Top Stories

GLENDALE, COLO. — The city of Glendale has unveiled plans for a $175 million, 42-acre mixed-use development five miles southeast of downtown Denver to be named Glendale 180. The development will include 151,725 square feet of food and beverage space, 109,000 square feet of entertainment and 42,500 square feet of retail, according to The Denver Post. A mix of public and private financing will fund the project, with investment banks Stifel and DA Davidson handling the public financing and HFF securing the private financing. According to the Denver Business Journal, the city of Glendale issued bonds for about half of the $175 million cost of the project. The Laramie Company, which is overseeing leasing for the project, is expected to announce anchor tenants within the next few weeks. “We are very careful about the tenant mix we’re going after,” says Mary Beth Jenkins, president of The Laramie Company. “It’s a mix of traditional anchors, fine dining, and fun concepts you won’t find anywhere else in Colorado.” Adjacent to Cherry Creek, the project features outdoor green space in addition to the brick-and-mortar development, including bike paths, water features and a botanic garden. The outdoor space will be located south of Virginia …

CHICAGO — Ventas Inc. (NYSE: VTR), a seniors housing and healthcare REIT, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ardent Medical Services Inc. for $1.75 billion in cash. Ardent Medical, a subsidiary of Nashville-based Ardent Health Services, is one of the 10 largest for-profit hospital firms in the United States. The privately owned Ardent Medical will be entitled to distribute up to $75 million in excess cash to its existing shareholders as part of the transaction. Ardent Health Services is owned by private equity funds managed by Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe and currently generates approximately $2 billion in annual revenues, with more than 50 percent of its revenue derived from private pay. Ventas intends to separate Ardent Health Services’ hospital operations from its owned real estate and sell the hospital operations to one or more newly formed entities owned by current management of Ardent Health Services, other equity sources, and up to 9.9 percent owned by Ventas. As part of the transaction, Ventas will own 10 high-quality hospitals and related real estate operated by Ardent under the names BSA Health System in Amarillo, Texas; Hillcrest HealthCare System in Tulsa, Okla.; and Lovelace Health System in Albuquerque, N.M. These assets …

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 …