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Mission-Foothill-Plaza

LOS ANGELES — Decron Properties Corp., a private, family-owned and operated real estate company based in Los Angeles, has sold a three-property portfolio comprised of neighborhood shopping centers located in Southern California markets. The gross sales price was $108.5 million. The portfolio consisted of grocery- and drugstore-anchored assets totaling 370,453 square feet. Properties included Mission Foothill Plaza located at 28721-28841 Los Alisos Blvd. in Mission Viejo; Park Oaks, located at 1640-1970 N. Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks; and Ontario Plaza, located at 920-1070 N. Mountain Ave. in Ontario. Bill Bauman, executive vice president, and Kyle Miller, corporate managing director, of Savills Studley represented the seller in the transaction. Retail Opportunity Investment Corp. (Nasdaq: ROIC), a shopping center REIT, was the buyer. Initially, Mission Foothill Plaza was the only asset being marketed by the Studley Savills team. After the property was awarded to ROIC in a competitive bidding process, the buyer put in an offer on the additional two properties. “The terms were very compelling, with short due-diligence timeframes and significant non-refundable deposits,” says Miller. “Ultimately the seller was able to leverage market dynamics and a shortage of quality product to realize an excellent return on investment and achieve a strategic …

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Sam Massell Ted Turner Buckhead Coalition

ATLANTA — Billionaire entrepreneur and legendary media mogul Ted Turner, who along with Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines helped put Atlanta on the map, captivated a packed house at restaurant 103 West on Wednesday afternoon during the annual luncheon of the Buckhead Coalition. Business and political leaders from across Atlanta and Fulton County gathered to hear the 76-year-old, straight-talking Turner reflect on his life and career during a one-on-one interview with Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead Coalition and former mayor of Atlanta from 1970-74. Turner didn’t disappoint. He and Massell bantered back and forth for 20 minutes, leaving the audience hungry for more. The Background Turner began his career as an account executive with the Turner Advertising Co., which made a substantial profit selling billboard ads. In 1970, he entered the television business when he acquired an independent UHF station. In 1976, Turner purchased Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves and launched the TBS Superstation, originating the “superstation” concept. The following year, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. acquired the National Basketball Association’s Atlanta Hawks and in 1980 Turner launched CNN, the world’s first live, 24-hour global news network. Over the next two decades, the company built a portfolio of cable television …

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SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) plans to build a 900,000-square-foot distribution center in Spartanburg, S.C. The $90 million project will be Rite Aid’s first new distribution facility in 15 years. “Spartanburg is an ideal location for our new distribution center,” says John Standley, Rite Aid chairman and CEO. “We thank the state of South Carolina for its cooperation and support during our site selection process and we look forward to breaking ground on our new facility, which will help us to further optimize our supply chain and better serve our stores and customers across the Southeast.” Rite Aid is working with Johnson Development Associates, a leading real estate development firm based in Spartanburg, on build the project. Construction will begin in March and Rite Aid will start shipping to stores in March 2016. The new distribution center will employ nearly 600 people after it becomes fully operational and will support the inventory and fulfillment needs of approximately 1,000 Rite Aid stores in the southeastern United States. In April 2014, after a comprehensive review of its supply chain and logistics network, Rite Aid announced it would consolidate three of its existing distribution centers, located in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Charlotte, …

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Executive-Suite_westin-web

SAN FRANCISCO — LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE: LHO) has purchased The Westin Market Street hotel in San Francisco for $350 million. At closing, LaSalle renamed the hotel Park Central San Francisco. LaSalle funded the purchase with cash on hand and borrowings from its senior unsecured credit facility. “We are thrilled to have acquired this prominent hotel with such a fantastic location,” says Michael Barnello, president and CEO of LaSalle. “The San Francisco lodging market remains very strong, with demand at peak levels and limited supply growth on the horizon, and we are excited about increasing our presence in San Francisco for the second time within 10 months — marking our seventh hotel in the city. Approximately 17 percent of our EBITDA is now generated in San Francisco.” Highgate Hotels will continue to manage the property as an independent hotel on behalf of LaSalle. The 681-room Park Central San Francisco is located in the SoMa District, which includes the Moscone Convention Center, the Yerba Buena Gardens, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, AT&T Park and headquarters for companies such as Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. The hotel is also located three blocks from Union Square, an iconic plaza and upscale shopping …

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Cushman & Wakefield Industrial Market Report

CHICAGO — The U.S. industrial vacancy rate dropped to its lowest level in nearly 14 years during the last months of 2014, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The overall industrial vacancy rate ended 2014 at 6.8 percent — the lowest level since the first quarter of 2001. Vacancies dropped 70 basis points year-over-year and 400 basis points from the recent peak of 10.8 percent in early 2010, according to the commercial real estate services firm. Today, four markets boast vacancy rates below 4 percent: the San Francisco Peninsula (3 percent); Greater Los Angeles (3.4 percent); Lakeland, Fla (3.7 percent); and Orange County, Calif. (3.7 percent). To view the rest of the top 10 with lowest fourth-quarter vacancy rates, view the chart above. “The industrial real estate market expansion has been driven, in part, by the ongoing evolution of demand-driven and information-enabled supply chains,” says John Morris, leader of Cushman & Wakefield’s Industrial Services for the Americas. “Responding to dynamic changes to how people shop, where they work, and how and where they live, new models and new requirements continue to emerge. An improving economy, the expansion of e-commerce and the growth of domestic manufacturing further fueled the rapid advancement we …

