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LenovoEnterpriseCampus

DURHAM, N.C. — Affiliates of Philadelphia-based Rubenstein Partners and its partner Grubb Properties have sold the 485,000-square-foot Lenovo Enterprise Campus in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park for $127 million. The buyers were a joint venture between United Kingdom-based 90 North Real Estate Partners and Dubai-based Arzan Wealth. The acquisition also included a nearly 40,000-square-foot building under construction that will serve as a research and development center for Lenovo. The site can accommodate an additional 100,000 square feet of development. The transaction, brokered by Cushman & Wakefield, closed approximately 15 months after Rubenstein and Grubb’s acquisition of the then-vacant property, and less than a year after the partnership signed global PC manufacturer Lenovo to a long-term lease of the entire campus. The corporate office campus sat vacant for several years before Rubenstein and Grubb bought it in December 2013 for approximately $26 million. Less than four months following the acquisition, Rubenstein and Grubb secured a long-term, triple-net lease with Lenovo, which Lenovo intended to use for its new Enterprise Division created as part of a $2.3 billion acquisition of IBM’s x86 server division. “We’re extremely pleased to announce this sale as the conclusion to a very successful value-added office investment,” says …

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After years atop the commercial real estate food chain, the multifamily sector remains the darling of the commercial real estate investment world, according to Integra Realty Resources (IRR). In its annual Viewpoint study, the commercial real estate valuation, consulting and advisory firm reports that 95 percent of the major U.S. markets it tracks are currently in the expansionary phase of the real estate life cycle. In the expansionary phase, 95 percent of U.S. metros are experiencing decreasing vacancy rates, moderate-to-high new construction, high absorption, moderate-to-high employment growth and medium-to-high rental rate growth. One of the many multifamily markets in that category is Miami. “Miami is definitely in an expansion phase because we’re building new product. There are 2,500 units under construction in downtown Miami and about 7,000 units county-wide under construction,” says Anthony Graziano, senior managing director of IRR – Miami/Palm Beach. Graziano has been with IRR since its inception in 1999. “The new construction, coupled with sub-5 percent vacancies and rent growth at 8 to 12 percent annually — that puts us in the expansion phase.” Miami is ahead of the national average in several statistical categories, such as Class A and B vacancy rates and rental rate growth. …

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SAN FRANCISCO — Loews Hotels & Resorts, a wholly owned subsidiary of Loews Corp. (NYSE: L), has entered into an agreement to purchase the 158-room Mandarin Oriental, San Francisco hotel. The purchase price was undisclosed. “We are excited to find a property that is consistent with the Loews brand,” Paul Whetsell, president and CEO of Loews Hotels & Resorts, told REBusinessOnline.com. “This will be our first entree into San Francisco, a major gateway market and a very important location for Loews’ core customer base,” he added. The acquisition is expected to close in late March, at which time Loews will rebrand the hotel. Whetsell declined to comment on plans for the rebranding. Located in San Francisco’s Financial District, the hotel, which is currently managed by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, is situated on the top 11 floors of San Francisco’s third-tallest office building, 345 California Center, located at 222 Sansome St. The hotel, located one-half mile from iconic Union Square, features unspoiled views of San Francisco and its bay, 158 guest rooms, the Brasserie S&P restaurant, more than 5,000 square feet of meeting space and a new 8,000-square-foot spa and fitness center. The Mandarin Oriental, San Francisco hotel is the seventh …

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Mixed-use Austin Texas Transwestern Development

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Transwestern Development Co. and its partners have broken ground on a 445,952-square-foot mixed-use project at 1621 and 1645 E. 6th St. in Austin. The two-building project will occupy a 4.2-acre site at the intersection of East 6th Street and Comal Avenue. The development’s first building is a 94,500-square-foot office facility, which is scheduled for completion in January 2016. The second building, called The Arnold, is slated for delivery in July 2016 and consists of 346 apartment units with 9,600 square feet of specialty retail. The cost of development was not disclosed. Amegy Bank of Texas and Comerica Inc. provided construction financing for the project. Kirksey Architecture designed the office portion, and Wilder Belshaw Architects designed The Arnold. The general contractors are Harvey Cleary for the office portion and Andres Construction for the mixed-use building. KimballBruehlGarciaEstes is the civil engineer for both buildings. “We are very pleased to get started on this exciting development,” says Josh Delk, associate vice president of Houston-based Transwestern Development. Delk is leading the project team. “This location is in the center of one of Austin’s most culturally rich and defining neighborhoods, and we are thrilled to be bringing a project of this caliber …

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NEW YORK – Prudential Real Estate Investors (PREI) and SJP Properties have sold a 45 percent interest in Eleven Times Square, a 1.1-million-square-foot office and retail tower in Midtown Manhattan. The sale to Norges Bank Investment Management was based on a gross value of $1.4 billion. The partnership will continue to own and control the building, while operating partner SJP Properties will continue to manage, lease and operate the property. SJP’s headquarters are also located within tower. “This transaction is reflective of Eleven Times Square’s position as a premier destination for leading global and local companies,” says Jeff Schotz, SJP’s executive vice president. “Given the success of our leasing program and robust demand for our remaining premium tower space, we believe that now is an appropriate time to recapitalize the building as we continue to look for opportunities to further expand our New York metropolitan area market presence.” The tower was completed in 2010. It is situated at the intersection of Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street. The building is 90 percent leased to tenants like Microsoft Corp. and Proskauer law firm, along with a variety of other companies within the finance, technology, legal and media industries. “The strength of the …

