ORLANDO, FLA. — The U.S. economy and the stock market are sending opposite messages to the commercial real estate community, causing many industry professionals to scratch their heads. On the one hand, the leading economic indicators are solid. Monthly gains in nonfarm payroll employment averaged 280,000 during the fourth quarter of 2015, and the national unemployment rate ended the year at 5 percent. Average hourly earnings rose 2.5 percent in 2015, a sign that wage growth is accelerating. The Federal Reserve’s decision in December to raise short-term rates by a quarter percentage point — the first such move in nearly 10 years — was an acknowledgment that the recovery has legs. Real gross domestic product grew a modest 2.4 percent in 2015. But the Dow has fallen about 2,000 points in the last couple of weeks, and the 10-year Treasury yield has dropped approximately 40 basis points during the same period. Meanwhile, several of Europe’s central banks have cut key interest rates below zero. The Bank of Japan did the same in late January to stimulate its economy. Add to the mix the concerns about China’s economic growth and conflict in the Middle East, and it’s easy to see why …
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WOODSTOCK, GA. — Transwestern’s Southeast investment services group has arranged the $13 million sale of East Cherokee Village Shoppes, a Publix-anchored shopping center located at 6236 Holly Springs Parkway in Woodstock, a northern suburb of Atlanta. New Orleans-based PMAT Cos. acquired the 128,667-square-foot property for roughly $101 per square foot from a private seller. The asset was developed in 2003. Fred Victor and Kevin Markwordt of Transwestern represented the seller in the transaction.
NEW YORK CITY — Trinity Place Holdings Inc. (NYSE MKT: TPHS), a real estate investment and management firm, has unveiled plans for a 50-story mixed-use project located at 77 Greenwich St. in New York City’s Financial District in Lower Manhattan. The plan calls for the 285,000-square-foot project to feature 85 luxury residential condominiums and 7,000 square feet of retail space on Greenwich Street, as well as a 476-seat elementary school serving District 2. Trinity Place, owner and developer of the project, declined to disclose the project’s development costs. Slated for completion in 2019, the development site includes the former Syms clothing store and the Dickey House, a Federal-style townhouse constructed in the early 1800s. Trinity Place plans to restore the exterior of the Dickey House and the interior will be adaptively reused. “We are happy to share that we anticipate construction of the project starting this year,” says Matthew Messinger, president and CEO of Trinity Place Holdings. “We are also proud to be working with the New York City School Construction Authority in connection with their efforts to bring a much needed new public school to Lower Manhattan. As Downtown Manhattan continues to see more than $30 billion of public …
HFF Arranges $110M Acquisition Loan for Largest Refrigerated Warehouse in North America
by John Nelson
RICHLAND, WASH. — HFF has arranged a $110 million acquisition loan for the largest refrigerated warehouse in North America. Completed in 2015, the Class A, 456,412-square-foot cold storage warehouse and distribution facility is located at 2800 Polar Way in Richland. Mark West, Brandon Chavoya and Coler Yoakam led HFF’s team in arranging the loan. The team worked on behalf of the borrower, an affiliate of Lexington Realty Trust (NYSE: LXP), to place the 10-year, fixed-rate loan with MetLife Agricultural Investments. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but Lexington Realty Trust’s SEC filings show the price as $155 million. A wholly owned subsidiary of Preferred Freezer Services, a cold storage provider, leases the facility on a long-term, triple net basis. The property consists of 312,755 square feet of freezer capacity that stores product at -10° F and 94,930 square feet of medium temperature mezzanine dock space. Additional building features include an 11,900-square-foot, two-story office; 6,492-square-foot, two-story equipment/utility room; and 30,335 square feet of mezzanine dock space. At the peak, the freezer has a wall height of 115 feet with an interior clear height of 108 feet, which allows for approximately 11 stories of vertical product storage. Additionally, there are 31 manually operated …
NEW YORK CITY — Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has made an unsolicited offer to buy the majority stake of mall owner Rouse Properties Inc. that it doesn’t already own for $17 in cash per share, or approximately $657 million. Brookfield currently owns about 33 percent of Rouse’s outstanding shares. The proposed price represents a premium of 26 percent to the closing price of Rouse shares on Jan. 15, and a 19 percent premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average trading price of Rouse shares. The proposal was presented to the Rouse Board of Directors on Jan. 16. Rouse Properties (NYSE: RSE), a New York City-based publicly traded real estate investment trust, is a regional mall owner. The company’s portfolio includes 35 malls and retail centers in 21 states encompassing approximately 24.1 million square feet. Rouse was created in 2012 when General Growth Properties Inc. spun off a portfolio of 30 malls. According to the Wall Street Journal, Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM)(TSX:BAM.A)(EURONEXT:BAMA) acquired a 33 percent stake in the Rouse portfolio by leading a $30 billion restructuring of General Growth Properties to help it emerge from bankruptcy in 2010. Brookfield Asset Management describes itself as a global alternative asset manager with …
