DALLAS AND GREENWICH, CONN. — CBRE Group Inc. has created a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) known as CBRE Acquisition Holdings Inc. to merge with solar energy provider Altus Power Inc. and take the company public in a transaction valued at $1.58 billion. Altus Power is a Connecticut-based owner and operator of clean energy that has acquired or constructed more than 200 solar energy generation facilities across the country since its founding in 2009. CBRE Group, based in Dallas, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services company with 7 billion square feet of commercial real estate under management. Under the terms of the agreement, a cohort of institutional investors including existing owner Blackstone Credit will purchase $275 million in Altus Power common stock through a private investment in public equity (PIPE) agreement. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to customary closing conditions The transaction is expected to generate gross proceeds of up to approximately $678 million of cash for Altus Power, which will keep its existing leadership team in place as company ownership shifts. The entity will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbol “AMPS.” “CBRE is excited to …
NEW YORK CITY — Global development and investment firm Related Cos. has entered into an agreement with Miami-based caregiving agency CareMax Inc. (NASDAQ: CMAX) to build and operate new medical facilities across the country. The facilities will offer a comprehensive suite of medical services for senior citizens. The new partnership has a stated goal of developing healthcare facilities that include, but are not limited to, locations within or proximate to affordable housing communities that are owned by Related Cos. The new entity will begin its venture with the development of three medical centers in New York City that will be located in The Bronx, the Far Rockaway area of Queens and East Harlem. All three of these facilities are expected to be operational by some point next year. Related and CareMax plan to begin development of at least 15 new centers in 2022, 25 new facilities in 2023 and 35 new centers in 2024. As part of the agreement, Related has purchased $5 million of Class A common stock from CareMax at a price of $10 per share. The stock price of CareMax opened at $13.27 per share on Wednesday, July 13, up from its mid-September initial public offering price …
FAIRFAX, VA. — Bloomingdale’s has announced plans to open its first Bloomie’s store at the Mosaic District shopping center in Fairfax on August 26. Bloomingdale’s is the latest retailer to unveil an updated store concept designed to reflect the changing wants and needs of shoppers following the COVID-19 pandemic. The new, smaller-footprint concept will span 22,000 square feet and feature an evolving mix of merchandise from top brands alongside tech-enabled stylist services and a restaurant. A standard Bloomingdale’s location spans approximately 200,000 square feet. Fresh deliveries from a mix of designers already featured in Bloomingdale’s stores and emerging labels will come in multiple times per week. These goods will be displayed in rotating carts, allowing for new products to be seen by customers on each visit. Bloomie’s stores will offer men’s and women’s apparel; denim; activewear; intimates; shoes; handbags; beauty products; and accessories, including eyewear and fine jewelry. Brands set for inclusion at Bloomie’s include Rag & Bone, Stella McCartney, Jimmy Choo, Gucci, Dior, Prada, Marc Jacobs, See by Chloe, and more. The new concept will feature a returns dropbox; curbside pick-up; online shopping; and product customization, personalization and alteration services at a centralized front desk. Bloomie’s will also offer stylist services. …
CINCINNATI — Phillips Edison & Co. Inc. (PECO), an internally managed REIT, has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer 17 million shares of its common stock to the public. The Cincinnati-based shopping center owner also intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2.5 million shares of its common stock. The initial public offering (IPO) price is expected to be between $28 and $31 per share. Adjusting for the one-for-three reverse stock split that was executed on July 2, the IPO price would be expected to be between $9.33 and $10.33 per share. PECO expects to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “PECO.” The company says it will use the net proceeds from the proposed offering to pay off its $375 million unsecured term loan, fund external growth with property acquisitions and fund other general corporate uses. As of March 31, PECO owned equity interests in 300 shopping centers comprising 31 million square feet across 31 states.
