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ATLANTA — Real estate development firm Jamestown has secured a $180 million construction loan for the Ponce City Market adaptive reuse project, located two miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. PNC Bank provided the loan in partnership with SunTrust and JP Morgan. Ponce City Market is the largest construction loan in post-recession Atlanta, according to Jamestown. Jeff Ackemann and Jonathan Rice with CBRE Debt and Structured Finance Group in Atlanta arranged the loan. Up until now, Jamestown has used its own equity to fund 100 percent of the 1.1 million-square-foot restoration of a former historic Sears, Roebuck & Co. building. The 10-story, 16-acre Ponce City Market is slated for a rolling opening this fall. The ballyhooed project will consist of 330,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 517,000 square feet of Class A loft office space, and 259 residential units. Signed office tenants of the market include athenahealth, Cardlytics, MailChimp, as well as retailer Binders and The Suzuki School, a preparatory preschool. Restaurants committed to the project include Dub’s Fish Camp and H&F Burger, both led by James Beard Award-winning chefs. Ponce City Market is the largest brick building in the Southeast. Its previous iteration was as Atlanta’s City Hall East. …

HOUSTON — Mattress Firm Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: MFRM) has entered into an agreement to acquire substantially all of the mattress specialty retail assets and operations of Mattress Liquidators Inc., a private company that operates Mattress King retail stores in Colorado and BedMart retail stores in Arizona. The Houston-based mattress retailer will add approximately 75 specialty retail stores in markets where it currently operates — primarily Denver, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz. The aggregate purchase price is approximately $35 million. The closing of the acquisition is expected to occur by the end of the second fiscal quarter of 2014 and will be funded by cash reserves and revolver borrowings, as well as a $3.5 million seller note that is payable in quarterly installments over two years. “We are excited to further expand our position in the Denver, Phoenix and Tucson markets,” says Steve Stagner, president and CEO of Mattress Firm. “We believe that the acquisition of the Denver stores will allow us to leap into a strong position in that market, building on the foothold established by the acquisition last month of the formerly franchised Mattress Firmstores in Denver. The additional stores in Phoenix and Tucson will supplement the existing base of …

BOCA RATON, FLA. — The Herrick Company has acquired 44 properties throughout the U.S., all of which are triple-net-leased to CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS), for a purchase price of $190 million. All of the CVS leases have 25 years remaining on the term. “In real estate, there are few investment opportunities as desirable as properties that are leased on a triple-net basis by creditworthy tenants such as CVS,” says Norton Herrick, Herrick’s chairman and CEO. “As we actively seek out additional investment opportunities that fit our requirements, we're intently focused on acquiring this type of stable, non-management-intensive property in the retail, industrial and office sectors.” The debt to finance this acquisition was provided by a consortium of capital sources under a private placement arrangement. Affiliates of The Herrick Company purchased the CVS portfolio from private equity firm Fortress Investment Group LLC. “As demonstrated by this latest transaction, our firm's ability to close quickly on investment targets puts us at a distinct advantage in today's highly competitive marketplace,” continues Herrick, who is best known as a movie producer with such works as 2013’s Lone Solider to his name. The Herrick Company is a real estate investment firm with offices in Boca …

BRENTWOOD, TENN. AND LONG BEACH, CALIF. — Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) and HCP Inc. (NYSE: HCP) have formed a new $1.2 billion joint venture to own and operate entry fee continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs). At its inception, the joint venture will own 14 CCRC campuses, the majority of which are located in Florida. Also part of the agreement is the amendment of leases on 202 HCP-owned seniors housing communities that are currently operated by Emeritus Corp. (NYSE: ESC). Brookdale and Emeritus announced their merger in February, and the new agreement is conditioned upon the closing of that merger. “We are very excited about strengthening our relationship with HCP as we partner to create an industry-leading entry fee CCRC joint venture,” says Andy Smith, CEO of Brookdale. “Combining the capital strengths of HCP with Brookdale’s operating platform forms a compelling investment vehicle for our existing entry fee CCRCs and provides for growth in this fragmented asset class.” The joint venture’s 14-campus portfolio will total approximately 7,000 units, broken down as 67 percent independent living, 18 percent skilled nursing, 11 percent assisted living and 4 percent memory care. Brookdale will hold a 51 percent ownership stake while HCP holds the …

SAN FRANCISCO — Columbia Property Trust Inc. (NYSE: CXP) has acquired a 16-story, 387,943-square-foot office tower in San Francisco for $229 million. The Class A, LEED Platinum-certified property is located at 221 Main St. The purchase price includes the company’s assumption of a $73 million interest-only loan secured by the property that matures in May 2017 and bears interest at 3.95 percent. The $155.8 million cash portion of the purchase price was funded from the company’s $500 million unsecured credit facility and cash on hand. The acquisition is expected to increase Columbia’s leverage, based on debt-to-gross real estate assets, from 29.3 percent at the end of the first quarter to approximately 31.5 percent. The office tower is currently 81 percent occupied and is expected to have a first-year, in-place net operating income (NOI) of approximately $7 million. “San Francisco is an important market for us, and over the last two years we have worked to carefully identify acquisitions that could meet our stringent underwriting criteria,” says Nelson Mills, president, CEO and director of Atlanta-based Columbia. “221 Main Street offers a compelling opportunity to expand in one of the better performing submarkets in the country at a substantial discount to replacement …

