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CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS — Transwestern has brokered the sale of Portairs Shopping Center in Corpus Christi. The 118,281-square-foot neighborhood retail property is located at the corner of Ayers Street and Horne Road at 4100-4302 Ayers. The center is anchored by a 16,650-square-foot Bealls and a 10,908-square-foot CVS/pharmacy. Additional tenants include Ace Cash Express, Colortyme, Cricket, Family Dollar, Hollywood Video, H&R Block, IBR Plasma Center, La Michoacana Meat Market, Radio Shack, Rent-A-Center, Rent America and Sally Beauty Supply. Occupancy was 92 percent at the time of closing. Rudy Hubbard, Scott Carter and Leah Gallagher of Transwestern's Houston office represented the seller, Weingarten Realty Investors. A representative from Transwestern said that Weingarten has been in the process of disposing of some of its older centers over the past few years, choosing instead to focus its efforts on newer, well-anchored neighborhood and community centers located in major metropolitan areas with strong population growth and high barriers to entry. The disposition of Portairs Shopping Center fits in with this business strategy. The buyer in the transaction was Portairs Partners LP. The acquisition price was undisclosed. — Coleman Wood

MILWAUKEE — In what has become a longstanding partnership between the two groups, Marquette University has selected Opus North Corp. as the design-build contractor for its new College of Engineering building. The first phase of the $100 million project will include a five-story, 100,000-square-foot building. The highlights of the project include the Discovery Learning Laboratory, a high-tech laboratory for the creation of new equipment and technologies, and the two-story Engineering Materials & Structures Testing Laboratory, which will serve as a learning and research lab for undergraduate and graduate students. It will also feature a high-bay area for the testing of larger-scale components. Other features of the building include a four-story open stairwell with glass walls and a glass building exterior, both of which will allow views into the labs. The building will eventually connect with a 150,000-square-foot building containing classrooms, offices and additional laboratory space. Opus North is partnering with Opus Architects & Engineers, which will serve as architect of record. Additional design services are being provided by Hammel Green & Abramson. Site preparation has already begun, including the demolition of four university-owned buildings. The groundbreaking is slated for spring 2010, with initial occupancy planned for August 2011. “We have …

PARK RIDGE, ILL. — Park Ridge-based Newcastle Properties has acquired a portfolio of CVS/pharmacy stores for approximately $30 million. The portfolio contains nine stores located in six states. They include: 542 Providence Rd. in Brooklyn, Conn.; 6202 Commerce Palms St. in Tampa, Fla.; 301 S. Sixth Ave. in Wauchula, Fla.; 4700 Piedmont Pkwy. in Greensboro, N.C.; 2902 Forestville Rd. in Raleigh, N.C.; 4 Hall St. in Concord, N.H.; 885 Central Ave. in Albany, N.Y.; 1571 Forest Ave. in Staten Island, N.Y.; and 1402 E. Lake Mead Pkwy. in Henderson Nev. The stores in the portfolio range in size from 12,900 to 13,225 square feet, and all of them are located on sites ranging from 1.21 to 2.98 acres. All are subject to 25-year, triple-net lease agreements. Newcastle acquired the portfolio on behalf of SVC Equity Partners LLC, one of its investment affiliates. Representation for Newcastle was provided by Jeffrey Gurian of Highland Park, Ill.-based Becker & Gurian. The seller was not disclosed. Newcastle's affiliates now own and operate approximately 3 million square feet of commercial real estate in 20 states. — Coleman Wood

BOSTON — A new residence tower has opened at Boston University. Located at 33 Harry Agganis Way, the 26-story building totals 396,000 square feet. It provides housing for 962 students in apartments and suites, along with 20 resident assistance units and three faculty apartment units. Features of the building include two classrooms, collaborative study spaces, music practice rooms, a video room, student life offices and a multipurpose room on the top floor. Artwork from the College of Fine Arts will also be displayed in the lobby and second-floor gallery spaces. In designing the new residence tower, project architect Cannon Design made an effort to incorporate numerous sustainable features. The building contains bamboo ceilings and walls at the entry, a reflective roof, low-E coated glass, occupancy sensors for mechanical systems and low-flow water fixtures. The exterior of the building features a terra cotta/metal panel rain screen system that reduces the overall weight of the building façade, also reducing the amount of structural steel needed to support it. The new residence tower is located within the John Hancock Student Village, a master-planned student activity area that was also designed by Cannon Design. The 10-acre area is situated along the Charles River and …

