ROYAL PALM BEACH, FLA. — CBRE has arranged the $28.6 million sale of Buckingham Plaza, a 91,000-square-foot retail power center in Royal Palm Beach in suburban Palm Beach County. The property was 100 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants such as T.J. Maxx, Michaels, Shoe Carnival and Tuesday Morning. The shopping center has cross connectivity with the Shoppes at Isla Verde. An affiliate of San Francisco-based Stockbridge Capital Group purchased Buckingham Plaza from an affiliate of Boca Raton-based PEBB Enterprises. Casey Rosen and Dennis Carson of CBRE represented the seller in the transaction.
SEATTLE — MetLife (NYSE: MET) has purchased Alley24, a 215,402-square-foot, Class A office building with ground floor retail in Seattle’s South Lake Union submarket, for $129.3 million. HFF marketed the property on behalf of the sellers, Vulcan Inc. and PEMCO Insurance Co. MetLife assumed an existing life insurance company loan as part of the purchase. Alley24 is located at 221 Yale Ave. N. Completed in 2006, the property was one of Seattle’s first mixed-use projects to earn LEED certification and features sustainable elements such as natural daylight, operable windows, energy-efficient water flow fixtures, automatic sun-tracking sun shades and environmentally sensitive building materials. The 85 percent-leased property serves as the corporate headquarters for architectural firm NBBJ. Additional tenants include Skanska and Cole & Weber. Alley24 offers tenants two roof decks and flexible floor plans. Todd Tydlaska, Nick Kucha and Michael Leggett led the HFF team. “Alley24 is one of the only true mixed-use assets in the South Lake Union submarket, a centrally located, high-amenity, pedestrian-oriented location that has maintained historical occupancy of more than 96 percent since it was completed,” says Tydlaska. MetLife’s stock price closed at $37.43 per share on Friday, Feb. 12, down from $50.86 one year prior. — …
NEW YORK CITY — Meridian Capital Group has arranged $35 million in permanent financing for a multifamily property located in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood. The borrower is Woods Management. The 10-year loan, which was provided by a local balance sheet lender, features a 3.5 percent fixed rate and interest-only payment for the full term. Located at 200 E. 15th St., the property features 213 residential units and 11,900 square feet of commercial space. Avi Weinstock and Michael Farkovits of Meridian’s New York City headquarters negotiated the financing.
STOCKBRIDGE, GA. — Omega Communities has unveiled plans for Lake Vista at Eagle’s Landing, a 150-unit continuing care retirement community (CCRC) in Stockbridge, approximately 20 miles southeast of Atlanta. Construction on the $45 million project is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2016 on a 10-acre plot. The CCRC will be located adjacent to Eagle’s Landing First Baptist Church. The new development is part of the church’s plan to create a “ministry village” on its property, which will include the Pregnancy Resource Center of Henry County, Eagle’s Landing Christian Counseling Center and Uniting Hope for Children, a foster and adoption ministry. Partners on the project include Greenbrier Development, Greenbrier Senior Living and three: living architecture. The developers expect to open the CCRC in the fourth quarter of 2017. Omega, a faith-based, luxury CCRC developer based in Alabama, currently has three other communities under development, all of which are in Florida.
NEW YORK CITY — SL Green Realty Corp. (NYSE: SLG), New York City’s largest commercial property owner, has completed the sale of two properties with a total value of $508 million. The first sale is the leased fee interest in 885 Third Ave. in Manhattan, also known as “The Lipstick Building,” for a gross sales price of $453 million, or $713 per square foot. The deal was originally announced in October. A partnership between Ceruzzi Properties and Shanhai Municipal Investment USA is the buyer, according to the Commercial Observer, a New York-based publication covering commercial real estate transactions. SL Green acquired the leased fee interest in 885 Third Ave. in a joint venture in 2007 at a gross asset valuation of $317 million and fully consolidated its position in 2010 at a valuation of $352 million. As part of the transaction, SL Green will retain a preferred equity position. The sale, executed at a capitalization rate of 3.8 percent, will generate net proceeds to SL Green of approximately $45 million. The second sale is the company’s 90 percent stake in the residential condominium at 248-252 Bedford Ave., a 72-unit multifamily building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at a gross asset valuation of $55 …
