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Menlo Science & Technology Park Menlo Park Silicon Valley

MENLO PARK, CALIF. — Prologis Inc. (NYSE: PLD) has sold a 21-building, 56-acre industrial park in Silicon Valley to Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB). Menlo Science & Technology Park is located on Willow Road between Highway 101 and the Dumbarton Bridge in Menlo Park. Prologis has owned and managed the property since 1998. “Land constraints and increased urbanization pressures in markets such as Silicon Valley support the monetization of select infill assets,” says Michael Curless, chief investment officer of San Francisco-based Prologis. “This project and others in our portfolio benefit from our dedicated team who understand how to identify and unlock the intrinsic value in our value-added conversion properties.” The sales price was not released, but the Silicon Valley Business Journal estimates that the asset traded for roughly $400 million. As part of the transaction, Prologis will provide ongoing management services on behalf of Facebook. Social networking heavyweight Facebook has roughly 890 million daily active users and roughly 1.4 billion monthly active users, according to its fourth-quarter 2014 earnings report. The Menlo Park-based company invested roughly $1.8 billion in property and equipment in calendar year 2014. “Our team has spent the past several years planning the conversion of this site for …

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FORT WORTH, TEXAS – RadioShack (NYSE: RSCH) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday after years of struggling with sluggish sales and competing against online retailers. General Wireless agreed to acquire between 1,500 and 2,400 RadioShack U.S. company-owned stores. This acquisition facilitated the bankruptcy filing from RadioShack and some of its U.S. subsidiaries. General Wireless is an affiliate of hedge fund Standard General L.P. It is also Sprint’s biggest shareholder. The sale agreement is subject to court approval and other conditions. RadioShack’s foreign subsidiaries and its franchisee-owned stores are not included in the filing. Other parties will also have an opportunity to submit offers for RadioShack’s assets in a court-approved process. General Wireless has partnered with Sprint to create a new dedicated mobility “store within a store” retail presence in up to 1,750 of the acquired stores. RadioShack currently has about 4,000 company-owned stores in the U.S. The stores that aren’t purchased by Sprint and its affiliates will close through a deal with liquidation firm Hilco Merchant Resources. The 94-year-old RadioShack was suspended from the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. It was known for selling break-out successes, such as the all-electronic calculator and one of the first mass-marketed computers back …

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NEWARK, N.J. — Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. (PMCC) provided $15.2 billion in financing to the commercial real estate industry globally in 2014, exceeding expectations but down slightly from $15.8 billion in 2013. Despite the slight pullback overall, the company provided more than $3 billion in conventional agency loans in 2014, the highest production volume in the firm’s history. PMCC — the commercial mortgage lending arm of Newark-based Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: PRU) — unveiled the results Tuesday during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2015 Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREF)/Multifamily Housing Convention & Expo at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego. In addition to achieving a record year for agency lending in 2014, PMCC reported strong production in general account volume and CMBS transactions. The company — which exceeded its projected goal of $14 billion for 2014 — has as much as $15 billion available for financing in 2015. Among the highlights for PMCC in 2014: Portfolio lending in the U.S. totaled $7.9 billion, while portfolio lending internationally (Japan, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe) totaled $700 million. CMBS originations on behalf of PMCC’s Liberty Island conduit program reached nearly $900 million. International assets under management grew to more …

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Trammell-crow

LIVERMORE, CALIF. — Trammell Crow Co., Multi-Employer Property Trust (MEPT), and real estate advisor Bentall Kennedy have announced that construction has begun on Oaks Logistics Center in Livermore, 38 miles southeast of Oakland. The project will consist of three Class A industrial logistics buildings totaling 1.3 million square feet. All buildings will be constructed simultaneously, and the project is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2015. The price of the development was not released. “We are excited to be working with MEPT, Bentall Kennedy and the city on a meaningful industrial opportunity in the Bay Area,” says Will Parker, principal with Trammell Crow Co.’s Northern California business unit. “Over the past 20 years, TCC’s work with MEPT and Bentall Kennedy has grown into a successful partnership and tackled complex transactions and delivered best-in-class industrial facilities. Oaks Logistics Center is a great example of our collaboration.” The new logistics/fulfillment center will be accessible from major transportation corridors. The three-building development is located on Highway 84 just south of Highway 580 via the Isabel Avenue/Highway 84 interchange. The site has direct access to I-580, proximity to the Port of Oakland and is positioned to serve the entire Bay Area and …

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FRAMINGHAM, MASS. AND BOCA RATON, FLA. — Staples Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS) will acquire Office Depot Inc. (Nasdaq: ODP) for $6.3 billion. The deal comes a little more than a year after Office Depot Inc. and OfficeMax Inc. merged in 2013. Staples will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Office Depot. Under the terms of the agreement, Office Depot shareholders will receive, for each Office Depot share, $7.25 in cash and 0.2188 of a share in Staples stock at closing. Each company’s board of directors unanimously approved the agreement. Based on Staples closing share price on Feb. 2, the transaction values Office Depot at $11.00 per share. This represents a premium of 44 percent over the closing price of Office Depot shares as of Feb. 2, and a premium of 65 percent over the 90-day average closing price of Office Depot shares as of Feb. 2. “This is a transformational acquisition which enables Staples to provide more value to customers, and more effectively compete in a rapidly evolving competitive environment,” says Ron Sargent, Staples’ chairman and CEO. “We expect to recognize at least $1 billion of synergies as we aggressively reduce global expenses and optimize our retail footprint. These savings …

