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FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — Behringer Harvard has acquired a nine-building, 691,000-square-foot medical office portfolio. The properties are all located in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area; five of them are located on the campus of hospitals operated by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. They include: • Victor Farris Building, a 148,000-square-foot, Class A building located 1411 N. Flagler Drive on the campus of Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach; • Palmetto Medical Plaza, an eight-story, 72,000-square-foot building located at 7100 W. 20th Ave. on the campus of Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah; • Gardens Medical Pavilion, a 75,000-square-foot, Class A building located at 3401 PGA Blvd. in Palm Beach Gardens; • Hialeah Medical Plaza, a five-story, 72,000-square-foot building located at 777 E. 25th St. on the campus of Hialeah Hospital in Hialeah; and • North Shore Medical Arts, a four-story, 56,000-square-foot building located at 1190 NW 95th St. on the campus of North Shore Medical Center in Miami. The other four properties are located near the campus of Florida Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. They are known as FMC Medical Mall, FMC North, FMC Central and FMC East. The buildings total a combined 207,000 square feet. The portfolio also includes …

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FAIRFAX, VA. — Construction is complete for The Mason Inn, a $50 million hotel and conference center located on the Fairfax campus of George Mason University. The 179,000-square-foot project features 148 guest rooms. It also contains Boxwoods, a full-service restaurant that specializes in using seasonal ingredients, and a bar known as The Well. The hotel also contains a lounge that features floor-to-ceiling bookcases, hardwood floors and leather club chairs. Additional amenities include a 24-hour fitness center. The conference center component of the hotel totals 20,000 square feet. It consists of 10 meeting rooms and two ballrooms that can be subdivided into smaller spaces. The project, which was designed by Gensler, is applying for LEED-Gold certification with the U.S. Green Building Council. Additional project team members include master developer Concord Eastridge and general contractor Balfour Beatty Construction. ARAMARK Higher Education will be operating the hotel and conference center. — Coleman Wood

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BELLEVUE, WASH. — Bravern Office Commons, a 750,000-square-foot office complex located in Bellevue that is wholly leased to Microsoft, has traded for $410 million. The seller was a joint venture between the U.S. arm of Investcorp and Schnitzer West. The buyer was a client advised by Principal Global Investors. Bravern Office Commons comprises two high-rise towers and an adjacent parking lot. The Investcorp/Schnizter West venture developed the Class A buildings in 2007 as part of an $800 million mixed-use development known as The Bravern. In addition to the office component, the project contains two luxury residential towers and 305,000 square feet of retail space occupied by Neiman Marcus, Jimmy Choo, Hermes, Louis Vuitton and other luxury tenants. The office and multifamily components were not included in the deal. This sale marks the third large transaction Investcorp has been a part of this year. Last month, the firm sold its stake in Washington, D.C.'s Maritime Plaza office complex to Corporate Office Properties Trust for $119 million. The office complex, which was acquired by Investcorp in 2005 in a joint venture with Brickman Associates, comprises two Class A buildings totaling 362,000 square feet that are located adjacent to the Washington Naval Yard. …

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ESCONDIDO, CALIF. — Escondido, Calif.-based Realty Income Corp. has signed a purchase agreement to acquire a retail portfolio for $250 million. The portfolio contains 136 properties occupied under triple-net leases. Realty Income will fund the purchase by tapping into its acquisition credit facility and/or with cash on hand. The deal is expected to close within the next 90 days. In a statement, Realty Income said more details regarding the deal would be released following its closing. If the transaction closes, it will increase the amount of property Realty Income has acquired this year to approximately $690 million. — Coleman Wood

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SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ., AND SKOKIE, ILL. — While this year has been marked by cautiousness on the acquisition side of the real estate industry, this past week showed that healthcare remains a popular property type to purchase. Scottsdale-based REIT Healthcare Trust of America (HTA), which has already had a busy year on the acquisitions front, announced two new purchases. The first is a portfolio of two Class A medical office buildings located in central Florida that traded for approximately $18.3 million. Lake Underhill Medical Center is located on the campus of Florida Hospital East Orlando in Orlando, and Oviedo Medical Center is located 10 miles north of Orlando in Oviedo, adjacent to a Florida Hospital CentraCare urgent care center. The buildings total a combined 105,000 square feet, half of which is leased to Florida Hospital, which also owns the land on which the Oviedo facility is located. Florida Hospital is an affiliate of Adventist Health System. HTA also acquired a medical office building located near CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, N.M., for approximately $9.56 million. Known as St. Vincent 440 MOB, the facility totals 33,631 square feet and is fully leased to CHRISTUS, which has 9 years …

