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FLINT, MICH. — West Second Street Associates has selected Colliers International to market a 16-property office portfolio fully leased to federal agencies in six states. West Second is a Flint, Mich.-based limited liability company that specializes in real estate development and long-term management of high-quality General Services Administration (GSA) buildings. The portfolio has a combined value of $118 million. The properties total 273,000 square feet and are located in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Colorado and Minnesota. A number of GSA tenants occupy the facilities, including the Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcements, Department of Veteran Affairs and Customs and Border Protection. The average remaining lease term is 10 years. Colin Cavill and Bob Cottle of GSAXCHANGE, a group within the Colliers Government Solutions team, and Raymond James Financial will market the portfolio on behalf of the owner. “We expect these single-tenant properties to attract a great deal of interest from a wide variety of investors,” says Cavill. “Investor interest in GSA-leased buildings is on the rise due to the stellar credit, long average lease terms and high renewal rates of U.S. government tenants.” Cavill adds the 16 properties “provide a steady income stream and consistent yields.” …

ATLANTA — Macfarlan Capital Partners, in a joint venture with an entity managed by Cole Real Estate Investments, has acquired a Class A trophy office campus leased to AT&T in Atlanta for $225 million. The campus includes the 16-story Midtown I and the eight-story Midtown II, which total 794,110 square feet. KanAm Grund, a German real estate investment company based in Frankfurt, was the seller. The campus is situated on 7.2 acres and was originally a build-to-suit for AT&T in 2001 and 2002. Macfarlan’s team worked with AT&T to extend its lease for 11 more years. The Midtown I office tower totals 512,101 square feet and the mid-rise Midtown II is 282,009 square feet. Bryan Larson of Macfarlan says the long-term lease coupled with property’s location in the heart of Atlanta’s Midtown submarket represented a “a great opportunity for Macfarlan to provide its investors with a strong current yield from a trophy asset backed by outstanding credit.” According to KanAm Grund’s website, the company acquired the two office buildings, located at 754 Peachtree St., in December 2007. “Cole’s partnership with Macfarlan provided an opportunity to jointly acquire a Class-A asset that meets our disciplined acquisition criteria,” says Thomas Roberts, executive …

MINNEAPOLIS — Inland American Real Estate Trust Inc. has sold the 57-story IDS Center, an iconic skyscraper in Minneapolis, for $253 million. A joint venture between Beacon Investment Properties LLC, Tel Aviv-based Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. and Menora Mivtahim Insurance Ltd. acquired Minnesota’s tallest building. The tower, located at 80 S. 8th St., occupies an entire block of the Nicollet Mall in what is considered the center of downtown Minneapolis. The 1.4 million-square-foot property includes a 25,000-square-foot indoor park and fountain, and a two-story retail plaza known as Crystal Court, which is fully leased. Retail tenants include Banana Republic and Gap. The tower was originally built as the corporate headquarters for American Express-owned Investors Diversified Services, which is now independent and known as Ameriprise. The office portion of IDS Center is 93 percent occupied. Tenants include the law firms of Lindquist & Vennum; Merchant & Gould; Briggs and Morgan; the Minneapolis office of New York City-based Fulbright & Jaworski; and Gray, Plant, Mooty, Moot & Bennett. Four glass-enclosed pedestrian walkways connect IDS Center to surrounding buildings and retailers such as Macy’s and Off Saks department stores. “It is a stable asset with long-term tenants and a history …

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Cousins Properties Inc. (NYSE: CUZ) has acquired 816 Congress Avenue, a 434,000-square-foot, Class A office building located in downtown Austin. The company purchased the office tower for a net purchase price of $102.4 million, which equates to $236 per square foot. The acquisition was funded with cash proceeds from Cousins’ recent follow-on stock offering. “This represents another attractive acquisition for Cousins as we continue to target quality urban office assets in the best Southeastern submarkets at valuations below replacement cost,” says Larry Gellerstedt, president and CEO of Cousins. “We have a long, successful history in Austin and are very excited about the opportunity to create value at 816 Congress Avenue.” Cousins has played a prominent role in the Austin real estate market for more than 20 years, with a list of notable projects including Frost Bank Tower and Palisades West. 816 Congress Avenue is currently 78 percent leased to a diverse tenant base, including Teachers Retirement System of Texas, Lloyd Gosselink and AT&T Services. With overall office occupancy in the Austin CBD submarket at 89 percent, the building is well positioned for future occupancy growth, the company says. Cousins intends to utilize its market expertise and strong …

