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SAN FRANCISCO — HFF has arranged a $296 million refinancing loan for a 10-property, Class A office portfolio in the San Francisco, Washington D.C., Charlotte, Houston and Boston areas. HFF worked on behalf of Clarion Partners to secure the seven-year loan, which includes a combination of fixed- and floating-rate tranches, through Bank of America. The transaction was a balance-sheet loan. The properties in the portfolio total 1.6 million square feet and include: 600 California Street in San Francisco; Morrocroft Centre in Charlotte; Westchase Park in Houston; 1111 19th Street in Washington, D.C; and the most recent addition to the portfolio, the Fort Point office portfolio in Boston’s Seaport District. The Fort Point portfolio is comprised of 33-41 Farnsworth Street, 34 Farnsworth Street, 44 Farnsworth Street, 332 Congress Street, 374 Congress Street and 263 Summer Street. Leading the HFF team representing Clarion Partners were Senior Managing Director Bruce Ganong, with regional support from Senior Managing Directors Riaz Cassum and Sue Carras and Associate Director Chris Gandy. “The Bank of America team provided a creative structure and flexible terms that enabled Clarion Partners to match interest rate contracts with individual asset strategies,” says Ganong. “A customized financing structure with the additional flexibility …

SAN DIEGO —Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. (Nasdaq: ROIC), a San Diego-based REIT, has closed on the purchase of three grocery-anchored shopping centers in Southern California and has a binding contract to acquire a fourth. The REIT paid about $114 million to acquire the four properties, which total 440,000 square feet. The properties purchased by ROIC include Cypress West, Redondo Beach Plaza, Harbor Place Center and Diamond Bar Town Center, from a Southern California family in an off-market transaction. ROIC used an unsecured credit facility to finance the acquisition. “We are excited to be acquiring this exceptional portfolio of Southern California shopping centers,” says Stuart Tanz, president and CEO of ROIC. “We accessed the transaction through a longstanding relationship.” ROIC completed a total of $278 million in shopping center investments in 2012, which exceeded the company’s goal, says Tanz. Cypress West is a 106,000-square-foot center anchored by Ralph’s Supermarket and Rite Aid. The property is located in Cypress in Orange County and is 94.1 percent leased. ROIC acquired the property for $27.6 million. Redondo Beach Plaza spans approximately 111,000 square feet and is anchored by Von’s Supermarket. The property is 98.8 percent leased and is located in Redondo Beach, which is …

MIAMI — South Beach Tristar Capital LLC has sold a 56,260-square-foot, mostly retail portfolio in Miami, for $139 million. A joint venture between Terranova Corp. and Acadia Realty Trust (NYSE: AKR) acquired the portfolio in an all-cash transaction. The portfolio includes properties located at 719-737, 801-821 and 826-838 Lincoln Road in the heart of Miami’s South Beach district. The assets are fully occupied with tenants such as Aldo, Fossil, Kiehl’s, Steve Madden and Dylan’s Candy Bar. In 1998, Tristar purchased the portfolio for approximately $15.8 million, or $295 per square foot. “When we acquired the portfolio in 1998, we were considered pioneers. But we saw this as an emerging market and had the vision that Lincoln Road could become one of the great shopping streets in the country alongside Madison Avenue, Michigan Avenue and Rodeo Drive,” said David Edelstein, president of Tristar Capital. “The time has come to execute our disposition strategy and to deploy our assets into new emerging markets.” RKF, along with The Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, represented Tristar in the transaction. According to the companies, this sets a new record sale price for Florida retail. Vornado Realty Trust acquired 1100 Lincoln Road for $132 million in July, …

SUNNYVALE, CALIF. — Kilroy Realty Corp. has purchased a 12-acre site in Sunnyvale to develop a 587,000-square-foot campus for social networking giant LinkedIn Corp. The $315 million office project will feature three mid-rise, Class A buildings and a parking structure. The structures are expected to meet LEED Silver requirements. The development will also be located along two major arteries, Maude and Mathilda avenues, bisecting Sunnyvale and just one mile from Caltrain. The Class A office vacancy rate in Sunnyvale is less than 5 percent. The area has been a draw for tenants looking to cluster around major technology firms, including Apple, Yahoo! and AMD. According to local reports, LinkedIn's 12-year lease at the property is valued at more than $400 million. The deal caps a breakout year for Los Angeles-based Kilroy, which now has four projects totaling 1.5 million square feet in its Bay Area development pipeline. The projects total approximately $800 million and are fully pre-leased to major technology firms, including salesforce.com, Synopsys and Audience, in addition to LinkedIn. “We're delighted to partner with LinkedIn in the creation of a new LEED-certified office facility,” says John Kilroy Jr., Kilroy Realty Corp.'s president and chief executive officer. “This is another …

