ROSEMONT, ILL. AND HOLLAND, MICH. — Wintrust Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: WTFC) and Macatawa Bank Corp. (NASDAQ: MCBC) have entered into a definitive merger agreement for Wintrust to acquire Macatawa in an all-stock transaction valued at $510.3 million. Macatawa is the parent company of Macatawa Bank, a Michigan state-chartered bank that is headquartered in Holland, Mich., and operates a network of 26 full-service branches. Macatawa, which was founded in 1997, had approximately $2.7 billion in assets, $2.4 billion in deposits and $1.3 billion in loans as of Dec. 31. The purchase price of $14.85 per share represents a nearly 50 percent premium to Macatawa’s closing stock price on Monday, April 15. The transaction is subject to approval by banking regulators, approval of Macatawa’s shareholders and other customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2024. Rosemont, Ill.-based Wintrust, which maintains approximately $57 billion in assets, operates 15 community bank subsidiaries with over 170 banking locations in the greater Chicago and southern Wisconsin markets.
SAN ANTONIO — Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. (NYSE: SHO) has agreed to acquire the 630-room Hyatt Regency San Antonio Riverwalk in San Antonio. An affiliate of Hyatt Hotels Corp. is selling the asset for $230 million. The hotel is located centrally on San Antonio’s River Walk, a 15-mile pedestrian street that runs alongside the San Antonio River and is lined by restaurants, shops, museums and theaters. The site is adjacent to the $500 million Alamo Visitor Center and Museum development, which is currently under construction. The hotel recently underwent $37 million in guest room renovations and offers amenities including a fitness center, swimming pool, spa and a 40,000-square-foot event space. The property is also home to a number of onsite restaurants, bars and shops. The acquisition includes nearly two acres of riverfront land and a 516-space parking garage. The buyer expects to complete the transaction in late April. Sunstone is funding the transaction through cash on hand, using a portion of the proceeds from the company’s $370 million disposition of the Boston Park Plaza hotel last October. Hyatt will continue to manage the hotel under its Hyatt Regency banner and will pay approximately $8 million in advance to secure …
PHOENIX — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) has announced plans to build a third semiconductor plant on its TSMC Arizona campus in North Phoenix. In connection with the announcement, the U.S. Department of Commerce has entered into a preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) with the Taiwanese company to provide $6.6 billion in direct funding through the CHIPS and Science Act. The PMT also allows for the federal government to provide TSMC with up to $5 billion in loans. The company plans to apply for U.S. Treasury Department Investment Tax Credits of up to 25 percent of the qualified capital expenditure at TSMC Arizona. Additionally, $50 million of the CHIPS funding at TSMC Arizona will be used in the training and development of the local workforce, according to a statement issued by President Joe Biden. The third factory will increase TSMC’s investment at the Arizona manufacturing site to more than $65 billion. TSMC is making the site the largest foreign direct investment in Arizona history and the largest foreign direct investments in a greenfield project in U.S. history. The company estimates that the three facilities will employ roughly 6,000 direct high-tech jobs, 20,000 construction jobs and tens of thousands of …
SHAWNEE, KAN. — Five Guys will open a 2,300-square-foot restaurant at 10 Quivira Plaza in Shawnee, approximately 10 miles southwest of Kansas City. The location, slated to open in June, marks the 13th restaurant for Five Guys in the Kansas City area. Erin Johnston of Copaken Brooks represented ownership on an internal basis. Five Guys joins other retailers Westlake Hardware, Big Biscuit, Vintage Stock and Price Chopper at the shopping center, which is located on the northwest corner of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Quivira Road.
NEW YORK CITY AND DENVER — Private equity behemoth Blackstone (NYSE: BX) has agreed to acquire AIR Communities (NYSE: AIRC) for $10 billion in an all-cash deal that would take the Denver-based multifamily REIT private. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter. AIR Communities, which is formally named Apartment Income REIT Corp., owns 76 multifamily properties totaling roughly 27,000 units across 10 states and Washington D.C. The properties are primarily concentrated in coastal markets such as Los Angeles, Miami and Boston. Under the terms of the deal, Blackstone will also assume all of AIR Communities’ outstanding debt. Blackstone also plans to invest more than $400 million to maintain and improve the existing communities in the portfolio. The purchase price of $39.12 per share represents a premium of 25 percent to AIR Communities’ closing share price on April 5, 2024, the last full day of trading prior to the announcement. The price also represents a 25 percent premium to AIR Communities’ weighted average share price over the previous 30 days. “AIR Communities represents the highest quality, large-scale apartment portfolio we have ever acquired and is located in markets where multifamily fundamentals are strong,” says Nadeem Meghji, global co-head …
HOUSTON — Partners Real Estate has brokered the sale of a 35,622-square-foot cold storage building located at 12634 East Freeway in Houston. The property, which was originally built in 1960 and expanded in the early 2000s, is located east of the downtown area and features 28-foot clear heights. Wyatt Huff and Hunter Stockard of Partners represented the seller, Mims Investment Inc., in the transaction. The buyer and sales price were not disclosed.