NEW YORK CITY — New York City-based Meridian Capital Group LLC negotiated $115 million in acquisition and construction financing for the purchase and redevelopment of the Flatotel, a 47-story vacant hotel in New York City. Meridian arranged the loan on behalf of the borrower, a partnership between Chetrit Group and Clipper Equity. Chetrit Group and Clipper Equity have previous experience with hotel conversions and renovations in the New York City metro area, including the Empire Hotel, Hotel Chelsea, BellTel Lofts and Columbus Square. The partnership purchased the vacant hotel from a venture between Rockpoint Group, Atlas Capital and Procaccianti Group. The Flatotel property is currently configured as a 288-room hotel with 14,000 square feet of meeting space. Chetrit and Clipper plan to convert the asset into a five-floor, 64,400-square-foot boutique office condominium property and a 37-floor, 173-unit luxury residential condominium property. The office component will span floors two through seven and the residential portion will span floors eight through 47. The buyer estimates the cost for the repositioning at $250 million. Ronnie Levine, managing director of Meridian Capital Group, and Emanuel Westfried, the firm’s vice president, arranged the loan. The three-year, nonrecourse, interest-only loan features a floating LIBOR-based interest rate …

ATLANTA AND FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Cortland Partners has continued its expansion in the multifamily sector with the purchase of five apartment communities totaling 2,237 units throughout the Atlanta and Dallas areas for $244 million. The apartment communities purchased include: the 360-unit Coventry at Cityview in Fort Worth, Texas; the 406-unit Promenade at Peachtree in Chamblee, Ga.; the 360-unit Lexington Farms in Alpharetta, Ga.; and the 268-unit Longwood Apartments in Decatur, Ga. Equity Residential sold Promenade at Peachtree, Lexington Farms and Longwood. The Atlanta-based multifamily investment firm also purchased the 843-unit Idlewylde Apartments in Duluth, Ga., from Associated Estates. Idlewylde was built in two phases, and Cortland intends to market the project as two separate apartment communities. The acquisition is part of Cortland’s strategic investment plan to expand its multifamily portfolio, which has grown from 1,900 apartment units to almost 13,000 in the last three years. “We have improved our economies of scale in Texas with the addition of Coventry at Cityview in Fort Worth, enhanced our allocation in the Atlanta market, which is poised to outperform the national economy, and continued to evolve the capital structure of the firm,” says Steven DeFrancis, CEO of Cortland Partners. Debt capital for …

GREENWICH, CONN. — Starwood Property Trust (NYSE: STWD) and Starwood Capital Group, on behalf of Starwood Distressed Opportunity Fund IX, have finalized their previously announced acquisition of LNR Property LLC. Starwood Property Trust acquired the LNR business segments — the U.S. special servicer, the U.S. investment securities portfolio, Archetype Mortgage Capital, Archetype Financial Institution Services, LNR Europe and 50 percent of LNR’s interest in Auction.com — for an aggregate purchase price of $862 million. Greenwich-based Starwood Capital Group is a private investment firm with a focus on global real estate. Since its inception in 1991, the firm has raised more than $16 billion in equity capital and has invested $13.7 billion representing more than $36 billion in assets. Starwood Property Trust focuses on originating, investing in, financing and managing commercial mortgage loans and other real estate-related debt investments. SPT Management LLC, an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group, externally manages and advises Starwood Property Trust. The company’s stock price closed at $27.16 per share on Friday, up from $18.72 per share one year ago. Citigroup and Credit Suisse served as financial advisors to Starwood in the transaction and Sidley Austin LLP acted as legal counsel. — Brittany Biddy

DENVER — Rosemont Realty LLC has acquired the Denver World Trade Center office towers in the city's central business district from LaSalle Investment Management Inc. of Chicago, doing business as I & G Denver WTC LLC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Denver Business Journal reports that industry sources put the price tag for the two towers, which span a combined 770,221 square feet, at $229 per square foot, or about $176 million. The purchase of the towers, 1675 and 1625 Broadway, also known as World Trade Center Tower I and World Trade Center Tower II, was the city’s biggest real estate transaction so far this year. “Denver WTC is an iconic skyline property with a prestigious downtown address adjacent to the 16th Street Mall,” says Daniel Burrell, CEO of Santa Fe, N.M.-based Rosemont Realty. “This acquisition follows a broader strategy by Rosemont of migrating more of its portfolio into commercial business districts where tenant demand is improving and rates have the potential to grow rapidly in the coming years.” The complex is currently 95 percent leased to 55 tenants. Among the tenants are Noble Energy Inc., Schlumberger Ltd., KeyBank, Resolute Energy Corp., and Baker Hughes. The …