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LOUISVILLE, KY. — An affiliate of Centro Properties Group has sold the 422,000-square-foot Springhurst Towne Center to D. Talmage Hocker, Brad Anderson and a group of Louisville investors for $42.4 million. The property, located at the intersection of Westport Road and Interstate 265, is anchored by Target and Meijer. Springhurst also houses Kohl’s, T.J. Maxx, Dick’s Sporting Goods and dressbarn. Due to the current economy, searching for a buyer was a painstaking process. Oak Brook, Ill.-based May Center Advisors brought the deal on the market for Centro right as stocks were plummeting and Bernie Madoff was being carted off to court. “In this market, you’re not just looking for somebody to make an offer, you’re looking for the group that has the strongest probability of getting to the finish line,” says John May of MCA. “[The buyers] came to the table and seemed to make the most sense for the property and also had put together the best financial engineering structure to actually get this closed in a difficult market.” U.S. Bank provided financing for the transaction, which proved to be a huge selling point for Centro Properties. “There’s a very strong relationship between the buyer and that lender,” May …

CHARLOTTE AND WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — CGRE Holdings has purchased a portfolio of 22 medical office buildings from Winston-Salem-based Novant Health for $122 million in a sale-leaseback transaction. Under the agreement, Novant Health will continue to occupy the buildings under a 15-year lease at market rents. The properties are located in Winston-Salem and Charlotte. Novant’s largest holdings in the area include the 961-bed Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem and the 531-bed Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte. The company approached Colliers Turley Martin Tucker in May 2008 for advice in the best way to structure its holdings. “They were looking to raise cash for future growth of their operations,” says Thomas Powers of Colliers Turley’s Cincinnati office. Powers, along with John Huguenard of the firm’s Indianapolis office, represented Novant in the sale. “There was a determination that their resources were better used in other means than owning real estate that was illiquid.” CGRE was not represented in the transaction. The deal took more than a year to complete because of the current state of the real estate market. According to Thomas, the buyer had to get creative and had to obtain financing through non-traditional means. The biggest roadblock to the deal, however, was …

WINSTON SALEM, N.C. — Winston Salem-based BB&T Corp. has purchased the banking operations of Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial Bank and will convert the institution’s 354 branches in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and two other states to the BB&T brand. At the time of purchase, Colonial Bank carried $25 billion in assets and $20 billion in deposits. The bank also had plans to sell 44 branches in Texas and Nevada; BB&T has not made a decision on retaining those properties. The acquisition was put into motion when the Alabama State Banking Department closed Colonial Bank and appointed the FDIC the institution’s receiver. BB&T will assume the deposits and $22 billion of the assets, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. planning to dispose of the remainder at a later date. A loss-sharing agreement between BB&T and the FDIC will cover all loans and securities acquired in the transaction. BB&T also worked with the FDIC in the December purchase of Duluth, Ga.-based Haven Trust Bank. The purchase of Colonial’s holdings is the largest transaction in BB&T’s history and will make the bank the fourth biggest in Alabama and the fifth biggest in Florida. “We’re gaining solid market shares in great markets,” BB&T CEO Kelly King …

WASHINGTON D.C. — The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Monday that they had approved an extension to the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), including the newest provisions for commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS). While the Treasury noted that conditions in the financial markets have improved in recent months, facilities for CMBS and other consumer and business loans are still impaired. As such, TALF will be extended on newly issues asset backed securities (ABS) and legacy CMBS loans through March 31, 2010. Because CMBS deals can take a longer time to arrange, the Fed and Treasury approved TALF lending against newly issued CMBS through June 30, 2010. The Fed and Treasury also announced on Monday that, at present, it will not be expanding the TALF program to other types of collateral. — Randy Shearin

HOUSTON — Houston-based real estate firm Hines has commenced the initial public offering for Hines Global REIT, a public, non-traded real estate investment trust. The company is seeking to raise a maximum of $3.5 billion through the offering. Hines will focus on commercial real estate assets and expects to invest in the office, industrial, multifamily and retail sectors in the United States and worldwide. The company will also consider value-add properties to take advantage of the current distressed market. Hines expects an approximately 8- to 10-year hold period for the properties. In a statement, Charles Hazen, president of Hines Global REIT, said, “In this challenging market, we see many opportunities on the horizon. We plan to make strategic acquisitions and dispositions, and will be seeking out undervalued assets as well as aggressively pursuing opportunities in markets around the world, which may offer additional diversifications as well as attractive risk-adjusted returns. With Hines as our sponsor, we will have the advantage of tenure and expertise in developed markets, as well as in emerging markets such as Brazil, China, Russia, Poland and India.” In 2004, Hines began its first public, non-traded REIT, Hines Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. The fund is now …

MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis-based NorthMarq Real Estate Services has entered into an agreement to acquire Opus Property Services from Minneapolis-based Opus Corp. Due diligence remains to be performed, but the transition is expected to be complete by the end of the month. NorthMarq’s winning bid was selected from a field of eight companies by Opus. In an email, a spokesperson for NorthMarq said, “Since NorthMarq’s reorganization in May 2008, the company has been evaluating a number of different options to support growth. This acquisition opportunity fit our growth goals along with our culture, and expands our ability to serve our clients in new markets. A representative from Opus did not respond to a request for comment. Opus’ portfolio consists of more than 30 million square feet of commercial real estate in 20 markets nationwide. The assets comprise office, retail and industrial properties, and the majority of them were developed by Opus Corp. and sold to institutional or individual investors. Before the transaction, NorthMarq itself managed 30 million square feet of commercial real estate, in addition to its mortgage banking, investment sales and corporate solutions divisions. All of Opus’ 140-person staff will be brought into NorthMarq. In addition, leasing relationships with local …

LEEDS, ALA. — Birmingham, Ala.-based Hoar Construction will soon break ground on the 330,000-square-foot The Shops of Grand River on Motorsports Parkway in Leeds. CMH Architects designed the 100-acre, open-air outlet center, which is the first phase of Birmingham-based Daniel Corp.’s massive Grand River mixed-use project. The second phase of Grand River will consist mainly of residences. The Shops of Grand River, which is set to deliver in Fall 2010, will bring upscale retail to an area historically overlooked by national tenants. “In this part of town, there’s really not a lot of retail close to this proximity,” says Stacey Berthon of Hoar Construction. The lure of a nearby Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World and the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum is already drawing consumers to the area, but until now, there’s been no place to shop. “Leeds is a little bit off the beaten path, but it’s a new destination place. [Daniel Corp.] just thought it was a good time to bring in an upscale outlet center,” he says. In this down economy, value-oriented retailers are fairing better than their more upper-scale counterparts. Daniel Corp., Berthon says, is seeing this trend carried out in robust pre-leasing activity. “They’ve already signed …

NEW YORK CITY — MTV has announced that it will not be renewing the lease for its flagship Times Square studios and plans to vacate the space by the end of the year. The studio is located on the second floor of 1515 Broadway and was first leased by the network in 1997. It totals 24,240 square feet, with a small amount of that space residing on the building’s first floor. A spokesperson for SL Green Realty Corp., which owns 1515 Broadway in a joint venture with SITQ, declined to comment for the story. The spokesperson did say that there has already been a lot of interest from a diverse group of tenants, including broadcasters and retailers for the prime Times Square office space. According to SL Green’s leasing site for 1515 Broadway, the asking price for the tenant space totals approximately $11.6 million — comprising $450 per square foot for the second-floor studio and $1,000 per square foot for the 1,624-square-foot ground-floor space. MTV’s parent company, Viacom, anchors the 1515 Broadway tower as its global headquarters. The media giant recently renewed and expanded its lease through 2015 for approximately 1.3 million square feet of office space. — Coleman Wood

LOS ANGELES — In its second quarter conference call Monday, Maguire Properties (NYSE: MPG) announced that it would default on the loans it held for seven office properties in Southern California, saying that it would no longer fund the cash shortfall associated with the mortgages. The properties are Park Place I, Park Place II, Stadium Towers, Pacifc Arts Plaza, 2600 Michelson (Irvine) and 500 Orange Tower, all located in Orange County, and 550 South Hope in downtown Los Angeles. Maguire has contacted the master servicers of the loans for the properties and will manage the properties until the CMBS special servicer appoints a receiver. While these are not the first defaults for Maguire, they are a significant set of holdings for the beleagured company. Reports Monday put the value of the loans in excess of $1 billion. Maguire CEO Nelson Rising again stated on Monday that the company is not considering filing for Chapter 11 protection.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An affiliate of Harbor Group International has acquired Longfellow Plaza in Washington, D.C. for $35.2 million. The eight-story property totals 125,119 square feet and is located at 1211 Connecticut Ave. within an area of the Washington office market known as the “Golden Triangle.” Harbor Group purchased the property from an affiliate of BlackRock Realty. Longfellow Plaza was constructed in 1967. It features three levels of underground parking and has received more than $1.1 million in renovations during the past 3 years. It is currently 99 percent occupied by a tenant roster that includes International Resources Group and Washington Sports Club. Other tenants include architects, lawyers, embassies, policy analysis and research organizations, consultants and non-profit groups. “We feel as good about the D.C. market as any market, as a result of government spending and the office demand. In this lending environment it is difficult to get financing, and we had a lot of interest from the lending community to finance this deal, which speaks to the strength of it,” says Richard Litton, president of Harbor Group International. Gerry Trainor with the Washington office of Transwestern represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction. — Coleman Wood