BRENTWOOD, TENN., AND MCLEAN, VA. — McLean-based Sunrise Senior Living has entered into an agreement to sell a 21-property senior housing portfolio to Brentwood-based Brookdale Senior Living for $204 million. The portfolio contains six properties located in Ohio; four located in Indiana; two located in Connecticut and Pennsylvania; and one property each in California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia. The communities comprise a total of 1,389 units, breaking down to 876 assisted living units, 421 Alzheimer's units and 92 independent living units. As part of the agreement, BLC Acquisitions, an affiliate of Brookdale that is making the purchase, has put $5 million in earnest money into escrow toward the purchase price. The transaction is expected to close on November 16. Brookdale will finance the sale with approximately $134 million in mortgage debt and pay the rest with cash on hand. Upon closing, Sunrise expects to record a gain of approximately $50 million. “This is another important step in our restructuring process and provides us with needed funds to pay down our bank line and with additional working capital. We are particularly pleased that our residents and team members in these communities will join a fine and …

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — A partnership of Net Lease Capital Advisors, a private investor and Rainier Capital Management has purchased Birmingham’s Social Security Administration Center from 8th and 14th LLC for $147 million. The LEED-Silver office building, which was completed in January 2008, stands eight stories tall and is complimented with a 1,750-space parking garage. The General Services Administration has a 20-year lease on the building, which serves as the Social Security Administration’s regional processing center in the Southeast. According to Net Lease, the transaction is the largest single-asset office sale in the Southeast this year. The seeds for the deal were sown in April when the building’s developer, Opus South Corp., filed for bankruptcy. Suddenly, the 587,528-square-foot Social Security Administration Center became an asset of Transamerica Life Insurance Co., which won the Section 363 bankruptcy auction. The firm then selected the buyer and provided financing for the purchase. Jay O’Meara and Will Yowell of CB Richard Ellis’ Atlanta office represented the lender in the transaction. Rob Jones of the firm’s Dallas office represented the buyer. The quality of the asset attracted more than 20 qualified buyers, Yowell says, because of the quality of the space and the stability of the …

ATLANTA — Online auto classified provider AutoTrader.com has signed a letter of intent to consolidate its operations within Atlanta's Perimeter Summit office park. According to spokesman Mark Scott, the company plans to occupy 3003 Perimeter Summit, an 18-story, 390,000-square-foot, Class A office tower located at 3003 Summit Blvd. Terms of the lease are still being negotiated, but AutoTrader would relocate 1,200 to 1,400 employees to Perimeter Summit, meaning the company would need to lease most of the building. “We had been looking for quite some time for a real estate solution that would accommodate both our current situation and some potential growth in the future,” Scott says. “We've grown at about 20 percent a year for the last 10 years that we've been in business, and, although this is a flat year, we anticipate growth going forward.” Scott adds that in making the decision it was also important for AutoTrader to be in a single building. The company is currently spread across several nearby buildings, including its current headquarters building within Peachtree Dunwoody Pavilion at 5775 Peachtree-Dunwoody Rd. CB Richard Ellis is responsible for leasing Perimeter Summit, which is owned by GE Asset Management. Autotrader.com is owned by locally based …

NEW YORK CITY — Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) has reached an agreement to sell its theme park division to The Blackstone Group for up to $2.7 billion. Under the agreement, Blackstone will purchase Busch Entertainment Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of AB InBev and the second largest theme park operator in the United States. The subsidiary operates 10 parks, including three SeaWorld parks in Orlando, Fla., San Antonio and San Diego; two Busch Gardens parks in Tampa, Fla., and Williamsburg, Va.; and other entertainment attractions in Orlando, Tampa, Williamsburg and Langhorne, Pa. The purchase price is comprised of a $2.3 billion cash payment at the time of closing and the right for AB InBev to participate in Blackstone's return on its initial investment, which is capped at $400 million. Acquisition financing is comprised of senior secured credit facilities that will be provided by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs Loan Partners and Mizuho Corporate Bank; as well as mezzanine financing that will be provided by Goldman Sachs Mezzanine Partners and funds managed by GSO Capital Partners. In a statement, Carlos Brito, CEO of AB InBev, said, “Busch Entertainment Corp. (BEC) is a high-performing asset …

NEW YORK CITY — New York City-based affordable housing lender Community Preservation Corp. (CPC) has launched a new public/private partnership that will provide $1 billion to multifamily building owners in New York City for energy-efficient building renovations. The CPC Green Initiative will be incorporated into the lender's existing multifamily loan program. It will identify energy-efficient improvements that can be made, add the improvements to other upgrades planned for the property and provide the financing to make the measures affordable. The CPC also plans to monitor the renovations on a long-term basis to measure effectiveness. For each project, CPC expects to provide a total of $80,000 to $100,000 per apartment, including $5,000 to $50,000 in energy retrofits and other improvements. The program intends to target low- and moderate-income multifamily buildings, including cooperatives. The private financing portion of the initiative will also include a variety of subsidy programs. Many green retrofitting funding programs already exist, but the CPC Green Initiative will combine the programs as a single resource. Of the $1 billion set aside for the program, $500 million will be provided by Freddie Mac and $300 million will come from the New York State and New York City public employee pension …