LOS ANGELES — An ownership group led by Hankey Investment Co. and Jamison Services Inc. has unveiled plans for Circa, a $500 million mixed-use development in downtown Los Angeles. Spanning 1.6 million square feet, Circa will be located at 1200 S. Figueroa St. and tie together the South Park and Sports and Entertainment districts, including STAPLES Center, LA Live and the Los Angeles Convention Center. Circa will include two 35-story residential towers located on top of a 100-foot high platform, which will serve as a two-acre amenity deck for residents. The deck will feature a lounge pool with private cabanas, spas and a sun deck. Other amenities include a fitness center, barbecue stations, two dog parks, fire pits, an indoor bar, pool table, outdoor bar, two business center, private chef’s kitchen and dining room and a library/wine bar. The two towers will feature 648 one- and two-bedroom units, as well as several penthouse units. The project will also include 48,000 square feet of retail space, roughly 1,770 parking spaces and 15,000 square feet of digital signage. In addition to the digital signage, there will also be a combined 12,500 square feet of traditional signage facing Flower Street and on the …
Top Stories
The industrial sector is booming nationally and on pace to show even stronger absorption and lower vacancy numbers than 2014’s banner year, according to commercial real estate services firm DTZ, which released its U.S. Industrial Trends Report at the halfway mark of 2015. “Midway through 2015, demand for industrial space is poised to set another record,” according to the report. Absorption in the 60 major metros tracked by DTZ was 46.1 million square feet in the second quarter for a total of 86.5 million square feet through the first half of the year. That’s a 22 percent increase from the first half of 2014, and has driven industrial vacancy to a cyclical low of 7.3 percent. “The industrial boom is occurring in nearly every region in the U.S.,” according to the report. “In fact, only 17 percent of the national market did not absorb industrial space in the second quarter.” The boom isn’t just occurring among large industrial buildings in the sector either. The report notes that smaller industrial buildings between 10,000 and 50,000 square feet “are seeing rental appreciation exceed that of larger buildings in all of the top markets — sometimes by more than double.” With high absorption …
CHICAGO — Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: PDM) has entered into a binding agreement to sell its largest asset, Aon Center, located at 200 E. Randolph St. in downtown Chicago, for $712 million, or $260 per square foot. The buyer is the 601W Cos., a private real estate investment company. The sale is expected to close early in the fourth quarter. Constructed in 1972, Aon Center is a 2.7 million-square-foot, 83-story office tower that is currently 86 percent leased. Situated on 3.5 acres in Chicago’s East Loop, Aon Center offers views of the city, Lake Michigan and Millennium Park. Last week, Piedmont announced that the Kraft Heinz Co., a global food and beverage giant, will relocate its Chicago headquarters from Northfield, Ill., to five floors of the building. “The successful sale of Aon Center will be the culmination of Piedmont’s long-term strategy of transforming the asset into one of Chicago’s most prestigious office towers,” says Piedmont president and CEO Donald Miller. “We have been fortunate to attract a number of distinguished tenants to Aon Center such as KPMG, Microsoft, United Health Group, Integrys, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago and, most recently, Kraft Heinz. Additionally, we have also …
NEW YORK — SL Green Realty Corp. (NYSE: SLG) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a 90 percent interest in The SoHo Building, an office and retail property in Manhattan, for approximately $230 million. The investment stake is based on the property’s gross asset valuation of $255 million. Located at 110 Greene St., the 13-story SoHo Building is one of the tallest buildings in the SoHo historic district. Retail space at the building, situated along Greene and Mercer streets, offers tenants high visibility on two of the strongest performing retail streets in Manhattan. The seller is a joint venture controlled by the family of the late real estate entrepreneur Tony Goldman. “This transaction presents SL Green with a unique opportunity to acquire and further enhance the property into one of the most compelling multi-use assets in downtown New York,” says SL Green Managing Director Brett Herschenfeld. “The property is truly fitting of its iconic name.” SL Green plans to complete improvements to the property as it reintroduces it to the marketplace. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions. The purchase increases SL Green’s office footprint in SoHo. SL Green’s retail …
NEW YORK — The U.S. CMBS loan delinquency rate across the five major property types rose by five basis points in June, reports New York-based research firm Trepp LLC. Still, the delinquency rate is 60 basis points lower than it was a year ago. The rate of CMBS loans at least 30 days delinquent inched up to 5.45 percent in June from 5.40 percent in May. By comparison, the delinquency rate registered 6.05 percent in June 2014. The cause for the rise in the delinquency rate in June was $1.4 billion in newly delinquent loans, fueled by several that are each nearly $100 million, according to Trepp research analyst Sean Barrie. The newly delinquent loans include $97.9 million for 390 Park Ave. in New York City and two identical $99.75 million loans for the NGP Rubicon GSA Pool, which covers industrial and office buildings in multiple markets. The $1.4 billion in new delinquencies was partially balanced by $1.1 billion in previously delinquent CMBS loans that were paid off either at par or with a loss, says Barrie. By property type, the multifamily and retail sectors each saw an increase of 11 basis points in the delinquency rate — to 8.73 …
