SAN DIEGO – The 317-room Courtyard San Diego Mission Valley/Hotel Circle has sold to Carey Watermark Investors for $85 million. The hotel is located on San Diego’s Hotel Circle in Mission Valley. The seller was a private investment group that employed Tarsadia Investments as its agent. The sale was executed by John Strauss, James Stockdale and Samantha Fisher of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.
SAN JOSE, CALIF. — The Sobrato Organization has sold the 508-unit Willow Lake Apartment Homes in San Jose for $148 million. Essex Property Trust Inc. (NYSE: ESS) purchased the community for approximately $291,000 per unit. Willow Lake was built in three phrases: 282 units in 1989, 126 units in 1990 and 100 units in 1997. The community offers a range of one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans averaging 929 square feet. The property features a large lake, two resort-style pools and three spas, as well as a fitness center, community lounge and business center. Stan Jones, Phil Saglimbeni, and Sal Saglimbeni with Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a multifamily brokerage division of Marcus & Millichap, represented the seller in the transaction. “With 12.5 percent rent growth over the last 12 months and an average occupancy of 96.4 percent, San Jose’s market fundamentals are strong and getting stronger,” says Jones. “Rental demand here is now at one of the highest levels since 2001, resulting in a year-over-year vacancy decline of 60 basis points. Furthermore, rental demand growth is predicted to exceed additions to existing stock.” The multifamily community is located with convenient access to Caltrain and the VTA Light Rail Network. It …
NEW YORK CITY — An eight-story parking garage in Greenwich Village has sold for $32 million, or $700 per square foot. The property is located on the southern side of East 13th Street, between University Place and Fifth Avenue. The 45,032-square-foot garage is ripe for redevelopment after the building's last tenant Hertz Rental Car vacated its space once its lease expired. Another former parking garage on East 11th Street was recently converted into a luxury condominium building. Alan Cohen, Steven Hornstock, Adam Maxson and Justin Strizzi of ABS Partners represented the seller in the transaction.
MIAMI BEACH, FLA. — RLJ Lodging Trust (NYSE: RLJ) has agreed to acquire the 231-room Hilton Cabana Miami Beach for $71.6 million, or about $310,000 per key. The property opened as a hotel in the early 1950s and was closed and gutted in 2007 in anticipation of a condominium conversion. The conversion did not materialize and the property went into foreclosure. In 2011, the current owners purchased the property to develop a new hotel, which they expect to complete and open in the fourth quarter of 2013 as a Hilton. “We are thrilled to be entering the Miami Beach market. We see this acquisition as an excellent opportunity to enter a gateway market with multiple demand generators,” says Thomas Baltimore Jr., president and CEO of RLJ Loding Trust, a real estate investment trust based in Bethesda, Md. “Furthermore, the Hilton brand is underrepresented in this market which should provide for outsized performance from this hotel.” The hotel is located directly on the beach along the 6200 block of Collins Avenue in Miami Beach. Several of the buildings along Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive are historic in nature. Therefore, the market's strict regulatory environment will make new development difficult, according to …
CHICAGO — In a bold move to gobble up high-quality apartment properties in major U.S. coastal markets, Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities Inc. have entered into an agreement with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to acquire Archstone Enterprise LP for approximately $6.5 billion in cash and stock. Under terms of the agreement announced Monday, Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR) will acquire approximately 60 percent of Archstone’s assets and liabilities and AvalonBay (NYSE: AVB) will acquire approximately 40 percent. The combined purchase price for the assets consists of $2.7 billion in cash, a fixed number ofshares of Equity Residential and AvalonBay’s common shares valued at $3.8 billion as of the market’s close on Friday, Nov. 23, and the assumption of approximately $9.5 billion of debt and $330 million of preferred equity. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013. Chicago-based Equity Residential will acquire 78 wholly owned stabilized operating properties, consisting of 23,110 apartment units with an average monthly rent of $2,492 per unit. The transaction values the residential portion of these stabilized operating properties at $367,003 per apartment unit. The capitalization rate is approximately 5 percent. Of the 78 properties acquired by Equity Residential, 24 are located in …
