BATTLE CREEK, MICH. — Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) has agreed to sell select businesses in its cookie, snack and pastry lines to Italian candy giant Ferrero Group for $1.3 billion. The sale also includes six Kellogg-owned food manufacturing facilities across the United States, as well as a Kellogg-leased facility in Baltimore. The six food plants include two assets in Chicago; two in Florence and Louisville, Ky.; one in Allyn, Wash.; and another in Augusta, Ga. Ferrero and its affiliated companies will acquire Kellogg brands such as Keebler, Mother’s, Famous Amos, Murray’s and Murray’s Sugar Free, as well as cookies manufactured for Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. by Little Brownie Bakers. The sale also includes Kellogg’s fruit and fruit-flavored snacks, pie crusts and ice cream cones businesses. In 2018, these combined businesses recorded net sales of nearly $900 million and operating profit of approximately $75 million, according to Kellogg. The Battle Creek-based food manufacturer will retain the rest of its North American snacking businesses, including its crackers, salty snacks, healthy snacks and toaster pastries brands such as Pop-Tarts, Eggo, Cheez-It and Pringles. Kellogg and Ferrero expect the transaction to close in July. Evercore was lead advisor to Kellogg on the transaction, …
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Tanger Factory Outlets Center Inc. (NYSE: SKT) has sold four non-core outlet malls for $130.5 million. The four centers are located in Nags Head, N.C.; Ocean City, Md.; Park City, Utah; and Williamsburg, Iowa. The four properties were 95.8 percent occupied at the time of the sale. Greensboro-based Tanger Outlets expects to use $128.7 million of the proceeds to pay off existing debt. Tanger operates 40 outlet malls across 20 states and Canada. The company is planning to build a mall in downtown Nashville. The buyer(s) was not disclosed. Tanger Outlets’ stock price opened at $20.64 per share Monday, down from $22.16 per share one year ago.
NEW YORK CITY — Ready Capital Corp. (NYSE: RC) and Owens Realty Mortgage Inc. (NYSE: ORM) have officially completed their merger. As of March 29, ORM ceased to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The newly combined company will conduct business under the name Ready Capital Corp. and will continue to trade on the NYSE under the symbol RC. In addition, pursuant to the merger agreement, the size of Ready Capital’s board of directors has increased from six to seven members. Gilbert E. Nathan, an independent director of ORM, was appointed to Ready Capital’s board of directors. Ready Capital specializes in small- to medium-sized balance commercial loans. Maryland-based Owens Realty Mortgage is a specialty finance mortgage company that provides customized, short-term acquisition and transition capital to small balance and middle-market investors.
FREDERICK, MD. — EDGE Commercial Real Estate has brokered the $15.9 million sale of Patrick Center, a seven-story office building located at 30 W. Patrick St. in downtown Frederick. Lee Development Group bought the 67,000-square-foot building from West-End Atlas. Patrick Center was 90 percent leased at the time of the sale to tenants including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Miles & Stockbridge, Morgan Stanley and PNC Wealth Management. The asset, which was developed in 1987 and underwent renovations in 2015, includes a two-story atrium lobby and marble flooring. Joe Friedman of EDGE represented the buyer in the transaction, and Julian Etches and Joe Donegan of Scheer Partners represented the seller.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) will expand its Austin Tech Hub and create 800 new jobs by 2020, the company announced today. The tech giant will move into a 145,000-square-foot office space within The Domain, a 304-acre mixed-use development by Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate Group. Dallas-based TIER REIT is the project partner behind The Domain’s office buildings, which will eventually total 2.1 million square feet of Class A space. Amazon’s space will be housed within Domain 10, a 15-story, 299,673-square-foot building. The Austin Tech Hub is one of 17 such North American facilities operated by Amazon. More than 20,000 people are employed across the 17 hubs; Austin employees focus mainly on developing Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Business, Amazon devices, video game designing and advertising. Amazon already employs approximately 6,600 workers in the Austin area. This employee base includes more than 1,000 corporate-level employees, 3,000 employees in the nearby San Marcos warehouses and 2,600 workers through Whole Foods, according to The Austin American-Statesman. Amazon has created more than 22,000 jobs in Texas since 2011, including more than 1,000 in the past four years, according to Terry Leeper, general manager of Amazon’s Austin Tech Hub. During that same period, the …
STOCKTON, CALIF. — CT Realty has sold a newly built, 1.1 million-square-foot industrial facility in Stockton. Bentall Kennedy Limited Partnership, on behalf of its U.S. Core Fund, acquired the asset for $105.3 million. The property is the first phase of development at the 342-acre NorCal Logistics Center. Located at 4532 Newcastle Road, the facility was fully leased to Amazon at the time of sale. The second phase of the NorCal Logistics is under construction and includes 2.7 million square feet spread across five buildings in a mix of speculative and build-to-suit projects. The next building — a 709,556-square-foot facility — is slated for completion at the end of August.
