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GARDEN GROVE, CALIF. — A joint venture between Phoenix Realty Group and MG Properties Group has purchased a Garden Grove apartment community for $53 million. The acquisition was made on behalf of a Phoenix institutional real estate fund. Crystal View was built in 1968 and remodeled over the last decade. It contains 402 units, 20 percent of which are set aside for households making 50 percent or less of the area media income. Amenities include a swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts, a fitness center, a movie room and a clubhouse. Phoenix and MG financed the purchase partly from assumable tax-exempt bonds. The seller's name was not released. “Crystal View is a great fit for our investment strategy — value-oriented rentals for the middle-market workforce in an ideal location close to major freeways and some of the region's biggest employers including Disneyland and the University of California's Irvine Medical Center,” said Alex Saunder, managing director of Phoenix, in a statement. Phoenix has been active in the multifamily sector. Last year, it purchased more than 2,100 apartment units worth $250 million. MG currently operates a portfolio consisting of 69 communities and more than 10,900 units, 8,000 of which are located in …

D'IBERVILLE, MISS. — Development will begin soon for a new casino and resort project located on the Gulf Coast. CanCan Casino Resort & Spa will be a $450 million project that will be located just outside of Biloxi in D'Iberville. The project will be situated on 18 acres that will be visible from the main bridge connecting the two cities. “You'll have to go past us to get into Biloxi, so we feel our location is excellent and has high visibility to the traffic going up and down Interstate 110,” says George Toth, president and CEO of CanCan Development. CanCan Casino Resort & Spa will feature a 60,000-square-foot casino containing 1,800 slots, 46 table games, 16 live poker tables, and flexible meeting and showroom space — making it one of the top five largest casinos in the area. The project will include an French theme, which will extend to its French village, which will contain 90,000 square feet of entertainment and restaurant space space as well as a 300-room themed hotel. Other features of the project include an additional 250 hotel rooms and a freestanding wedding chapel. The new casino project is expected to generate more than $260 million a …

NEW YORK CITY — Durst Fetner Residential has commenced development for a new residential tower in Manhattan. West 57 will be an 870,000-square-foot high-rise building located on West 57th Street between 11th and 12th avenues. West 57 will feature 600 apartments consisting of a mix of 80 percent market-rate units and 20 percent affordable housing. The base of the building will contain approximately 40,000 square feet of commercial space. One of the amenities of the project will be a large outdoor courtyard. Durst Fetner will be seeking LEED-Gold certification for the project. Danish architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group is designing West 57. “The building is conceived as a cross-breed between the Copenhagen courtyard and the New York skyscraper,” said Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, in a statement. “The communal intimacy of the central urban oasis meets the efficiency, density and panoramic views of the tall tower in a new hybrid typology. The courtyard is to architecture what Central Park is to urbanism: a giant green garden surrounded by a dense wall of spaces for living.” SLCE Architects is serving as the architect of record for the project. Hunter Roberts will be the construction manager. The project is just in the …

TAMPA, FLA. — Broadstone Net Lease has acquired four Tower Radiology locations from the company for $14.51 million in a sale-leaseback transaction. Under the terms of the deal, Tower has signed 15-year, absolute net leases at each property. The sale was completed at a 7.47 percent capitalization rate. Camille Renshaw and Joshua Pardue of Colliers International's Tampa Bay Investment Group negotiated the deal. In a statement Renshaw, who serves as director of office investment services, said, “Institutional-grade medical office assets offering long-term net leases are in high demand.” Pardue, a medical office investment specialist, added, “Pent-up capital once allocated for distressed product is shifting to sale-leasebacks, specifically medical property. Sale-leasebacks in this economic stage allow physicians to monetize their real estate so they can reinvest and grow their practices.” Broadstone Net Lease is a REIT that invests in freestanding, single-tenant, absolute net-leased properties located throughout the United States. The company's portfolio spreads across 21 states and comprises 78 properties including medical office, restaurant, convenience store, specialty office and distribution properties. Its Florida holdings consist of the four Tower Radiology locations as well as Applebee's restaurants in Jacksonville and Sarasota. Tower Radiology provides outpatient radiology services for the Tampa Bay area. …