MINNEAPOLIS — Shorenstein Properties LLC has acquired the 1.6 million-square-foot 33 South Sixth, a mixed-use property which spans an entire city block in downtown Minneapolis, from Brookfield Office Properties Inc. The purchase price was $202.5 million, according to CNN Money. “This property is in a superior office and retail location in a dynamic city,” says Douglas Shorenstein, chairman and CEO of Shorenstein Properties. “Minneapolis is growing faster than many larger metro areas, and it has wisely invested in its future success by developing the infrastructure necessary to attract more businesses and residents to downtown.” The population of Minneapolis is growing at an annual rate of 1.4 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The development includes a 50-story office tower that features approximately 1.1 million square feet of Class A office space. Tenants include Target Corp., Stoel Rives and Meagher & Geer. The tower sits atop a 489,000-square-foot, four-story retail podium. “We are pleased to have Target, which has done so much for Minneapolis, as our major tenant. We plan to work with our tenants and the community to add value to the city and to this important property by using our extensive expertise operating Class A office properties,” says …
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A joint venture between Trinity Capital Advisors, Stockbridge Capital Group and Madison International Realty has acquired Toringdon 2, an office building in South Charlotte’s Toringdon Office Park. The joint venture owns four the park’s six office buildings including Toringdon 1, 2, 6 and 8 as well as 12 acres of land and the parking deck for Toringdon 3 and 5. Toringdon 2 is a 72,500-square-foot Class A office building with tenants Keller Williams, Coats and Metso Paper. The six-building Toringdon Office Park is a mixed-use master planned development with immediate access from I-485.
LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. — Storage Deluxe has acquired a development site at 3019 Northern Blvd. in Long Island City for $5.75 million. Zoning for the site will allow Storage Deluxe to construct a self-storage facility with approximately 120,000 buildable square feet. The site is in close proximity to the Upper East Side via the 59th Street Bridge. Randy Modell of Ariel Property Advisors and Steven Hornstock of ABS Partners Real Estate represented the seller, a private owner who previously ran a taxicab business on the site. They also represented the buyer.
NEW YORK CITY — The ownership group of 1290 Avenue of the Americas, a 2.1 million-square-foot office tower in Manhattan, has refinanced the property for $950 million. The 10-year, interest-only loan bears a 3.34 percent interest rate, and the net proceeds from the refinancing were approximately $522 million following the repayment of the existing loan and closing costs. New York City is among the tightest markets in terms of occupancy with a 10.1 percent vacancy rate in the third quarter, according to Reis. The New York City-based research firm credits the sound real estate fundamentals to the growth in hiring in the private sector. New York leads the country in terms of rental rates, which is $58.49 per square foot in the third quarter, more than double the average rate of the U.S. ($28.24 per square foot). The city’s rent is also trending upward, posting a 0.7 percent increase compared to the second quarter and a 3.5 percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2011. New York City landlords such as the owners of 1290 Avenue of the Americas have pulled back on tenant improvement (TI) allotments compared to last year, according to Jones Lang LaSalle. TI allowances are …
BOARDMAN, ORE. — In a $200 million expansion, ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) will construct an additional 192,000 square feet at its Lamb Weston frozen potato facility in Boardman. The addition of a new production line at the plant will increase capacity for making french fries and other frozen potato products. The expansion is expected to begin in early 2013 with completion slated for 2014. As consumer demand for frozen potato products continues to grow not only domestically, but internationally, this significant capacity increase is needed to fulfill Lamb Weston’s customer growth projections, according to company officials. The Boardman facility is strategically located with easy access to the Port of Morrow, further supporting domestic and international growth plans. The plant reflects ConAgra's green initiatives. The Energy Star-certified facility has reduced energy costs and increased recycling at the property. Additionally, the plant relies on reusable water. “Our need to expand is a testament to our strong customer partnerships, our great tasting french fries, and the outstanding work our employees do every day to create food people love,” says Rick Martin, vice president of global operations for ConAgra Foods Lamb Weston. “We specifically appreciate the efforts and support of the Columbia River …