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NEW YORK CITY — The 250,000-square-foot 915 Broadway, an office building located at East 21st and Broadway, has sold for $140 million to a group of investors organized by Earle Altman, chairman of ABS Partners Real Estate. “We are delighted to continue our longstanding affiliation with this high-quality, well-located property,” says Gregg Schenker, principal of New York City-based ABS Partners. “The strong fundamentals of the location, superior construction, well-maintained infrastructure and future planned improvements will further increase the value of 915 Broadway over time.” The group of buyers includes fellow ABS Partners principals Schenker, Steven Hornstock and James Caseley, as well as real estate investors Richard Hadar, John Zirinsky and Jeffrey Fiel. The seller is a group of investors also organized by Altman that acquired the building in 1981 for $6 million. “This is one of several deals I have done with ABS during the last year, as I have been deploying significant capital I raised before the market collapse in 2007,” Hadar says. “915 Broadway is one of the best opportunities I have seen in quite a while in New York.” Simon Ziff, Russell Schildkraut and Jonathan Moore of The Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group arranged acquisition financing through JPMorgan …

NEW YORK CITY — Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO) has agreed to buy a retail condominium located at 666 5th Avenue in New York City for $707 million. The 114,000-square-foot asset further expands Vornado’s 2.2 million-square-foot portfolio of Manhattan street retail. The space acquired by Vornado houses popular retail clothing chains including Uniqlo, Hollister and watch company Swatch. While this retail space has always had high value, the sellers, Crown Acquisitions Inc., Carlyle Group and Kushner Cos., achieved something truly unexpected with the $707 million sale. The property, which spans the length of an entire block, was valued at $525 million when Crown and Carlyle purchased a 49 percent stake in the building’s retail portion from Kushner in 2008. Last March, Crown and Carlyle sold a portion of the space to Zara’s parent company, Indetix Group, for $324 million. The company turned the 39,000-square-foot storefront into a store for its Zara clothing chain Arteixo. The new Vornado deal, when combined with the Indetix deal, drives the value of entire Fifth Avenue block to more than $1 billion. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Vornado was encouraged to make this deal to appease shareholders after a reported 31 percent drop in funds from …

NEW YORK CITY — Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO) has agreed to buy a retail condominium located at 666 5th Avenue in New York City for $707 million. The 114,000-square-foot asset further expands Vornado’s 2.2 million-square-foot portfolio of Manhattan street retail. The space acquired by Vornado houses popular retail clothing chains including Uniqlo, Hollister and watch company Swatch. While this retail space has always had high value, the sellers, Crown Acquisitions Inc., Carlyle Group and Kushner Cos., achieved something truly unexpected with the $707 million sale. The property, which spans the length of an entire block, was valued at $525 million when Crown and Carlyle purchased a 49 percent stake in the building’s retail portion from Kushner in 2008. Last March, Crown and Carlyle sold a portion of the space to Zara’s parent company, Indetix Group, for $324 million. The company turned the 39,000-square-foot storefront into a store for its Zara clothing chain Arteixo. The new Vornado deal, when combined with the Indetix deal, drives the value of entire Fifth Avenue block to more than $1 billion. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Vornado was encouraged to make this deal to appease shareholders after a reported 31 percent drop in funds from …

DEERFIELD, ILL. — Walgreen Co. has agreed to pay $438 million to acquire a regional drugstore chain from Stephen L. LaFrance Holdings and members of the LaFrance family. The purchase includes 144 stores located mostly in the South. The stores operate under the brands USA Drug, Super D Drug, May's Drug, Med-X and Drug Warehouse. They are located in Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The deal also includes corporate offices, a distribution center in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and a wholesale and private brand business. Greg Wasson, Walgreen president and CEO, says the deal is part of a push to expand the company's presence to smaller communities in the mid-South. “This acquisition expands our business in an important region of the country,” says Wasson. The Walgreen acquisition is a boon for Stephen LaFrance, who started his business in 1968 with a single USA Drug store in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The company has grown to more than 140 stores in seven states. Walgreen reports the chain recorded sales of $825 million in 2011. “I have loved every minute of my career these past 44 years, beginning as a pharmacist, then management and currently as owner and chairman,” says …

ORLANDO, FLA. — Orlando-based CNL Healthcare Trust, through a joint venture with Sunrise Senior Living (NYSE:SRZ), has purchased seven seniors housing communities valued at approximately $226 million. Sunrise will continue to operate the communities under a long-term management agreement. “This joint venture with Sunrise strengthens CNL Healthcare Trust’s senior housing portfolio and is consistent with our strategy of partnering with leading operators in attractive markets across the country,” says Stephen H. Mauldin, president and CEO of CNL Healthcare Trust. “As our nation’s demographics continue to shift, there is a growing demand for quality seniors housing and healthcare real estate, which continues to drive our attraction to these types of investments. With our team’s deep and broad healthcare operating and investment experience, CNL Healthcare Trust is well positioned to take advantage of opportunities.” The seven communities include Sunrise of Santa Monica in Santa Monica, Calif.; Sunrise on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C.; Sunrise at Siegen in Baton Rouge, La.; Sunrise of Metairie in Metairie, La., near New Orleans; Sunrise of Gilbert in Gilbert, Ariz., near Phoenix; Sunrise of Louisville in Louisville, Ky.; and Sunrise at Fountain Square in Lombard, Ill., near Chicago. The seven communities have an average age of less …