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PHOENIX — The groundbreaking has occurred for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's new Phoenix regional headquarters. The 210,202-square-foot building will be located at the intersection of 7th Street and Deer Valley Road in the city's Deer Valley submarket. Completion is slated for March 2012. The General Services Administration (GSA), which handles leasing for the U.S. government, signed a build-to-suit agreement with the project's owner and developer, Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. The government agency will occupy the building for a 20-year term. Local reports indicate the lease is valued at $154 million. The Jones Lang LaSalle team of Jessica Kokish, Suzanne Drake, Chris Roth and Dan Reidy represented the GSA in lease negotiations. In a statement Kokish said, “Utilizing all aspects of the firm's expertise, we were able to guide the GSA through a comprehensive process than began with securing the land site and selecting a developer. Given current capital markets conditions, were determined to find a developer who could successfully construct a building for the FBI — one that will serve the agency for decades to come.” Since 2005, Jones Lang LaSalle has assisted the GSA with more than 750 leases and is currently working on 600 additional leases. — Coleman …

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NEW YORK CITY — Plaza Construction and Schiavone Construction will be providing general contracting services for the new Fulton Street Transit Center. The $176 million project is part of a larger modernization of the subway system in Lower Manhattan. The Fulton Street Transit Center will be a 180,000-square-foot facility built at the corner of Fulton Street and Broadway. The new building will provide a higher profile entrance to the subway station. The new project will feature a glass and steel oculus ceiling, which will serve as the building's main architectural feature. The building will open in 2014. In addition, the scope of the project will include the restoration of the historic Corbin Building, which is located at the corner of Broadway and John Street, as well as its integration into the new transit center. The new transit center will also improve connections to the 1 Line Cortlandt Street Station, which is being constructed at the World Trade Center (WTC) site. The Lower Manhattan area already sees heavy traffic daily from office workers, and this will only increase in the future from tourists visiting projects under construction at the WTC site, including the 9/11 Memorial. The project to improve Lower Manhattan's …

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BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Atlanta-based Carter has taken control of the City Federal building, a 27-story residential building located in Birmingham and the tallest residential structure in Alabama. The firm purchased the note on the property while taking control of it from Atlanta-based Synergy through an acceptance of a deed in lieu of foreclosure. The City Federal building was constructed in the early 1900s and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The building's namesake tenant vacated the building in 1995, and it stayed empty until Synergy launched a condominium conversion in 2005. The company invested $20 million to create 84 luxury condominiums along with 14,842 square feet of ground-floor retail space. However, the collapse of the residential market stalled sales. Synergy tried several means to sell the remaining units including an auction and a price reduction. Currently, 28 units remain empty. Carter plans to complete several common area improvements to enhance the project's appeal. It also will soon re-launch a sales campaign with the help of Ingram & Associates. A new pricing structure will be part of the new marketing plan. According to local reports, when the project is sold out it will have a value of …

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SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Marcus & Millichap has brokered the sale of a 120-unit apartment community in South Brunswick for $15 million. Fresh Ponds is located on 24.25 acres at 356 Ridge Road, close to Route 1, the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike. The sale price represents a per unit price of $125,000. Fresh Ponds was first constructed in 1980. Since then, 85 percent of the units have received kitchen renovations. All of the apartments feature two bedrooms, one-and-a-half bathrooms and balconies or patios. Community amenities include a swimming pool, tennis courts, volleyball courts, walking trails and a clubhouse with a recreation room. Marcus & Millichap's Philadelphia team of Ridge MacLaren, Dean Zang, Mark Taylor, Andrew Townsend and Clark Talone represented the seller. Assistance was provided by Russ Richardson of Richardson Properties Corp. MacLaren, Zang, Taylor Townsend and Talone also represented the undisclosed buyer. Local assistance was provided by Michael Fasano of Marcus & Millichap's New Jersey office. “The property's infill location, the scarcity of comparable product and the presence of numerous large corporations in the area should allow the new owner to benefit from rent growth and high occupancy,” said MacLaren in a statement, adding, “This …

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NORTH LAUDERDALE, FLA. — A joint venture between Behringer Harvard and Grand Peaks Property Management has acquired a South Florida apartment community from Principal Global Investors for $42 million. Parrot's Landing is located at 7900 Hampton Blvd. in North Lauderdale. Constructed in two phases, the community contains a total of 560 units in 24 residential buildings situated on more than 25 acres. Phase I of the community, comprising 17 of its buildings, was renovated between 2007 and 2010. Phase II was completed in 1997. Community amenities include two clubhouses, three pools, lighted tennis courts and a fitness center. George Vail and Jaret Turkell of the Miami office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler represented the seller. The buyer acquired the property by way of Fannie Mae financing. “This was an outstanding opportunity for a buyer to come in and purchase an institutional, quality-owned product at a significant discount to the current owner's cost basis and replacement cost,” said Vail in a statement. — Coleman Wood

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