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Federal Capital Partners (FCP) and Roi-Tan Investments have purchased the Cigar Factory building on Charleston’s Cooper River waterfront for $24 million with plans to convert the site into a mixed-use property. The target date for completion is first-quarter 2015. Taylor Smith and Austin Wilson of the Atlanta office of Lee & Associates, along with Amanda Reeves of the Charleston office, represented the buyer. The seller was TSO Cigar Factory LLC. Constructed in 1882, the vacant building previously was used as office and commercial space. Redevelopment plans call for a transformation of the five-story, 244,000-square-foot building into a mixed-use property that includes office, restaurants, retail and parking. Estimated costs for the building’s redevelopment will exceed $55 million, and both FCP and Roi-Tan will contribute equity capital to the transaction. FCP will also provide mezzanine debt financing. The Cigar Factory in Charleston’s Historic District sits on 4.5 acres at the foot of Ravenel Bridge. The building was constructed in the Victorian-era commercial architecture style and features high, exposed ceilings and views of the river, Ravenel Bridge and the city’s skyline. Roadstead Real Estate Advisors LLC and Palmetto Commercial Properties Inc. are currently pre-leasing the office and retail portions of …

RALEIGH, N.C. — Concord Hospitality Enterprises has sold a portfolio of 13 hotels in an all-cash transaction to companies owned by an unnamed global investment fund for approximately $240 million. The portfolio is comprised of 1,650 rooms representing 11 Marriott and two Hilton-branded hotels. “This sale is a continuation of our ongoing plan to strategically sell stabilized assets while retaining management,” says Mark Laport, president and CEO of Concord Hospitality. “This gives our investors an attractive return on their development investment while providing long-term, sustainable growth opportunities for the companies that buy these assets.” Concord Hospitality will continue to operate the hotels under a long-term management agreement. Mark Elliott of Hodges Ward Elliott was the lead broker in the transaction. The average age of all but one hotel is under five years old, and all were developed, rebranded or substantially updated by Concord according to Laport. “Each hotel is in excellent physical condition, and we are working closely with the brands to implement any necessary product improvement plans (PIPs) to ensure the hotels sustain strong RevPAR (revenue per available room) premiums well into the future,” says Laport. Concord Hospitality currently has 10 hotels under construction at a cost of approximately …

CHICAGO — Sumitomo Corp. of Americas (SCOA) has acquired the 581,107-square-foot office portion of a 27-story tower in downtown Chicago. The purchase price was undisclosed, but Crain’s Chicago Business listed the purchase price at $111.5 million. The trophy-class building is located at 203 N. LaSalle St. in downtown’s Central Loop district. The office space is situated on the 13th to 27th floors of the Class A, mixed-use building. The transaction did not include the retail space on the first and second levels, or the 10 levels of parking. The building offers convenient access to the Clark and Lake Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) station and the underground pedestrian walkway that spans the Loop. The tower is currently 87 percent leased. Notable tenants include DLA Piper, the University of Phoenix and Masuda Funai. Avison Young will serve as the tower’s exclusive leasing agent. The property is LEED-Gold certified and carries an Energy Star label. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed the tower in 1985. The company plans to make improvements to the 29-year-old tower’s lobby and elevators. SCOA will also install tenant amenities, such as a fitness center. Though this is the firm’s first Chicago acquisition, SCOA plans to make future investments in …

SCHAUMBURG, ILL. — JLL has secured a $333 million loan for the development of Zurich North America’s new headquarters facility in Schaumburg, a Chicago suburb. The credit tenant lease (CTL) financing will fund the acquisition of 40 acres of land and construction of a 735,000-square-foot, build-to-suit office complex. Instead of owning its headquarters, the insurance company will lease the property from Atlanta-based Stonemont Financial Group, an investment firm specializing in single-tenant net leases for build-to-suits. “Zurich North America is a very strong credit tenant. This made the CTL financing extremely appealing to the lending community,” says Brion Haist, executive vice president of JLL’s Capital Markets division. “The loan is structured to align with the lease, benefiting both the landlord and the tenant.” The company’s current headquarters, comprised of two 20-story towers, is also in Schaumburg. The new facility, which Zurich will lease for 25 years from the time of opening, is slated for completion in late 2016. Clayco, with offices in Chicago and St. Louis, is serving as lead developer and design-builder on the project. Goettsch Partners, also based in Chicago, is designing the core and shell of the property, as well as the parking structures. New York-based CannonDesign is …

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — Lowe Enterprises will develop a new 704,571-square-foot headquarters building for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Alexandria. USAA Real Estate Co., which owns the two-acre site on which the headquarters will be built, purchased the land from Hoffman Co. LLC and named Lowe Enterprises as project developer. The NSF will occupy 94 percent of the Class A office property upon completion of the project in late 2016. The headquarters building is pre-leased to the General Services Administration on behalf of the NSF for a term of 15 years. The NSF headquarters building will consist of two interconnected towers, 19 stories and 14 stories, with dual cores off a main entrance lobby at grade level; 19,437 square feet of retail space; and 375 parking spaces on three subterranean levels. The new building will be part of Hoffman Town Center’s master planned development in the Alexandria neighborhood of Carlyle. Lowe Enterprises will assume building management responsibilities once the building is constructed. Architect WDG has been selected to design the project. Balfour Beatty will serve as the general contractor. “We are thrilled to be working on this signature project and furthering our relationship with USAA,” …