TORONTO — WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust, a publicly traded company based in Toronto, has increased its U.S. holdings by agreeing to acquire a 13-property logistics portfolio for approximately US$226 million. The industrial buildings total 2.2 million square feet and are situated in infill submarkets across the United States. The property names and addresses were not disclosed, but WPT says the portfolio will increase its scale in Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. The portfolio also includes assets in three new markets for the REIT, including Los Angeles and Miami. Additionally, WPT has confirmed that eight of the assets are leased to a single tenant and the other five are leased to multiple tenants. “We are very pleased to source a high-quality portfolio acquisition that advances the REIT’s strategic priorities to add scale and diversification with a focus on markets and properties that have the greatest potential to drive long-term growth,” says Scott Frederiksen, CEO of WPT. WPT plans to fund the acquisition with cash on hand and proceeds from its senior unsecured credit facility. In anticipation of the purchase, WPT has received lender commitments to amend and extend the credit facility from US$300 million to $450 million. The REIT expects …
ATLANTA AND DALLAS — Cousins Properties Inc. (NYSE: CUZ) and Dallas-based TIER REIT Inc. (NYSE: TIER), two of the larger office development and investment firms in the country, have entered into an all-stock merger agreement. The combined company, which will retain the Cousins name, will have an equity market capitalization of $5.9 billion and a total market cap of $7.8 billion. Following the merger, the company will continue to function as a Class A office REIT with a combined portfolio of approximately 21 million square feet spread across various markets in the Southeast and Southwest. Both firms are active in leading office markets like Atlanta, where Cousins is based, as well as Charlotte, Dallas and Austin. Cousins owns several trophy assets in Atlanta’s Buckhead area, including 3348 and 3350 Peachtree, which have about 670,000 square feet combined, as well as 816 Congress and 303 Colorado in downtown Austin. TIER REIT owns 3354 Peachtree, a 560,000-square-foot building in Atlanta, as well as the 40-story Burnett Plaza in Fort Worth and the 1.5 million-square-foot Domain office building in Austin. Under terms of the agreement, Cousins will issue 2.98 shares of common stock in exchange for each share of TIER stock. That rate …
In 1987, Austin was a relatively quiet market where the major industries were higher education and state government, along with some large technology companies like IBM. Fast forward to 2019 where Austin continues to make national headlines, receiving high accolades as a top place to live and a leading city for millennial growth. This transformation — coupled with an increasing number of companies choosing to move or expand in Austin — begs the question: Why Austin? How did the Texas capital go from a fairly sleepy town to one of the hottest markets in the country? What really accounts for this seismic shift and what does the future hold? The Office Boom Begins In 2004, after the dot-com bust hit Austin, a group of private business leaders felt compelled to take the destiny of the city into their own hands with the creation of Opportunity Austin within the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. Opportunity Austin was launched with the goal of creating 72,000 regional jobs and increasing regional payrolls by $2.9 billion within five years. To do this, the regional business community invested $14.4 million in the program. These funds allowed the Austin Chamber to increase initiatives for corporate recruitment …
PLANO, TEXAS — Florida-based TerraCap Management LLC has purchased Preston Park Financial Center, a 367,543-square-foot office property located in the northeastern Dallas suburb of Plano. The Class A complex offers amenities such as a fitness center, deli, conference center and tenant lounge. Gary Carr and Robert Hill of CBRE represented the seller, a joint venture between Griffin Partners and San Francisco-based Stockbridge Capital Group, in the transaction. Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co. has been hired to lease and manage the property. IberiaBank provided debt for the acquisition on behalf of TerraCap.