MONTVALE, N.J. — The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and agreed to sell about 120 of its stores for $600 million. The company operates 296 supermarket and liquor stores under the brand names of A&P, Best Cellars, Food Basics, the Food Emporium, Pathmark, Superfresh and Waldbaum’s. The stores are situated throughout the East Coast, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland and Connecticut. A&P will operate as business as usual throughout the court-supervised sale process. The company will soon close 25 stores, however, due to ongoing operating losses. “After careful consideration of all alternatives, we have concluded that a sale process implemented through Chapter 11 is the best way for A&P to preserve as many jobs as possible, and maximize value for all stakeholders,” says Paul Hertz, A&P’s president and CEO. “While the decision to close some stores is always difficult, these actions will enable the company to refocus its efforts to ensure the vast majority of A&P stores continue operating under new owners as a result of the court-supervised process.” The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company was founded in Montvale in 1859. It was initially a small chain …
NorthStar Healthcare Income Acquires Interest in $1.1 Billion Seniors Housing Investment
by Jeff Shaw
NEW YORK CITY — NorthStar Healthcare Income Inc. (NorthStar Healthcare) — through a joint venture with Formation Capital LLC and Safanad Management Ltd. — has closed the acquisition of the U.S.-based operations of Extendicare International Inc., including a portfolio of 158 seniors housing and care facilities for a total cost of approximately $1.1 billion. New York-based NorthStar Healthcare, a public, non-traded real estate investment trust, acquired a 36.67 percent interest in the portfolio, while affiliates of Safanad and Formation collectively acquired the remaining 63.33 percent interest. In connection with the acquisition, NorthStar Healthcare also originated a $75 million mezzanine loan to partially finance the transaction, which bears interest at a fixed rate of 10 percent per year and has a term of 67 months. Among highlights of the acquisition: The portfolio consists of 152 skilled nursing facilities and six assisted living facilities with over 15,000 beds located across 12 states, with the largest concentrations in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. The facilities are leased to five third-party operators pursuant to long-term net leases. The overall resident occupancy was approximately 83 percent as of March 31. In addition to the mezzanine loan, the joint venture financed the acquisition with a …
Two compelling trends have emerged on the commercial real estate lending and investment front during the first half of 2015. First, commercial real estate buyers with an abundance of funds and a yearning for yield have poured more capital into the Midwest amid heady prices in major coastal markets. Second, the increase in spending has transpired in an environment marked by two potential market-disrupting forces: interest rate volatility and temporary anxiety over the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will play in the apartment financing market. Investment sales of office, industrial, retail, apartment and hotel properties through the first five months of 2015 in the Midwest totaled $19.6 billion, according to New York-based Real Capital Analytics (RCA), which tracks property and portfolio sales of $2.5 million and above. That $19.6 billion sum has already surpassed the volume of property and portfolio sales in the 10-state region during the first half of 2014 by $3 billion, and it represents 10 percent of national dollar volume year-to-date through May, according to RCA. Over the past 17 months, capitalization rates in the Midwest have generally remained flat or declined by approximately 30 basis points, reports RCA. The cap rates across the region are …
Cousins Properties to Develop $200M World Headquarters for NCR Corp. in Atlanta’s Tech Square
by John Nelson
ATLANTA — Cousins Properties Inc. (NYSE: CUZ) has signed a 15-year build-to-suit lease with tech firm NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR) to develop NCR’s $200 million world headquarters in Midtown Atlanta. Formerly based in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth in Gwinnett County, NCR’s new headquarters will be located within Tech Square, a multi-block campus of office buildings and retailers located on Spring Street near Georgia Tech. “We are thrilled to be working with NCR to build their world headquarters in Midtown Atlanta,” says Larry Gellerstedt, president and CEO of Cousins Properties. “This is an exceptional opportunity for Cousins to develop and own a cutting-edge, skyline-enhancing trophy tower in Atlanta’s leading technology district.” NCR has pre-leased 100 percent of the planned 485,000-square-foot office building. Cousins recently closed on the acquisition of the land at Centergy North, an office campus within Tech Square. “I have stated very publicly that NCR’s bold, ambitious move to establish a state-of-the-art world headquarters campus in Midtown is a critical first step in a larger goal to create a ‘Silicon Valley of the East’ right here in Atlanta,” says Bill Nuti, chairman and CEO of NCR. “We are currently advocating for other tech leaders and innovative companies to …
KEY WEST, FLA. — DiamondRock Hospitality Co. (NYSE: DRH) has acquired the fee simple interest in the 184-suite Sheraton Suites Key West hotel in Key West for $94 million, or $511,000 per guestroom. “We are very excited about our acquisition of this all-suites hotel, which represents our second acquisition in the highest RevPAR market in the United States,” says Mark Brugger, president and CEO of DiamondRock. “With 480-square-foot guestrooms, the hotel features some of the largest rooms in the market. The hotel is in excellent condition and features direct access to Smathers Beach, the largest and most popular beach in Key West.” DiamondRock is finalizing its plans to reposition and re-launch the hotel as an independent lifestyle resort. As part of the repositioning plan, the company is developing a $5 million capital plan to improve the arrival experience, lobby, pool and guestrooms. Renovations are expected to be minimally disruptive. The conversion to an independent hotel is expected to take place in late 2016 after initial upgrades are completed. Upon stabilization, the company expects to improve the hotel’s profit margins by approximately 500 basis points. By comparison, the Sheraton’s profit margins are currently almost 1,000 basis points lower than DiamondRock’s other …