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NEW YORK — AvalonBay Communities Inc. (NYSE: AVB) has purchased the Manhattan home of the American Bible Society, located at 1865 Broadway in the Upper West Side, for $300 million. AvalonBay intends to raze the organization’s headquarters and use the 22,500-square-foot site to construct a 300,000-square-foot apartment tower, which will include retail at the base. The society will remain in the building through the third quarter of 2015. AvalonBay expects to begin construction on the tower in late 2016. The building currently located at 1865 Broadway is a 12-story, 156,000-square-foot Class C office building that was constructed in 1965. According to media reports, the American Bible Society, which has been located in the building since construction, will relocate to the Philadelphia area. The site is located within two blocks of iconic Manhattan locales such as Columbus Circle, Lincoln Center and Central Park. The retail component at the base of the tower could be comprised of nearly 60,000 square feet of leasable space, according to some media reports. AvalonBay has indicated that in the future it may enter into a joint venture or forward sale agreement with respect to the retail component. Helen Hwang, Nathaniel Rockett, Karen Widenmann and Brian Szczapa …

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Jamie Woodwell MBA

SAN DIEGO — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) projects that originations of commercial/multifamily mortgages will grow to $414 billion in 2015, an increase of 7 percent over the prior year. Furthermore, MBA expects total loan originations will rise to $430 billion in 2016. The loan originations outlook was released Monday during MBA’s Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREF)/Multifamily Housing & Convention Expo 2015, which runs from Feb. 1-4. There are 3,100 attendees at this year’s conference at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, up from 2,800 in 2014 and the highest attendance figure since 2008 when the conference drew 3,900 attendees. The MBA forecast is based on the expected level of deal volume among mortgage banking firms. “Commercial and multifamily real estate finance markets are strong,” says Jamie Woodwell, vice president of commercial real estate research for the MBA. “Rising property values, improving property fundamentals, lower interest rates and higher loan maturity volumes should all help boost mortgage borrowing and lending in the coming year.” Multifamily mortgages originated by mortgage bankers are forecast to total $152 billon in 2015. The commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding is expected to continue growing in 2015, ending the year at $2.7 trillion, up more than …

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Eduardo Padilla

MINNEAPOLIS — NorthMarq Capital has signed a purchase agreement to acquire 60 percent of AmeriSphere Multifamily Finance, a Fannie Mae DUS and FHA MAP lender, from founding partner Rodrigo Lopez and the investment firm McCarthy Capital. NorthMarq Capital previously owned a 40 percent stake in AmeriSphere, but will now operate it as a wholly-owned subsidiary. The acquisition is expected to close in 30 to 60 days pending agency and regulatory approvals. AmeriSphere will be then known as NorthMarq. Terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed. NorthMarq will continue to operate as an originator of multifamily loans for Fannie Mae under its DUS program and for FHA, including all underwriting, closing and asset management functions. No employee reductions or changes are anticipated except at the CEO/president level. The acquisition will allow for enhanced integration of operational support with NorthMarq and its platform of 35 production offices across the country. “Since we already had a strong partnership with AmeriSphere, this opportunity can only strengthen our platform and make our production experts more valuable to borrowers looking for multifamily acquisition financing or refinancing,” says Eduardo Padilla, CEO of NorthMarq Capital. Lopez will remain with the firm following acquisition as executive chairman. Jay …

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Montage Laguna Beach

LAGUNA BEACH, CALIF. — Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: BEE), a hotel owner and management REIT based in Chicago, has purchased a luxury resort in Laguna Beach for $360 million. Strategic Hotels purchased Montage Laguna Beach from an affiliate of Ohana Real Estate Investors LLC (OREI), a hotel and resort investment and development firm. “We are thrilled to acquire Montage Laguna Beach, a truly iconic luxury hotel located on one of the best resort settings in the continental United States. The acquisition is consistent with our strategy of expanding our best-in-class portfolio of irreplaceable and world-class luxury hotels located in North America,” says Raymond Gellein, chairman and CEO of Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. “The Southern California market generally, and the coastal Orange County market specifically, have been among the highest-rated markets in the country and are poised to continue their strong growth given the diverse set of demand drivers and no competitive supply in the current pipeline as the result of extremely high barriers to entry.” The 250-key Montage Laguna Beach opened in 2003 and features views of the Pacific Ocean, 16,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, a 20,000-square-foot spa and several on-site dining and beverage options. …

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Terreno Realty Corporation (NYSE:TRNO) has acquired an 820,000-square-foot industrial property in Washington, D.C., for $115.5 million. The 28.2-acre property is located at 3015-3535 V Street. The facility is situated one block from New York Avenue/Route 50, in the northeastern section of the District of Columbia. It is also near the Amtrak Northeast Corridor, the U.S. National Arboretum and the Anacostia River. Notable tenants in the area include Anchor Construction Corp. and Premium Distributors. The industrial facility includes 102 dock-high and eight grade-level loading positions, as well as parking for 470 cars. It is currently 87 percent leased to 22 tenants. The seller was not named. Terreno was represented by James Cassidy of DTZ. The firm also recently acquired a 107,000-square-foot industrial property in Doral, Fla., for $9.9 million. That property is located at 10100 NW 25th Street, in Miami’s Airport West market. San Francisco-based Terreno Realty Corporation acquires, owns and operates industrial real estate in six major U.S. coastal markets. The markets include Los Angeles, Northern New Jersey/New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Miami and Washington, D.C./Baltimore. Terreno’s stock price closed at $23.36 per share on Thursday, Jan. 29, up from $22.90 per share …

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