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NEW YORK CITY — A partnership between Jamestown Properties, Rockwood Capital, Crown Acquisitions and Murray Hill Properties has purchased the 500,000-square-foot Bank of New York Building, located at 530 Fifth Ave. in New York City, for $390 million. The Moinian Group and The Chetrit Group were the sellers of the office and retail property. The Bank of New York Building, completed in 1959, is positioned in the heart of the Grand Central district and occupies an entire block of Fifth Avenue between 44th and 45th streets. “We believe 530 Fifth Avenue’s dynamic location and physical attributes provide a strong foundation on which ownership can improve and re-establish the building as a top-tier asset,” said Arne Arnesen, senior managing director of Rockwood, in a prepared statement. “This building epitomizes our strategy of investing in well-located real estate that provides opportunity to outperform over the long term.” Crown Acquisition and Murray Hill Properties will undertake a $20 million renovation of the building, which will include a full Class-A lobby renovation with a new security system, a new building entrance on Fifth Avenue, mechanical and electrical upgrades throughout the building, new elevators and a reconfiguration of the mezzanine-level floors to accommodate additional retail …

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Paramount Group, Inc., a New York City-based real estate investment and management firm, has acquired 2099 Pennsylvania Avenue, a 206,573-square-foot office building in the heart of Washington, D.C. The building is located four blocks away from the U.S. Treasury and Federal executive office buildings and within walking distance from the White House. The company acquired the 12-story trophy asset from Vico Capital, an Irish real estate partnership focused on acquiring core office properties. Prior to the sale, 2099 Pennsylvania was Vico’s lone American asset. The terms of Vico’s disposition of 2099 Pennsylvania were not disclosed, but what is known is that the real estate investment firm purchased the property for approximately $172.5 million in 2008, according to its website. Back then, the purchase price of $867 per square foot eclipsed the previous record of $827 per square foot for Washington, D.C., office properties, according to Vico. Although Vico isn’t based in the U.S., Paramount expressed there was minimal difference between the seller and similar domestic firms Paramount has negotiated with in the past. “The seller was a sophisticated real estate investor with knowledge of the U.S. market and represented by a New York law firm,” Paramount Group …

DALLAS — 7-Eleven has entered into an agreement to acquire 55 Sam’s Mart stores in North and South Carolina, with plans to convert them into 7-Eleven stores this year. The transaction is expected to close in February. Terms of the deal were undisclosed. “Sam’s Mart has a successful store operation and quality locations that fit our strategy to expand where we have existing stores or in areas near markets where we have operations,” said Stan Reynolds, executive vice president and CFO of 7-Eleven, in a prepared statement. The Dallas-based company operates, franchises or licenses more than 9,000 stores in the United States. Last year, 7-Eleven opened 650 stores nationwide and in Canada. Additionally, last week the company completed a transaction with ExxonMobil to purchase retail interests in 51 North Texas locations, most of which will be re-branded as 7-Eleven stores. Included in the 51 properties are two unused parcels of land. “This acquisition fits well with our aggressive growth strategy,” said Robbie Radant, vice president of mergers and acquisitions. “We met our goal of opening 650 stores in 2011, and with this acquisition 2012 is off to a great start.” As part of the rebranding, the company will “provide the …

CHICAGO — After two years of contraction, the NCREIF Timberland Index rebounded modestly in 2011 with a total return of 1.57 percent for the year. It’s too soon, however, to say the property sector is out of the woods. “Until the economy grows at a faster pace and the housing market improves, timber returns will have difficulty showing strong positive results,” wrote Jeff Havsy, director of research for the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries based in Chicago (NCREIF), in a release highlighting the fourth-quarter results. Still, 2011 was a “nice contrast” to 2010 and 2009 when total returns for the NCREIF Timberland Index fell 0.15 percent and 4.75 percent, respectively, according to Havsy. The index finished 2011 on a positive note. The fourth-quarter total return of 0.51 percent included a 0.56 percent rise in income and a 0.05 percent drop in capital appreciation over the third quarter. The fourth quarter marked the fifth time in the last six quarters that capital appreciation, or the change in value, was negative. “On the bright side, this was the smallest drop in value since the first quarter of 2011 and the third best quarterly appreciation return in the past three years,” …

ARLINGTON, VA. — Washington, D.C.-based Penzance has received site plan approval from the Arlington County Board for a $150 million, 280,000-square-foot, mixed-use office and retail project located one block from the Clarendon Metro Station in Arlington. Ground breaking on 3001-3003 Washington Boulevard is slated for this spring. “We want to thank the Clarendon community, county staff, the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board, the transportation and planning commissions and the county board for their hard work and support as we worked together to assure the successful integration of 3001-3003 Washington Boulevard in this vibrant neighborhood,” said Victor Tolkan, managing partner and founder of Penzance, in a prepared statement. The development will include two separate office properties, a 10-story, 200,000-square-foot building attached to and sharing complementary architecture with its neighbor, an 8-story, 80,000-square-foot building. The first floors will contain 28,000 square feet of retail space, as well as a public plaza and expansive sidewalk areas to accommodate café tables and outdoor seating for retail tenants. The buildings are designed to LEED Silver standards. The first tenant has already been retained for the property. CNA will relocate its current headquarters, located at 4825 Mark Center Dr. in Alexandria, Va., to 175,000 square …