LOS ANGELES — Blackstone Real Estate has sold a portfolio of industrial properties in Southern California to Rexford Industrial Realty Inc. (NYSE: REXR) for a total of $1 billion. The portfolio comprises 48 properties and approximately 3 million square feet, for a sales price of $332 per square foot. At the time of the sale, the portfolio was 98 percent leased. Almost all of the properties are located within infill submarkets in Los Angeles and Orange counties. A list of the properties was not released. Rexford Industrial, headquartered in Los Angeles, financed the transaction using proceeds from its recent exchangeable senior note offerings and cash on hand. According to Michael Frankel and Howard Schwimmer, co-CEOs of Rexford Industrial, the REIT’s current acquisition pipeline also includes $300 million of investments under contract or accepted offer. “Infill Southern California is the nation’s highest-barrier and lowest supply industrial market,” said Frankel and Schwimmer via a press release. “These strategic investments in exceptionally well-located, high-quality assets represent a significant opportunity to drive accretive cash flow growth, increased operating margins and long-term value creation.” Rexford is already a major industrial investor, with its entire 422-property, 49.1 million-square-foot portfolio located in Southern California. The company’s stock price closed at $50.30 per share …
By Noel Liston, Core Industrial Realty The 10 major submarkets that comprise the broader Chicagoland industrial market all performed at or above expectations in 2023. While absorption was not as robust as the pandemic boom that saw back-to-back record years, 2023 was a solid year for absorption and a strong year in rental growth throughout the broader market. Significant deliveries of speculative developments were offset with solid absorption by manufacturing, assembly and food & beverage-related industries that picked up the slack left from a less enthusiastic e-commerce market. Broadly speaking, the greater Chicagoland industrial market started 2024 with a vacancy rate of ±7.3 percent. This vacancy rate is up from the low 5 percent range the market averaged for the second half of 2023. Assuming equilibrium (a market that favors neither tenant nor landlord) for the market is historically a ±6 percent vacancy rate, the current vacancy rate can be deceiving. This is, in large part, due to the jump in vacancy as a result of the delivery of a significant amount of larger, speculative industrial developments in certain submarkets where land zoned for industrial with relatively good access to a major highway or interstate was still available. Further, …
CHESTERFIELD, MO. — The St. Louis Jewish Community Center has selected HDA Architects to complete a renovation design for its Marilyn Fox Building in the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield. Plans call for a new adult day center, locker rooms, lobby and gathering space. The gymnasium, fitness center and early childhood center, along with the building’s exterior, will also be revamped. Additional improvements will include expanded kitchen facilities, dedicated pickleball courts and infrastructure upgrades such as security and communications systems. Originally constructed in 1996, the 87,930-square-foot building previously underwent a minor renovation in 2008. Construction is slated to begin in mid-April and to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2025. ISC Contracting is the general contractor. Additional project partners include Avison Young, ODA studio, KPFF Consulting Engineers, Engenuity, Stock & Associates Consulting Engineers and Landscape Technologies.
The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) promises to greatly expand the property industry’s reach and abilities. Generative AI can offer suggestions, compile reports and create various types of content, ranging from video to software code. In the commercial real estate world, generative AI has the potential to harness myriad information to help owners, managers, lenders and investors assess portfolio performance, uncover operating risks and identify opportunities, among other activities, says Jeff Salladin, a managing director with Dallas-based private debt fund Revere Capital. But companies need to begin preparing for it now, he adds. “Commercial real estate can be slow to change — it wasn’t that long ago that mortgage brokers were sending us deals via overnight mail,” observes Salladin. “But whether they’re analysts or leadership teams, someone in your shop should be dipping their toe in the water and testing out AI.” Salladin also points out the need to proceed cautiously with this new technology as it evolves. Humans with expertise need to review what AI generates for the commercial real estate field. AI can narrow the focus of many tasks but cannot substitute for human reviewers or the human ability to critically apply information gleaned. AI Benefits Salladin …