"stock"

Apple, the iconic information technology company whose products include the popular iPad and iPhone, plans to expand its presence in Austin by investing $304 million in a new campus that will create more than 3,600 new jobs over the next decade, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced Friday. The planned campus will more than double the size of Apple's workforce in Texas during the next decade, supporting the company's growing operations in the Americas with expanded customer support, sales and accounting functions for the region. In exchange for Apple's commitment to create these new jobs in Texas, the state has offered Apple an investment of $21 million over 10 years through the Texas Enterprise Fund. The agreement is contingent upon the finalization of contracts and a local incentive agreement with the City of Austin and Travis County. The city has proposed incentives of up to $8.6 million. “Apple is known for its bold innovation and game-changing designs,” the governor stated in a press release, “and the expansion of its Austin facility adds to the growing list of visionary high-tech companies that have found that Texas' economic climate is a perfect fit for its future.” The state’s relatively low taxes, reasonable and …

SAN FRANCISCO —Zynga Inc., a San Francisco-based online gaming company whose products include Words With Friends and FarmVille, has entered into an agreement to buy its corporate headquarters for $228 million. The office building, which is located at 650 Townsend St. in San Francisco, spans approximately 670,000 square feet. Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) plans to close the transaction in the second quarter. Founded in 2007, the company refers to itself as the world’s leading social game developer with 240 million average monthly users in 175 countries. The seller and current owner of the office property is 650 Townsend Associates, a Delaware-based limited liability company and affiliate of TMG Partners. Zynga will deposit $25 million in escrow in connection with the transaction, which can be retained by the seller if closing conditions are satisfied and Zynga fails to close the transaction. The escrow will be established through Oakland, Calif.-based Chicago Title Co. Zynga currently leases approximately 65 percent of the building. According to the purchase agreement, the office lease with the seller will either terminate or be assigned to an affiliate of Zynga’s at the close of the sale. The seller has retained Jones Lang LaSalle for brokerage services in the transaction, …

BRENTWOOD, TENN. — Brookdale Senior Living Inc., a Brentwood-based senior living owner and operating firm, has acquired nine seniors housing communities for $121.3 million. The properties include a total of 1,295 units. Brookdale previously operated the nine properties under long-term leases. At the request of the seller, the names and locations of the properties were not disclosed. The transaction comes at a time when there is uncertainty in the seniors housing market due to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ruling to cut hospital reimbursements by 11 percent, or $3.87 billion, in fiscal year 2012, which began Oct. 1, 2011. Although the ruling may have bridled sales of seniors housing in the short term, the long-term demand for these facilities is expected to grow. According to Marcus & Millichap’s most recent market report on seniors housing, persons age 65 and older makes up 13 percent of the U.S. population. During the next 10 years, that age cohort is estimated to reach 17 percent of the general U.S. population. Brookdale’s acquisition fulfills a stance made in the Marcus & Millichap report, which stated, “Uncertainty surrounding the Medicare ruling will temper sales velocity … but trading will persist as regional …

CHICAGO — Newly released results for the NCREIF Property Index (NPI) show total returns for the fourth quarter of 2011 were 2.96 percent, comprised of a 1.45 percent income return and a 1.51 percent capital appreciation return. For the year, the NPI returned 14.26 percent, split between 6.11 percent income and 7.80 percent appreciation. The NPI Index tracks approximately $284 billion of institutional real estate investments. While the NPI returns are down from the previous few quarters, they remain above the 30-year average of 2.1 percent and the 19-year average of 2 percent, according to Jeffrey Havsy, director of research for Chicago-based NCREIF. For the year, the NPI’s nearly 14.3 percent return outperformed both the S&P 500 and NAREIT Index. Since bottoming at the end of 2009, the NPI total returns have been positive each quarter for the past two years. Prices have rebounded 19 percent since bottoming in the first quarter of 2010. That is slightly more than half of the 29 percent loss that occurred from the peak in the first quarter 2008, to trough. The economic uncertainty of late summer continued into the fall, with questions about Europe and the strength of the U.S. recovery, explained Havsy. …