IRVINE AND SILICON VALLEY, CALIF. — Four of the top five office markets for investments are located on the West Coast, according to a new report by Auction.com. The top markets for buying offices, from first to fifth, are located in San Jose, Calif.; San Francisco; Seattle; Orange County, Calif.; and New York. The top office acquisition markets as determined by Auction.com are based on projected net operating income growth, vacancy improvement, rent growth and valuations. Much of the strength of West Coast office growth is abetted by the recent tech surge, the report says, which is also a key factor for growth in New York and Boston. In San Jose, payrolls stand at an all-time high due to 15.3 percent year-over-year growth. REIS data shows that more than 450,000 square feet were added in the first quarter of 2015, but robust demand has absorbed it. According to Auction.com’s 2015-2018 U.S. Office Projections, San Jose will see a 22 percent increase in rents in the next three years, as well as a decreased vacancy of 440 basis points (bps). Rent growth from July 2014 to July 2015 in San Jose was 7.2 percent, and as supply evens out, Auction.com expects …
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ORLANDO, FLA. – Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) has announced its plans to create a spin-off REIT called Four Corners Property Trust. Darden will transfer about 420 of its owned restaurant properties to Four Corners, which will lease those properties back to Darden. Darden currently owns and operates more than 1,500 restaurants. Its most notable brands include Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V’s and Yard House. Bill Lenehan has been named CEO of Four Corners. Lenehan sits on Darden’s board of directors and is running for re-election at the company’s 2015 annual meeting of shareholders. He will resign from the board if the Four Corners spin-off becomes official. Lenehan has also removed himself from the independent committees of Darden’s board. “The board and I have been incredibly impressed with Bill’s leadership, knowledge, and skill related to the Four Corners transaction,” says Gene Lee, Darden’s CEO. “We have also been impressed with his vision and capability, which gives us confidence he will be able to lead and transform Four Corners into a leading growth company.“ Four Corners filed an initial Form 10 Registration Statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 11, though …
BOSTON — Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) has agreed to sell two office buildings in Boston’s Back Bay area for approximately $1.3 billion. The properties at 500 Boylston St. and 222 Berkeley St. will be acquired by a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Oxford Properties Group, according to Bloomberg Business. The properties reportedly attracted substantial interest from investors, including real estate investment trusts and sovereign-wealth funds. 500 Boylston St. is a 25-story, 706-862-square-foot building. Major tenants include Marshalls, MFS Investment Management, Newstar Financial, Talbots and Visnick & Caufield. 222 Berkley St. is a 22-story, 519,608-square building that shares a 1,000-car parking garage with 500 Boylston St. Tenants include, Bank of New York, HLM Management, Houghton Mifflin, Summit Partners and Regiment Capital. Blackstone has been selling office assets to take advantage of fierce demand for prime properties in major coastal markets. In April, Blackstone sold 26 Northern California properties totaling 8.2 million square feet, along with two development parcels, to Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. Blackstone’s sale of 500 Boylston St. and 222 Berkeley St. is expected to close in September. Blackstone’s stock closed Thursday, Aug. 13 at $38.16 per share, up from $33.54 a share a year ago.
INDIANAPOLIS — Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG) continues to add to its massive retail portfolio with the opening of two new projects: Gloucester Premium Outlets in Gloucester Township, N.J., and the expansion of San Francisco Premium Outlets. With the expansion, San Francisco Premium Outlets is now the largest outlet center in California. The new 376,000-square-foot outlet mall in Gloucester Township serves shoppers in southern New Jersey and metro Philadelphia. The single-level, outdoor village-style shopping center features a racetrack design and a Market Hall that offers dining options, indoor and outdoor seating, a media center with flat screen televisions and free Wi-Fi. The mall’s tenant roster includes Armani Outlet, Banana Republic Factory Store, Calvin Klein, Cole Haan, Columbia Sportswear, Lucky Brand, Nike Factory Store, Puma, Tommy Hilfiger, Under Armour and Vera Bradley. On the other side of the country, Simon has opened the 185,000-square-foot expansion of San Francisco Premium Outlets, an upscale outlet mall in San Francisco featuring retailers such as Burberry, Coach, Kate Spade New York, MaxMara, Michael Kors and Prada. The expansion adds 30 new stores to the development, including CH Carolina Herrera, Catimini, ECCO, Rag & Bone New York, Scotch & Soda, Ted Baker London, Tory Burch, UGG …
Texas has the two most active development markets in the country in San Antonio and Austin, but other metros aren’t far behind, according to senior living consulting firm Plante Moran and the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC). During the first quarter of 2014, there were 5,349 assisted living, independent or memory care units under construction in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio, NIC data shows. By the first quarter of 2015, that number had risen to 6,525 total units, a 22 percent increase. In San Antonio, there were 1,781 seniors housing units under construction in the first quarter of this year, representing 23.5 percent of existing inventory. Austin’s 920 units under construction accounted for 15.4 percent of that market’s existing inventory. Those were the highest two percentages of any major market in the United States. Seniors housing construction in Knoxville, Tenn., represents 14.9 percent of that metro area’s existing inventory, according to Plante Moran. That puts Knoxville in third place behind Austin. Columbus, Ohio, follows close behind at 14.5 percent, after which there’s a drop to approximately 12 percent in Houston, Texas, and Sarasota, Fla. “Knoxville has shown an increase in occupancy from last …