RALEIGH, N.C. — CBL & Associates Properties Inc. (NYSE: CBL) has closed on a new joint venture with DRA Advisors LLC that significantly reduces the retail real estate investment trust’s ownership stake in Triangle Town Center and Commons mall in Raleigh. The new joint venture acquired the property from an existing 50/50 joint venture between CBL and The Richard E. Jacobs Group for a total consideration of $174 million, including the assumption of a $171.1 million loan secured by the property. CBL now holds a 10 percent ownership position in the asset and is responsible for leasing and managing the property. DRA Advisors holds a 90 percent ownership position. The center, which was 96 percent occupied at the end of 2015, is anchored by North Carolina’s only Saks Fifth Avenue location, and is located at the intersection of Triangle Town Boulevard and I-540 near Capital Boulevard and Old Wake Forest Road. The $171.1 million loan on the property, which matured in December 2015, has been modified and restructured with an initial term of three years maturing in December 2018. The loan includes two one-year extension options available to the new joint venture for a final maturity date of December 2020. …
LONDONDERRY, N.H. — Calpine Corp. (NYSE: CPN) has purchased the Granite Ridge Energy Center power plant for $500 million. The natural gas-fired, combined-cycle plant is located at 21 N. Wentworth Ave. in the Southeast New Hampshire town of Londonderry, near the Massachusetts border. The seller was Granite Ridge Holdings. The power plant features two combustion turbines, two heat recovery steam generators and one steam turbine. It began operating in 2003. Granite Ridge has a nameplate generating capacity of 745 megawatts, resulting in a purchase price of approximately $671 per kilowatt. “The addition of Granite Ridge strategically enhances our footprint in New England,” says Thad Hill, Calpine’s president and CEO. “Now with approximately 2,000 megawatts of modern gas-fired capability in the region, Calpine is well positioned to provide clean, flexible and reliable energy and capacity to the market.” Calpine financed the transaction with proceeds from a $550 million first lien term loan, secured in December 2015. Calpine Corporation is America’s largest generator of electricity from natural gas and geothermal resources. Champion Energy, the company’s wholesale power operations and retail business, serves customers in 20 states and Canada. Calpine’s stock closed at $15.31 on Friday, Feb. 5, down from $22.16 one year …
Depending on who’s speaking, or what you’re reading, the forecasts for the 2016 Houston industrial real estate market run the full spectrum from bull to bear. Whether you are a landlord trying to fill a vacancy; a developer weighing the decision on whether to build or not; or an investor or a potential tenant looking for the best lease terms, your decision making is driven by a few key factors. These include the price of oil and where you think it is headed, the type of industrial facility you build/own/require, and in what submarket of Houston it is located. With current oil prices hovering in the low $30s per barrel, and threatening to go lower, you don’t have to look hard to find plenty of economists forecasting a rough 2016 for Houston industrial real estate. But that’s not the whole picture. No doubt the ongoing drilling downturn has hit the city hard. A recent survey was conducted of single-tenant manufacturing facilities ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 square feet in the West, Northwest and North Houston submarkets. The survey reported over 2.4 million square feet available in 120 buildings, with an additional 240,000 square feet under construction in 15 more buildings. …
NEW YORK CITY — Hersha Hospitality Trust (NYSE: HT) has signed definitive agreements to sell ownership interests in seven of its limited-service hotels in Manhattan for a total purchase price of $571.4 million. The Philadelphia-based hotel REIT sold its interests to joint venture partner Cindat Capital Management Ltd. Totaling 1,087 rooms, the hotels include Holiday Inn Express Times Square, Candlewood Suites Times Square, Hampton Inn Times Square, Hampton Inn Chelsea, Hampton Inn Herald Square, Holiday Inn Wall Street and Holiday Inn Express Wall Street. “Manhattan’s preeminence as a financial, cultural and technological hub, combined with the security and scarcity of its real estate, provides significant yield for a strategic, long-term partner such as Cindat,” says Neil Shah, president and chief operating officer of Hersha Hospitality. “We intend to utilize a portion of the sale proceeds to make hotel investments in Washington, D.C., and California, continue our share repurchase program and repay debt.” The proposed joint venture is structured with Cindat as the preferred joint venture partner holding a 70 percent ownership stake, while Hersha retains a 30 percent equity interest. Cushman & Wakefield represented Hersha in the transaction. Hersha will continue to fully own 10 hotels in New York City …
DELRAY BEACH, FLA. — Cushman & Wakefield has arranged the $18.5 million sale of Delray Distribution Center, a 185,624-square-foot, two-building industrial facility located at 420 and 440 S. Congress Ave. in Delray Beach. PetMeds, an online pharmacy offering pet medications and animal grooming products, purchased the facility from Stockbridge Capital. Christopher Thomson, Richard Etner, Christopher Metzger and Matthew McAllister of Cushman & Wakefield represented Stockbridge Capital in the transaction. PetMeds will relocate its office and distribution headquarters to Delray Distribution Center, which was fully leased at the time of sale. Other tenants include DHL and Levenger. Built in 1994, the property features 26-foot clear ceiling heights, dock-high and grade-level loading, a 150-foot truck court and an ESFR sprinkler system.