DETROIT — Rock Ventures, an umbrella entity whose family of companies includes Quicken Loans and Title Source, has acquired five properties in downtown Detroit with plans to renovate them into mixed-use facilities. This acquisition wraps up a year in which Rock Ventures has purchased eight properties totaling 630,000 square feet of commercial space. Last month, Rock Ventures broke ground on a 33,000-square-foot specialty retail development complete with a 10-story parking garage. Since August 2010, Rock Ventures has brought more than 7,000 employees to downtown Detroit. Rock Ventures has helped locate 45 companies in the city, including Twitter, Chrysler, Metro-West Appraisal and several tech start-ups. Rock Ventures was formed to facilitate the operation of Dan Gilbert’s portfolio of companies, investments and real estate. “It has been an exciting year of opportunity in Detroit,” says Gilbert. “Our focus in 2013 will be on the three Rs — residential, rail and retail, all of which are vital in creating the vibrant, thriving urban core we all envision.” Rock Ventures’ five-property acquisition includes 1201 Woodward (the Kresge Building), 1217 Woodward, 1412 Woodward, 1301 Broadway (Cary Building Lofts) and 1521 Broadway (Small Plates Building). The Kresge Building, which is 9 stories tall and includes 54,000 …

ATLANTA AND DENVER — Aragon Holdings has expanded into two new markets with the acquisition of two properties in Atlanta and one in Denver, deploying approximately half of the $52 million it raised in its recently closed private equity fund, Aragon Multi-Family Cash Flow Fund II. Freddie Mac provided the balance of the $100 million acquisition. In the Atlanta market, the company purchased Holland Park, a 496-unit property in Lawrenceville, and Azalea Springs, a 232-unit property in Marietta. The Denver purchase was Hampden Heights, a 376-unit property located just north of the Denver Tech Center. All three properties are located in areas with a strong employment base. These acquisitions increase Aragon’s multifamily portfolio to more than 5,000 apartment units, all acquired in the past four years. During 2012, the company purchased more than $200 million of multifamily assets in six states. Aragon Holdings is a real estate investment and fund management company based in Beverly Hills, Calif., that acquires and manages income-producing assets throughout the countryon behalf of high-net-worth investors. Aragon Multi-Family Cash Flow Fund II, which was formed to facilitate the company's acquisition activity and to produce monthly cash flow distributions to investors, provided equity for the three transactions. …

NORWALK, CONN. — Spirit Bascom Ventures, along with a private investor group, has purchased Jefferson at 55/77 Water, a Class A, mixed-use property in South Norwalk, for $43.2 million. The asset includes 136 apartment units and 28,175 square feet of ground-floor retail. The retail space is home to the U.S. headquarters of Virgin Atlantic Airlines and Kayak.com. Each apartment unit includes floor-to-ceiling windows, stainless steel appliances, a washer and dryer, plus balconies overlooking the Norwalk River. The buyers plan to upgrade the property, which was built in 2007, with contemporary design elements, as well as services and amenities not currently offered. The property is within walking distance to the South Norwalk retail and restaurant district, in addition to the South Norwalk MTA Station, providing easy access to Manhattan. In 2007, Jefferson at 55/77 Water was acquired for $51 million and was subsequently foreclosed upon by its mezzanine lender. Richard Horowitz of Cooper-Horowitz arranged the acquisition financing. Spirit Bascom Ventures is a joint venture between New York-based Spirit Investment Partners and Irvine, Calif.-based The Bascom Group. The joint venture was formed to acquire distressed and value-added multifamily assets in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest.

WICHITA KAN. — Koch Industries Inc., which owns a diverse group of companies that specialize in everything from chemicals to biofuels to forest and consumer products, will expand its Wichita campus by adding a new 210,000-square-foot office building. The three-story structure will also include a lower level and have the capacity to accommodate 745 employees, according to the company. Koch companies employ more than 2,800 people in Wichita, and that number is expected to significantly increase. Koch companies currently have more than 150 unfilled jobs in Wichita. The freestanding building, which will connect to other buildings on the campus via walkways and tunnels, is the first phase of a long-term master plan to address potential future growth. Construction of the new building will begin in the fall of 2013 with completion slated for mid-2015. In addition to office space, the new building will include a satellite Café Koch and training space. The campus is located at 37th Street North between Oliver and Hillside streets. Construction of the three-story office building will begin in the fall of 2013. The possible expansion of Koch’s campus was announced in May of this year when the company said it was outgrowing its Wichita headquarters, …

SAN DIEGO — Global real estate firm Hines says the 415,000-square-foot building under construction at La Jolla Commons in San Diego will become the nation's largest carbon-neutral office building to date. The 13-story tower will utilize a combination of high-performance building design, directed biogas and on-site fuel cells that will annually generate more electricity than tenants will use. The fuel cells, acquired from Bloom Energy, will generate approximately 5 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, which is roughly the equivalent of energy required to power 1,000 San Diego homes. Methane needed to power the fuel cells will be acquired from carbon-neutral sources, such as landfills and wastewater plants, and placed into the national natural gas pipeline system. Houston-based Hines and equity partner J.P. Morgan Asset Management have teamed up to develop the project. Construction began in April 2012 and completion is scheduled for mid-2014. The building will be fully leased and occupied by LPL FInancial LLC, an independent broker-dealer, institutional service provider and wholly owned subsidiary of LPL Financial Holdings (NASDAQ: LPLA). Both Hines and engineering firm WSP Flack + Kurtz spent time researching available technology for the project. “LPL Financial at La Jolla Commons is one further step in …