SAN BRUNO, CALIF. — Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE: HPP) has sold Bayhill Office Center in San Bruno to online video distribution company YouTube for $215 million, or $388 per square foot. The sale was an all-cash, off-market transaction. YouTube is a division of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) headquartered in San Bruno, 12 miles south of San Francisco. It was founded in 2005 and was purchased by Google the next year. The campus is adjacent to YouTube’s existing headquarters. YouTube is San Bruno’s largest private employer, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, with 800 employees. YouTube has not announced any plans for the new space, but has been tweaking its business strategy. In October, the company launched YouTube Red, a paid subscription service. Hudson Pacific acquired the 554,328-square-foot Class A office campus as part of the San Francisco Peninsula and Silicon Valley portfolio purchased in April 2015 from Blackstone. Hudson Pacific Properties acquires, repositions, develops and operates office, media and entertainment properties in West Coast markets. Founded in 2006 as Hudson Capital, the company went public in 2010 as a REIT. Hudson Pacific’s portfolio spans 16.8 million square feet, including land for development, in California and the Pacific Northwest. Google’s stock …
BENTONVILLE, ARK. — Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is set to close 269 stores in the U.S. and globally. In total, the stores to be shuttered represent less than 1 percent of both global square footage and revenue. Wal-Mart Stores will close 154 locations nationally, including 102 of the company’s smallest format stores, Walmart Express. Click here for a full list of the stores set to close. Walmart intends to focus on strengthening the company’s Supercenters, optimizing Neighborhood Markets, growing e-commerce and expanding pickup services for customers. Also included in the closures are 23 Neighborhood Markets, 12 Supercenters, seven stores in Puerto Rico, six discount centers and four Sam’s Clubs. The company is closing 115 stores internationally, including 60 loss-making stores in Brazil and 55 primarily small, loss-making stores in other Latin American markets. Domestically, Wal-Mart intends to open 50 to 60 Supercenters and 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets in fiscal 2017. Sam’s Club also intends to open seven to 10 new locations. The financial impact of these closures is estimated to be approximately 20 to 22 cents of diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, with approximately 19 to 20 cents expected to impact the fourth quarter of …
BOSTON — GE (NYSE: GE) has selected Boston for its corporate headquarters location. The global tech and industrial giant has been considering the relocation of its headquarters from Fairfield, Conn., for more than three years. The company began its formal review in June 2015, with a list of 40 potential locations. Boston was selected after evaluating the business ecosystem, talent, long-term costs, quality of life for employees, connections with the world and proximity to other important company assets. “GE aspires to be the most competitive company in the world,” says Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE. “Today, GE is a $130 billion high-tech global industrial company, one that is leading the digital transformation of industry. We want to be at the center of an ecosystem that shares our aspirations. Greater Boston is home to 55 colleges and universities. Massachusetts spends more on research and development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically fluent workforce focused on solving challenges for the world. We are excited to bring our headquarters to this dynamic and creative city.” The headquarters will be located in the Seaport District of Boston. Employees will move to a temporary location in …
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Stratus Properties Inc. (NASDAQ: STRS) has completed the $150 million refinancing of its mixed-use development in downtown Austin, which includes W Austin Hotel & Residences and Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater. The W Austin Hotel is a high-rise luxury hotel located in downtown Austin’s Second Street District and a half-mile from the Austin Convention Center. Amenities at the hotel include a spa, business center and multi-room lobby bar. The hotel is also located next door to Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater, a music venue and production facility with a 2,700-seat capacity. Concerts at the theater are taped and aired each year on PBS affiliates nationwide. Goldman Sachs Mortgage Co. provided the 10-year, non-recourse term loan with interest fixed at 5.58 percent and payable monthly based on a 30-year amortization. In September, Stratus purchased the interest in the property of its former partner, Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund II. The purchase was based on a net price of approximately $187.2 million. The trailing 12-month net operating income (NOI) for the W Austin Property at the time Stratus purchased Canyon’s interest was $15.6 million, which equates to a capitalization rate of 8.33 percent. Stratus refinanced …
PLANO, TEXAS — Berkadia has arranged $18.4 million in financing for H Mart Town Center, a grocery-anchored retail property in Plano. Joseph Hevey Jr. of Berkadia’s Dallas office secured the refinancing through Morgan Stanley Bank, N.A. The loan features a 4.8 percent fixed interest rate with three years of interest-only payments, followed by a 30-year amortization schedule for the remaining seven years. The borrower, RPI H Mart Town Center, will use the loan to refinance existing debt on the location. Located at 3420 K Ave., the property was 94 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including H Mart, Fresenius and Prime Overstock. The 211,718-square-foot property sits on 17.5 acres less than two miles north of downtown Plano.