ELLICOTT CITY, MD. — Home Properties (NYSE: HME) has acquired the 1,350-unit Howard Crossing, a multifamily property located at 8730 Town and County Blvd. in Ellicott City, for $186 million. The sale price equates to approximately $138,000 per unit. “This newly acquired property is located less than one mile from Charleston Manor, an 858-unit property we acquired in September 2010 that has exceeded our underwriting expectations,” says Edward Pettinella, president and CEO of Home Properties. “Based on our familiarity with this submarket, we expect Howard Crossing will achieve similar success.” The property is 92.6 percent leased, with an average monthly rent of $1,111. The property offers 680 one-bedroom units and 670 two-bedroom units, with an average size of 854 square feet. Ninety-one percent of the units offer stacked washers and dryers in the units. Amenities include two pools, a business center, fitness center, basketball courts and tennis courts. Home Properties funded the purchase with proceeds from the issuance of $40 million on unsecured senior guaranteed notes, which are due on June 27, 2019, and have a 4.16 percent interest rate. Additionally, a line of credit and a $100 million unsecured bank demand loan with the same terms and rate at …

GREENWICH, CONN. — Greenwich-headquartered Starwood Capital Group has completed the acquisition of a 90 percent majority interest in seven shopping centers from Westfield Group. The malls, which total more than 6.6 million square feet, include Gateway Mall in Lincoln, Nebraska; Metreon in San Francisco; Solano Mall in Fairfield, California; SouthPark Mall in Cleveland; Westland Mall in Miami; and Chicago Ridge Mall and Louis Joliet Mall in Chicago. Westfield Group will still own a 10 percent minority interest in the properties. CBL & Associates has been selected for management services at six of the assets, including accounting, specialty retail, branding, marketing, maintenance and security. “It is a compliment to our organization to have Starwood’s endorsement of CBL’s management expertise,” says Stephen Lebovitz, president and CEO of CBL. “Within our own portfolio of market dominant regional malls, we have been successful in generating improved performance by utilizing our operational capabilities and we look forward to applying that knowledge to the Starwood portfolio.” Additionally, Starwood has formed a new subsidiary, Starwood Retail Partners, which will be based in Chicago and manage the newly acquired assets. Scott Wolstein has been retained as CEO. “We are very excited about the opportunity to bring Starwood’s best-in-class …

NEW YORK CITY — Nordstrom Inc. plans to open its first full-line department store in New York City, following a site search that lasted more than a decade. The Seattle-based chain will occupy 285,000 square feet at the base of planned skyscraper at Broadway and West 57th Street, near Columbus Circle. The store is part of a deal with Extell Development Co., which owns the site. The seven-story store is expected to open in 2018. “It makes perfect sense that Nordstrom — one of the premier names in retailing — would want a flagship store in New York, the world's premier city for retailing,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during a news conference Thursday. “This is very exciting news for New Yorkers and the millions of tourists who come to our city to shop each year, and this new addition to the West Side of Manhattan is another sign of the private sector's confidence in New York City.” Extell reportedly plans to construct a 1 million-square-foot tower, with a hotel and apartments, on the site of a former Hard Rock Cafe. Extell President Gary Burnett assembled the 40,000-square-foot site during the period of a decade. According to Barnett, excavation work on …

SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles has chosen Turner Construction Co. to build the $160 million, 216,000-square-foot Fort Irwin Replacement Hospital, located in San Bernardino. The hospital will provide tertiary care, emergency medicine and clinical support, and will take the place of the Weed Army Community Hospital. A joint venture between Ellerbe Becket and RLF designed the property to achieve LEED Platinum certification. The project will also include a 9,000-square-foot renovation of the Mary Walker clinic and construction of a helipad, ambulance shelter, central utilities plant and photovoltaic farm, which will provide sustainable energy to the hospital and ancillary buildings. “The Fort Irwin Replacement Hospital is a significant win for our company because it builds upon Turner’s outstanding reputation as the leading builder of premiere healthcare facilities for the government,” says Chris Jahrling, vice president and general manager of Turner’s federal services group in Washington, D.C. “We are excited and honored to partner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and contribute to its mission to provide world-class care to service members and their families.” Turner, which is headquartered in New York City, completes $8 billion annually of construction. Recently, the company completed …

SACREMENTO, CALIF. — The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public pension plan in the U.S., has purchased a one-third stake in Bentall Kennedy, a Toronto-based real estate investment advisory firm, and is now a partial owner. The remaining two-thirds of the limited partnership ownership is evenly split between the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. (bcIMC) and Bentall Kennedy’s senior management team. Founded as a small construction company in 1911, Bentall Kennedy now serves the interest of more than 500 clients with U.S. and Canadian real estate holdings totaling $28.7 billion as of March 2012. “Bentall Kennedy has a track record of fiduciary excellence and is a global leader in environmental, social and governance practices,” says Rob Feckner, president of the CalPERS Board of Administration. “This relationship will allow our real estate team to further expand on trends and opportunities in real estate investment and management.” Victoria, British Columbia-based bcIMC handles a global investment portfolio valued at $91.1 billion as of Dec. 31, 2011. The firm’s clients include public sector pension plans, public trusts and insurance funds. “CalPERS is a complementary and welcome addition to the Bentall Kennedy Group,” says Doug Pearce, CEO and chief investment officer of …