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Merrifield Town Center Fort Evans Plaza II

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Retail Properties of America Inc. (NYSE: RPAI), a retail REIT based in Oak Brook, Ill., has acquired two shopping centers located in the metro Washington, D.C., area for a combined purchase price of $121.5 million. The properties were acquired through an off-market negotiation on an unencumbered basis. Merrifield Town Center in Falls Church, Va., was acquired for a gross purchase price of $56.5 million and consists of 85,000 square feet of street-level retail beneath two high-rise residential buildings. The center sits at the main entrance to the Mosaic District, a 31-acre mixed-used development that is comprised of retail, office, residential and hotel uses. Merrifield Town Center was developed in 2008 and is currently 100 percent leased to tenants such as XSport Fitness, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Panera Bread and Noodles & Co. Fort Evans Plaza II in Leesburg, Va., was acquired for a gross purchase price of $65 million. The property is a 229,000-square-foot power center that is currently 98 percent leased to tenants such as Marshalls, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dollar Tree and Five Below. Year to date, RPAI has closed on $284.3 million of acquisitions, including the previously announced acquisition of the retail portion of Downtown …

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Toledo, Ohio-based seniors housing and healthcare real estate giant Health Care REIT (NYSE:HCN) has purchased nine assisted living communities in New England for $360 million, according to The Boston Globe. The communities are all part of Benchmark Senior Living, which operates over 40 seniors housing communities throughout New England. The nine facilities sold include 691 total residences. The seller was Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. of Boston. According to The Boston Globe, the sale is the largest in Intercontinental’s history. It purchased this portfolio 10 years ago for about $152 million, then spent an additional $20 million renovating the facilities. “We are more than pleased with this sale, a record setter for assisted living,” Peter Palandjian, Intercontinental’s chief executive, told The Boston Globe. “Benchmark has been a tremendous partner. We appreciate that these nine senior living facilities will remain under stable ownership.” The nine facilities purchased were Benchmark’s communities in: Billerica, Chelmsford, Haverhill, Leominster, Plymouth, Shrewsbury, and Waltham, Mass.; Ridgefield, Conn.; and Nashua, N.H. — Jeff Shaw

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1210-Petree-St-338-Units

SHERMAN OAKS, CALIF. — Jim Fisher and Mike Smith, principals of Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura, have arranged the $481.3 million sale of a Southern California multifamily portfolio consisting of 14 buildings and 2,666 units. Fisher and Smith represented the seller, JH Real Estate Partners Inc., a Newport Beach-based private investor, in the transaction. Los Angeles-based TruAmerica Multifamily was the buyer. The portfolio includes five properties in Los Angeles County, six buildings in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and three assets in San Diego County. “Portfolios of this size and geographic scope rarely come on the market. Correspondingly, there are only a few buyers able to accommodate them,” says Fisher. “As a result, our marketing efforts had to be sharply targeted to just a dozen or so institutional and private investors. We chose TruAmerica because we were confident they could get to the finish line.” TruAmerica has been active in the multifamily market since its founding in 2013, acquiring 4,444 apartment units in the western United States. The company, in partnership with Capri Capital Partners LLC, most recently purchased the 464-unit Vermont, consisting of two high-rise towers in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles, for $283 million. The properties in the …

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Moanalua-Hillside-Apartments

HONOLULU — Walker & Dunlop has structured a $145 million first trust mortgage for Moanalua Hillside Apartments in Honolulu. Allan Edelson, managing director, led Walker & Dunlop’s team, who arranged the financing using a Fannie Mae, adjustable-rate mortgage. After repaying the existing first mortgage, the financing provided net proceeds of approximately $30 million, which the borrower intends to use for interior renovations and construction of 496 additional apartments. “The borrower was interested in favorable prepayment options. With our team’s expertise in multifamily financing, we were able to offer a unique prepayment feature of a one-year lockout period, followed by 1 percent for 12 months, 0.5 percent for the following six months, then open at par,” says Edelson. Originally built in 1968, Moanalua Hillside Apartments includes 700 units. Renovated in 2004, the garden-style apartment complex features one- and two-bedroom apartments. Moanalua Hillside Apartments consists of 25 buildings spread throughout a nearly 28-acre site. Amenities include gated access, kitchens with breakfast bars, sundecks, ocean views, two swimming pools, volleyball courts and a brand new fitness center. Pearl Harbor, Tripler Army Medical Center and downtown Honolulu are located only a few miles away from the complex. With a regulatory agreement in place from …

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The U.S. office sector, already on an upward trend for several years, saw even more gains in absorption during the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a report from DTZ, a global commercial real estate service provider. The country saw a net absorption of 22.4 million square feet of office space, a 48 percent increase from the same time a year prior. Meanwhile vacancy fell 30 basis points to 14.5 percent since last quarter. New construction skyrocketed, with 103.8 million square feet under construction — a 74 percent increase over the same time last year. New York City leads the way, with a net absorption of 9.3 million square feet for 2014, more than 3.5 million of that in the fourth quarter alone. It was the metropolis’ third consecutive year of multi-million-square-foot growth. Houston and San Jose saw the next biggest numbers for 2014, with 6.6 million square feet and 4.4 million square feet, respectively. The report suggests that the positive trends will continue into 2015 as a strong economy and low gas prices stoke the fire. Although the report notes that there are some weak economies globally that could have a slowing effect on the U.S., the country has …

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