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Just a year after acquiring its Washington headquarters building, CoStar Group has sold the building to the tune of a $60 million profit. The real estate data firm entered into an agreement to sell 1331 L Street to an affiliate of German firm GLL Real Estate Partners GmBH for $101 million. CoStar will then lease a majority of the building back for a reported 15-year term. CoStar acquired the 10-story, 169,429-square-foot property when real estate prices were at an all-time low. The company purchased the LEED-Gold certified building last February for $41.25 million, much less than the seller, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), paid for the two-year old building. MBA acquired the building from its original developers, Paramount Group and DRI Development Services, in 2008 for $79.32 million, which was a deal itself, given that the developers spent approximately $91 million to construct it. Under the terms of the agreement, up to $15 million of the sale price will be held in escrow to help fund improvements to CoStar's offices. The Cassidy Turley team of William Collins, Paul Collins, John Flood, Judson Ryan and James Cassidy represented CoStar in the sale. — Coleman Wood

PHOENIX — Phoenix-based retail owner Cole Real Estate Investments has purchased a portfolio of CVS/pharmacy stores for approximately $70.1 million. The portfolio contains 13 properties in 11 states. All 13 of the properties opened in 2009 or 2010 and are subject to 24-year, triple-net leases. They are located in California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. The portfolio contains 174,000 total square feet of space. “Single-tenant properties net-leased to national credit tenants such as CVS are in high demand among investors,” said Mark Taylor, vice president of investments for Marcus & Millichap's Philadelphia office, in a statement. “This trend is expected to continue in 2011 as well-capitalized private investors and REITs with strong balance sheets continue to acquire assets.” Taylor was joined by Dean Zang and Chris Munley, also of Marcus & Millichap's Philadelphia office, to represent the undisclosed seller. The local brokers of record for Marcus & Millichap include J.D. Parker in New York, Tim Speck in Texas, Solomon Poretsky in Minnesota, Adam Christofferson in Kansas, Bill Buford in South Carolina, John Leonard in Georgia, Greg Matus in Florida and David Bohanon in Oklahoma. Chad Adams provide in-house representation for Cole. …

LOS ANGELES — J.H. Snyder Development Co. and Washington Capital Management are partnering for the development of a high-rise residential project in Los Angeles. The Vermont will be constructed on a 2-acre site at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue in the city's Mid-Wilshire district. Construction will consist of two towers rising 25 and 30 stories. They will contain 464 one- and two-bedroom units as well as approximately 41,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Community amenities will include a lounge-style resident workspace, a fitness center and spa, and a quarter-acre central courtyard with an outdoor swimming pool. The retail space will consist of neighborhood-serving tenants including restaurants, a grocer, a bank, a dry cleaner and a coffee house. Apartments will cater to professionals, and rents will range from $1,800 to $3,000 per month. The project will be seeking LEED certification “This is a significant investment that will transform a 2-acre dirt lot into a vibrant mixed-use community in the heart of one of L.A.'s most energetic and growing neighborhoods,” said Michael Wise, a senior partner with J.H. Snyder, in a statement. Locally based Snyder recently infused new equity into the project and will lead the design and …

CHICAGO — Chicago-based U.S. Equities Realty has brokered the acquisition of a Chicago high-rise office tower on behalf of an Irish investment fund. Wilton U.S. Commercial, a Delaware-based REIT controlled by the fund, purchased 65 E. Wacker Place for an undisclosed amount — marking the REIT's first acquisition since its formation. The office tower was constructed in 1928 and contains 220,000 square feet of space over 24 floors. Occupancy was approximately 90 percent at the time of closing. Morton Steakhouse occupies the first two floors of the building. U.S. Equities Realty represented the buyer in the deal. The broker's in-house management division, U.S. Equities Asset Management, will provide management, marketing and leasing services for the building moving forward. A spokesperson from U.S. Equities Realty indicated that the buyer is exploring options to reposition the building, but no plans had been decided. The buyer paid all cash for the building and plans to finance it in the first quarter The undisclosed seller was represented by John Gavin and Dirk Rieske of Grubb & Ellis. Wilton U.S. Commercial is advised by Wilton Commercial Real Estate Ltd. and Finnegan Menton Auctioneers & Valuers, both of Ireland. — Coleman Wood