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CHEVY CHASE, MD. — Capital One Bank (NYSE: COF) has served as lead arranger, administrative agent and bookrunner for loans totaling $150.6 million for the acquisition of nine Class A medical office buildings in North Carolina and Georgia. CNL Healthcare Properties Inc., a Florida-based real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on acquiring and developing properties in the seniors housing and healthcare sectors, was the buyer. Five of the properties are located in and around Charlotte on three Novant Health campuses. Of the remaining four, one is located in Asheville, N.C., on a Duke LifePoint campus; another is in Rome, Ga., at Floyd Medical Center; and two properties near Atlanta are satellite offices for Southern Regional Medical Center. Together they total 907,300 square feet of rentable space. Certain properties have ground leases that prohibit cross-collateralization. As a result, Capital One financed them through individual term loans, consolidating the remaining properties into a single loan. “This transaction highlights the structural flexibility we offer clients across the country, as well as our capacity to accommodate a deal of this size,” says Todd Gordon, managing director of Capital One Bank. “CNL Healthcare is one of the premier organizations in the industry, and we are pleased …

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For the 18th time in 20 months, the delinquency rate for U.S. CMBS loans 30 days or more past due has decreased. The Trepp CMBS Delinquency Rate fell nine basis points from December to January to 5.66 percent. What’s more, the delinquency rate is now 159 basis points lower than it was in January 2014 when it stood at 7.25 percent Across property types, lodging continues to be the best performing asset class, with a delinquency rate of 4.40 percent, down 37 basis points in January, according to New York-based Trepp, which closely tracks the CMBS industry. The industrial delinquency rate saw the second-largest decrease last month, with a 35-basis-point drop to 7.2 percent. The office delinquency rate was the only major property type to increase in January, with a 10-basis-point increase to 6.18 percent. CMBS loans that were previously delinquent but paid off either at par or with a loss totaled almost $1.2 billion in January, according to Trepp. Removing these previously distressed assets from the equation helped lower the rate down by 22 basis points. More than $500 million in loans were cured in January, which helped push delinquencies lower by 10 basis points. At the same time, …

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MCLEAN, VA. — Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT) will acquire five landmark hotel properties with proceeds from its recent $1.95 billion sale of the Waldorf Astoria New York to Anbang Insurance Group Co. Ltd., a Chinese company. The properties include Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek in Orlando, Fla. (1,001 rooms); Waldorf Astoria Orlando in Orlando, Fla. (498 rooms); The Reach, A Waldorf Astoria Resort in Key West, Fla. (150 rooms); Casa Marina, A Waldorf Astoria Resort in Key West, Fla. (311 rooms); and Parc 55 in San Francisco (1,024 rooms). The Parc 55 will be a new addition to the Hilton Hotels & Resorts brand, which Hilton Worldwide will manage. Hilton Worldwide currently manages the other acquired hotels. The five hotels are expected to be part of a 1031 like-kind exchange. The total purchase price of these five hotels of $1.76 billion represents approximately 13 times the midpoint of the five properties’ combined full-year projected 2015 adjusted EBITDA of between $132 million to $138 million. As part of its long-term relationship with Anbang, Hilton Worldwide will continue to operate the Waldorf Astoria New York under a 100-year management agreement. Anbang also plans to complete a major renovation to restore the …

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LOS ANGELES — In two separate financings, Karlin Real Estate has funded $96 million in first mortgage debt to refinance resort properties in Arizona and Colorado. Los Angeles-based Karlin has provided Grand Heritage Hotel Group (GHHG) with a $46 million senior loan secured by The Historic Stanley Hotel, a 140-room resort property in Estes Park, Colorado. Built in 1909 by Freelan Oscar Stanley, co-inventor of the Stanley Steamer — a steam-driven automobile popular early in the 20th century — The Stanley is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a member of Historic Hotels of America. In 2010, GHHG completed a multimillion-dollar renovation and restoration program that included restoration of the concert hall and manor house referred to as The Lodge. In addition to refinancing the existing debt on the hotel, Karlin’s five-year interest-only financing features a delayed-draw component, which will be used by GHHG to fund the completion of a new 50,000-square-foot luxury lodging building adjacent to The Stanley Hotel under a new brand called Aspire Hotels and Resorts. The 50-room building will provide a luxury hospitality component to a proposed 15,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art wellness center being developed by Estes Park Medical Center and the University of …

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The accelerating labor market is bound to stoke tenant demand for all types of commercial real estate, says Robert Bach, director of research for the Americas at brokerage services firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. The veteran economist’s assessment comes on the heels of a better-than-expected Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released last Friday that shows U.S. employers added 257,000 net new payroll jobs in January, beating the 230,000 jobs forecast by Bloomberg in its survey of economists. In another sign of momentum, the November and December totals were revised upward by a combined 147,000 jobs. Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses since the last published estimates and the monthly recalculation of seasonal factors, according to the BLS. The annual benchmark process also contributed to these revisions. The strong performance in January and revisions to the prior two months lifted the three-month moving average to 336,000, its highest level since November 1997, according to Bach. The annual benchmark revisions to the data, completed every January, raised 2014 job growth from 2.9 million to a 15-year high of more than 3.1 million jobs. “Job growth last month beat analysts’ forecasts, which was unexpected given that analysts had overestimated …

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