FAIRFIELD, CONN. — In a deal totaling $9 billion, Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) has acquired $8.5 billion of healthcare-related loans from GE (NYSE: GE), along with the company’s Healthcare Financial Services (HFS) U.S. lending business. In a separate transaction, an unnamed buyer purchased $600 million of HFS real estate equity investments from GE. HFS provides financing to U.S. healthcare companies, sponsors, investors and developers across healthcare sectors including seniors housing, hospitals, medical offices, outpatient services, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Darren Alcus, president and CEO of HFS, will join Capital One. Capital One also will retain the HFS management team and employees. “We’re pleased to sell HFS to a company that is committed to expanding the business,” says Keith Sherin, CEO of GE. “Our customers, sponsors and HFS employees will benefit from the synergies of combining Capital One’s existing healthcare lending businesses with the expertise, relationships and experience of our highly regarded HFS team.” GE is looking to focus on its industrial businesses and is selling most GE Capital assets. GE and its board of directors have determined that market conditions are favorable to pursue disposition of those assets. “We are on track to reduce our ending net investment …
DALLAS — CNL Healthcare Properties has purchased a five-property seniors housing portfolio totaling 709 units for $195 million. Dallas-based HFF marketed the portfolio located in the Southeast and Southwest on behalf of the seller, AEW Capital Management LP and its affiliate AEW Senior Housing Investors LP. Ryan Maconachy and Chad Lavender, managing directors for HFF, represented the seller. Properties in the portfolio include Parc at Duluth in Duluth, Ga.; Parc at Piedmont in Marietta, Ga.; The Blake at Gulf Breeze in Gulf Breeze, Fla. (now known as The Beacon at Gulf Breeze); Pavilion at Great Hills in Austin, Texas; and The Hampton at Meadow Place in Stafford, Texas. The portfolio encompasses a mix of independent living, assisted living and memory care units, which are 93.1 percent leased overall. Boston-based AEW Capital Management provides real estate investment management services to investors worldwide. Founded in 1981, AEW and its affiliates manage more than $47 billion of property and securities in North America, Europe and Asia. Orlando, Fla.-based CNL is a non-traded REIT that focuses on acquiring properties in the seniors housing and healthcare sectors. During the first seven months of 2015, CNL invested approximately $540 million in 25 medical office buildings and …
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Riding on the strength of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, new mortgage originations for commercial real estate properties increased 29 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). What’s more, new mortgage originations in the second quarter were up 16 percent from the first quarter of 2015 The MBA’s Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations shows year-over-year increases in mortgage originations every year since 2009. Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led the commercial real estate lending market with a 113 percent increase in deal volume from second-quarter 2014 to second-quarter 2015. “Driven by increasing property values, improving property fundamentals and still-low interest rates, commercial and multifamily lending and borrowing continued its strong pace in the second quarter,” says Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s vice president of commercial real estate research. “Mortgage bankers’ originations for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are near record quarterly levels.” Of all property sectors, multifamily posted the strongest increase at 58 percent, followed by industrial properties at 32 percent. Office, retail and hotel properties saw more modest increases of 22 percent, 17 percent and 16 percent, respectively. The only …
LONG BEACH, CALIF. — Greenlaw Partners has acquired One World Trade Center, a 575,000-square-foot office building in Long Beach, for $105 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. The 27-story office building is located at 601 W. Ocean Blvd. One World Trade was built in 1989. It is the tallest building in Long Beach. The Class A building features the World Trade Center Heliport helipad on its roof. The structure is also attached to the 20-story Hilton Long Beach through its two-story retail plaza. The Hilton was not included in this transaction. Notable tenants at the building include the Food and Drug Administration, Morgan Stanley and law firm Ford, Walker, Haggerty & Behar. The building is situated near the Pike at Rainbow Harbor & City Place Shopping Center. The seller, SteelWave, purchased the tower for $148.9 million in 2007 at the peak of the market. The firm operated as Legacy Partners at the time. The company made significant improvements to the tower’s common areas and lobby. One World Trade was 88 percent occupied when it was purchased by Legacy. As of today, there are 37 office units listed as available for lease on LoopNet, with a listed monthly rental rate …
NEW YORK CITY — Maplewood Senior Living and Omega Healthcare Investors (NYSE: OHI) have unveiled plans for the development of a luxury senior living residence on five plots that subsidiaries of Omega purchased on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for $112 million. The development plan is to raze the buildings currently on the site to build a single tower. The luxury senior living community will be a 20-story, 201,000-square-foot high-rise featuring 214 units of independent living, assisted living and memory care. The total project cost will be $246 million, including land costs. The luxury residence will be developed on a site comprising 1802, 1804-06, 1808 and 1810 Second Ave. and 303-305 E. 93rd St. The properties were purchased in an all-cash transaction from five separate sellers. Michael Besen and Rolfe Haas of Besen & Associates represented all five of the sellers. Demolition and site preparation is slated to begin mid-year 2016 with the tower completion expected by early 2018. Westport, Conn.-based Maplewood Senior Living currently operates 11 facilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Ohio. This will be the first Maplewood facility in the state of New York. “We are excited to be able to provide true luxury senior living to the Upper East …