CHICAGO — Newly released results for the NCREIF Property Index (NPI) show total returns for the fourth quarter of 2011 were 2.96 percent, comprised of a 1.45 percent income return and a 1.51 percent capital appreciation return. For the year, the NPI returned 14.26 percent, split between 6.11 percent income and 7.80 percent appreciation. The NPI Index tracks approximately $284 billion of institutional real estate investments. While the NPI returns are down from the previous few quarters, they remain above the 30-year average of 2.1 percent and the 19-year average of 2 percent, according to Jeffrey Havsy, director of research for Chicago-based NCREIF. For the year, the NPI’s nearly 14.3 percent return outperformed both the S&P 500 and NAREIT Index. Since bottoming at the end of 2009, the NPI total returns have been positive each quarter for the past two years. Prices have rebounded 19 percent since bottoming in the first quarter of 2010. That is slightly more than half of the 29 percent loss that occurred from the peak in the first quarter 2008, to trough. The economic uncertainty of late summer continued into the fall, with questions about Europe and the strength of the U.S. recovery, explained Havsy. …

NEW YORK CITY — Africa Israel USA (AFI USA) has closed on the $165 million sale of the 267,000-square-foot Clock Tower Building, a former office building located at 5 Madison Ave. in New York City. Marriott International Inc. purchased the building, and will convert the 41-story property into New York’s first Marriott EDITION brand hotel. “We are delighted to have reached an agreement with Marriott International to secure the future of this remarkable building and support the burgeoning vitality of the Madison Square Park neighborhood,” said Tamir Kazaz, CEO of AFI USA, in a prepared statement. “The EDITION hotel brand will be a perfect fit for this great neighborhood.” The EDITION hotel brand is a new luxury, lifestyle brand created in a partnership between Marriott International and Ian Schrager. AFI USA purchased the building for $200 million in 2007. Metropolitan Life Insurance originally built and occupied the building, but it has been empty since 2005. The Clock Tower Building is one of Manhattan’s earliest skyscrapers. “We are delighted to have achieved such a strong price for this asset as a hotel property,” said Laurie Golub, general counsel and managing director of business affairs of AFI USA. “It speaks to the …

Columbia, S.C. — Columbia's CBD office sector is on the verge of becoming a landlord’s market. So says David Lockwood, senior vice president of leasing for Colliers International South Carolina Inc., who expects that in 2012 owners of downtown office buildings will offer fewer concessions than the previous 12 months as vacancies fall and rents rise. “Tenants just aren’t going to be able to find the deals that were out there a year or 2 years ago,” said Lockwood during a 30-minute webinar hosted by Colliers on Monday that focused on office leasing and employment trends in greater Columbia. In contrast, however, Lockwood fully anticipates rental rates in Columbia’s suburban office market will fall as landlords pull out all the stops to land tenants. “Suburban landlords will become even more aggressive,” said Lockwood. “They’ll offer more concessions, and they’ll offer more TI (tenant improvements), and that has a short-term degrading effect on the market by lowering the average rental rates.” The direct vacancy rate for the office market as a whole stood at 24 percent at the end of 2011, including 22.67 percent in the CBD and 25.49 percent in the suburbs, according to Colliers. In the CBD, much of …

The Richmond, Virginia, office market is gradually recovering from the effects of the recession and an unusual flurry of large-block office vacancy following several major corporate bankruptcies and relocations during 2008 and 2009. In 2011, overall vacancy declined slightly from 10.9 percent to 10.6 percent, year-over-year. Average asking rents increased slightly; however, tenants remain aggressive in seeking favorable terms. Due to a continued abundance of available Class A office space, office development remains at a standstill, with the exception of pre-leased medical office buildings. The metro Richmond office market saw a significant increase in leasing activity in 2011 with 2.5 million square feet leased compared to 1.83 million in 2010. Overall positive space absorption of 495,631 square feet was just under the 2010 total of 543,287 square feet, reverting back to close to normal absorption following the negative 1.3 million square feet of absorption reported in 2009. The market leader during 2011 was suburban Innsbrook, or the northwest quadrant submarket, with more than 1 million square feet of leasing activity. The largest submarket in the region, it suffered major losses in occupancy when the bankruptcies of Circuit City stores and LandAmerica, as well as the relocations of Wells Fargo Securities …

BETHESDA, MD. — In 2011, Beech Street Capital provided $2.2 billion in multifamily financing, more than double the amount secured in 2010, its first year. “This was really a breakthrough year for us,” said Grace Huebscher, president and CEO of Beech Street, in a prepared statement. “The word is clearly getting out among borrowers that Beech Street is committed to providing an extraordinary level of service and execution.” Beech Street doubled its Fannie Mae business and more than tripled its Freddie Mac business, while its FHA and broker business continued to grow. By the end of 2011, the company was servicing loans on properties in 27 states. “We have the range of products and the in-house expertise to more than meet the needs of virtually any multifamily borrower,” Huebscher continued. One of the company’s largest transactions of the year occurred in late March. Beech Street provided $74 million in Fannie Mae conventional loans to refinance a 13-building, 615-unit portfolio of New York City properties owned by the Haruvi family. Meridian Capital Group originated the transaction. The Bethesda-headquartered company has offices in California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Texas, Georgia, Alabama and Washington. The Southern California office opened in 2011, and experienced …