agreement to acquire a $4.6 billion logistics portfolio from Industrial Income Trust (IIT). GLP intends to place the portfolio in its fund management platform. The portfolio comprises 58 million square feet of in-fill logistics assets spread across 20 major markets. The largest markets include Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. The portfolio was 93 percent leased as of June 30, with a weighted average lease expiry of nearly 5.5 years. GLP is focused on increasing the lease ratio to 95 percent. GLP expects to own 100 percent of the portfolio upon closing by Nov. 16 and pare down its stake to 10 percent by April 2016. The portfolio will be acquired at a 5.6 percent cap rate. GLP’s target 10 percent equity stake of $190 million is expected to generate significant returns within the first year of investment, which includes the company’s share of operating results and fund management fees. “This is an accretive opportunity for GLP that allows us to strengthen our U.S. market presence and growth prospects with minimal incremental overhead,” says Ming Mei, CEO of GLP. “The fund management platform is one of GLP’s main …
Medical Properties Trust to Buy Seven Hospitals, Interest in Capella Healthcare for $900M
by Scott Reid
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Medical Properties Trust Inc. (NYSE: MPW) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire real estate and operations of Capella Holdings Inc. (Capella), a privately owned hospital company headquartered in Franklin, Tenn., for $900 million. The $900 million total value of the transactions comprises a $600 million investment in Capella’s real estate, including the acquisition of seven hospitals, and an approximate $300 million investment in Capella’s operating entities, which is expected to be owned jointly by Birmingham, Ala.-based MPT and Capella management. “The acquisition of Capella, which in a single stroke accretively increases our portfolio of high-quality hospital real estate by nearly 20 percent, is simply the next step along our track record of creating strong double-digit growth,” says Edward Aldag Jr., chairman, president and CEO of MPT. With the acquisition, MPT will be adding to its acute care portfolio seven hospitals located in five states, with an aggregate 1,169 beds and more than 2 million square feet. MPT’s interest in the hospitals will be subject to sale-leaseback and mortgage loan arrangements. Following the acquisition, acute care facilities as a percentage of MPT’s portfolio will increase to 62 percent globally and 74 percent in the United States. …
NEW YORK CITY — The U.S. office sector is poised for continued growth in the second half of 2015, though stagnant vacancy has slightly tempered previously high expectations, according to the latest Reis analysis based on second-quarter data. “Occupied stock rose by 8.4 million square feet, outpacing new completions of 8.3 million square feet in the second quarter,” reports Victor Calanog, chief economist and senior vice president at New York-based Reis. “While this was not sufficient to nudge vacancies downward, it still does provide evidence of a slow simmer in terms of leasing activity. Employers are hiring, albeit slowly, and are leasing up space at the same plodding pace.” Vacancy rates in the office sector, which remained at 16.6 percent in the first and second quarters of 2015, vary by location. In central business districts (CBDs), the vacancy rate stood at 13.3 percent in the second quarter as opposed to 18.3 percent in suburban areas. The report notes that this is a reversal from the 1990s, when CBD vacancy rates were higher than those in suburbs as employers sought lower crime rates and better school systems. Another struggle for suburban areas is large inventory. From 1990 to 2010, more than …
BALTIMORE, M.D. AND BRANCHBURG, N.J. — Summit Hotel Properties (NYSE: INN) has acquired two Residence Inn by Marriott hotels for a total of $56.8 million. The acquisition includes the 141-guestroom Residence Inn in Hunt Valley, just outside Baltimore, and the 141-guestroom Residence Inn in Branchburg, N.J. “We are very happy to announce the addition of these Residence Inn hotels to our portfolio,” says Daniel Hansen, president and CEO of Austin, Texas-based Summit Hotel Properties, a publicly traded REIT. “We remain very positive on the current state of the lodging cycle and see these two acquisitions as solid contributors to our long-term growth plan. Both of these acquisitions are located in strong markets that fit well with our growth strategy and portfolio of premium select-service assets.” Summit plans to spend about $1.5 million on capital improvements at the Hunt Valley property, which is situated just 18 miles outside of downtown Baltimore. Notable employers in the area include PayPal, eBay, McCormick Spice Co., Men’s Warehouse and Johns Hopkins University. The company will spend an additional $1.1 million on capital improvements at the Branchburg property, which is located about an hour outside of New York City. Notable employers in the area include Johnson …
NEW YORK CITY — Columbia Property Trust Inc. (NYSE: CXP) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the commercial condominium unit in the historic New York Times Building from affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI LP for $516 million. The 16-story, 481,110-square-foot, Class A building is located at 229 W. 43rd St. in the Times Square submarket of Manhattan. The acquisition is expected to be funded with a $300 million six-month bridge loan and short-term borrowings under Columbia’s $500 million unsecured credit facility, which is expected to increase the company’s leverage to approximately 39 percent of gross real estate assets (as of June 30, adjusted for recent dispositions). Currently 98 percent leased, the commercial unit of 229 W. 43rd St. is expected to have first-year in-place net operating income of approximately $22.3 million. “Acquiring this iconic property with such strong tenancy and below-market rents at attractive pricing compared with other New York transactions enables us to increase exposure in what will be our second largest market, while spreading out lease maturities and capital commitments,” says Nelson Mills, president and CEO of Atlanta-based Columbia Property Trust. The acquisition is expected to close within 30 days, subject to customary closing conditions. …