Top Stories

Floyd-medical-center

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 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

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, …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
HiltonBonnetCreek_HR

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 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
The-Stanley-Hotel-web

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 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

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 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
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 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

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 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

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 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
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 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

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 …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail