ANN ARBOR, MICH. — After struggling to maintain market share and meet its debt obligations, Borders Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the Ann Arbor-based bookstore chain lists debts of $1.29 billion and assets of $1.28 billion. Borders Group operated the Borders chain of bookstores as well as Waldenbooks, Borders Express, Borders Outlet and Bordders.com. In a statement Mike Edwards, president of Borders Group, said, “It has become increasingly clear that in light of the environment of curtailed customer spending, our ongoing discussions with publishers and other vendor-related parties, and the company's lack of liquidity, Borders Group does not have the capital resources it needs to be a viable competitor and move forward with its business strategy to reposition itself successfully for the long term.” Borders will continue to operate its business normally. However, the statement reads that 30 percent of the chain's locations will close by April 30. On the list of the 190 stores to be closed — subject to court approval — are many high-profile locations including Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix; Union Square in San Francisco; Santana Row in San Jose, Calif.; The Domain in Austin, …
NEW YORK CITY — The management team of ING Clarion Partners has partnered with Lightyear Capital to acquire the U.S. private market real estate investment management business of ING Group. The acquisition was made for $100 million. New York City-based Clarion Partners was purchased by Netherlands-based ING Group in 1998 and became the American presence of the company. ING Clarion Partners currently has more than 250 employees in markets throughout the United States as well as a presence in Mexico and Brazil. It controls assets worth more than $22 billion. Steve Furnary, the current chairman and CEO of Clarion Partners, will continue in his present role and will serve on the board of directors for the firm. Don Marron, chairman of New York City-based Lightyear, will serve as director of the board for the company. “Lightyear is the perfect partner for Clarion Partners,” Furnary said in a statement. “The Lightyear team members are specialists in the financial services industry and have great insights into our business. Lightyear understands and relates well to our strong fiduciary culture. The partner with firms that share their commitment to integrity and to producing superior investment results for their investors.” — Coleman Wood
ORANGE, CALIF. — CalOptima has purchased a mid-rise office building located at 505 City Parkway in Orange. The provider of health coverage to low-income families to occupy a majority of the building's 203,462 square feet. According to local reports, the company had outgrown its previous offices near St. Joseph Hospital-Orange. The company could lease as much as 130,000 square feet of the building by 2014. The purchase price was reported to be $30.2 million. The Jones Lang LaSalle team of Grant Freeman, Ronda Clark and Joe Bevan represented CalOptima in the deal. The seller, The Abbey Company, was represented by the CB Richard Ellis team of Rickey Warner, Peter Wells and Mark Friend. 505 City Parkway is one of three buildings that make up the City Parkway office complex. The complex contains twin 10-story buildings and a four-story building that total 460,000 square feet. The Abbey Company purchased the property from Maguire Properties in May 2009. — Coleman Wood
Washington, D.C. — The White House released a report on Friday advocating the end of agency lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In “Reforming America's Housing Finance Market,” the Obama administration calls for the gradual exit of both lenders from the financial market. The report outlines four steps to reducing the market share of the agency lenders, which, when combined with the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Ginnie Mae, currently account for more than 90 percent of new mortgages issued today.The steps include increasing guarantee fees to reduce the capital advantages the agency lenders had over private lenders, requiring larger down payments for mortgages, letting the temporary increase in conforming loan limits expire this October, and reducing the investment portfolios of the two lenders at the rate of no less than 10 percent per year. The report says that future government lending should be reduced to the current FHA loan program and current lending services provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The White House outlines three options for the future role of the government in residential mortgage lending. The first is for the government to only provide …
NEW YORK CITY — The City of New York has selected the team of Phipps Houses, Related Companies and Monadnock Construction to develop the residential portion of Phase I of Hunter's Point South, a new mixed-use community located in Queens' Long Island City neighborhood. The team will construct two buildings containing more than 900 housing units and 20,000 square feet of retail space. The projected cost of this portion of the project is $360 million. The two buildings are being designed by SHoP Architects and Ismaek Leyva Architects. Additional pieces of Phase I include a 5-acre, waterfront park and a 1,100-student intermediate and high school. Infrastructure work will begin this month and will be complete by spring 2013. The two buildings will begin construction in 2012 and will take approximately 24 months to complete. The park will begin construction this summer, and the new school will open by fall 2013. Hunter's Point South is a massive undertaking by the City of New York. The currently vacant site totals 30 acres along the waterfront and is bounded by 50th Avenue to the north, 2nd Street to the east, Borden Avenue to the south and Center Boulevard to the west. At full …
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