DEERFIELD, ILL. — Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ: WBA), the company behind pharmacy retailers Walgreens and Duane Reade, predicts a 10 percent increase in adjusted earnings per share this fiscal year. The Deerfield-based firm’s new CEO, Roz Brewer, says she plans to make investments in the coming months, including digital automation and technology efforts. Additionally, Walgreens and VillageMD have agreed to open hundreds of doctor offices in drugstores, which will span around 3,300 square feet each. VillageMD says it will find staff members and operate these clinics, and over the next five years, the company plans to open doctor offices in 500 to 700 stores. Walgreens reported an uptick in total sales for its fiscal third quarter, which ended May 31. The pharmacy brand attributed the rise in sales to the COVID-19 vaccine shots, in which at least 55 percent of the U.S. population has gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, as of Sunday, July 4. The company says it has given more than 25 million COVID-19 shots, and that the COVID vaccines peaked in the third quarter. Based on data from financial technology company Refinitiv, Walgreens saw a $1.51 adjusted in earnings per share versus the $1.17 …
By Kevin Fryman, Executive Vice President, Hanley Investment Group British entrepreneur and adventurer Sir Richard Branson, head of Virgin Group Ltd., said, “Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change.” Certainly, as retailers grappled with the impact of COVID-19 restrictions, those that could quickly pivot and adapt were the winners. Even Charles Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Looking back on the past few years in retail, American consumers were already shifting their purchasing habits. These shifts include experience-spending versus material goods and homes; casual fashion in response to more relaxed dress codes; convenient online ordering, delivery services and drive-thru pick-up for time-starved consumers; as well as the rise of e-commerce, mostly in the form of competition from Amazon.com and Walmart. However, once the lockdowns occurred in response to the pandemic, emerging trends such as online ordering, mobile delivery and omnichannel became permanent. Other 2020 trends that made nearly daily headlines were the number of retailers and restaurant companies that had filed for bankruptcy or were closing stores. Coresight Research reported 8,953 closures last year as the COVID-19 pandemic …
NEW YORK CITY — Locally based real estate giant SL Green Realty Corp. (NYSE: SLG) has received a $3 billion loan for the refinancing of One Vanderbilt, a 1.7 million-square-foot office tower in the East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan. Designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates and located across the street from Grand Central Station, One Vanderbilt rises 77 stories and 1,401 feet, making it the tallest building in Midtown Manhattan. SL Green developed the property, which carried a price tag of $3.3 billion, in partnership with Houston-based Hines and the National Pension Service of Korea. One Vanderbilt includes 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. In terms of tenant amenities, the building features a 30,000-square-foot space with meeting areas, a club-style lounge, curated food offerings and an outdoor terrace that faces Grand Central. A consortium of financial institutions led by Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs provided the debt, which was structured with a 10-year term and all-in fixed interest rate of approximately 2.94 percent. Other lenders that contributed to the financing included Bank of America, Bank of China, Bank of Montreal, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays Capital Real Estate Inc. and Citi. Chatham Financial acted as an advisor …
By Joel Marcus, partner, Marcus & Pollack LLP What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? The longstanding physics conundrum encapsulates the situation in which New York City property owners currently find themselves, and for better or worse, they’re about to discover the answer to the age-old question. City government has squeezed increasing sums of property taxes from its real estate stock in each of the past 25 years, but the pandemic is changing everything. The basic fact is that 53 percent of New York City revenues come from real estate taxes. Fueled by rising rents that are tied to high costs of new construction, the city property tax base has grown and enjoyed record tax revenues in recent years. Total real property tax revenue was almost $30 billion in 2020, according to the city’s annual property tax report. Historically speaking, no major event in recent memory has been responsible for a pause in the year-over-year tax increases — not the Financial Crisis of 2018, nor Hurricane Sandy, nor even the events of September 11. It seems as though only a global pandemic has this particular power. COVID-19 has affected every element of New York City’s economy, but …
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK CITY — Ventas Inc. (NYSE: VTR) has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire New Senior Investment Group (NYSE: SNR), a New York City-based owner of independent living communities across the country. The deal between these two seniors housing real estate investment trusts (REITs) is valued at $2.3 billion, including $1.5 billion of debt. The transaction will bolster the number of independent living communities for Ventas, which as of March 31 owned (fully or partially) 1,200 properties. As of first-quarter 2021, 48 percent of Ventas’ portfolio was classified as independent living. Post acquisition, Ventas expects independent living will comprise 58 percent of its portfolio. New Senior currently owns 103 properties across 36 states, with a large concentration clustered in California, North Carolina, Florida and Oregon. The portfolio was a little more than 80 percent occupied as of May 31, and the average age of residents was 81. The only New Senior property that isn’t independent living is Watermark at Logan Square, a continuing care retirement community located in Philadelphia. The acquisition will deepen Ventas’ relationship with seniors housing operators such as Atria Senior Living and Holiday Retirement, which announced last week their plans to merge …
Atlanta is a hot spot for investing in multifamily assets as the market emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The apartment market’s fundamentals, including occupancy and rent growth, have held up considerably well, making the market extremely attractive to buyers. Because the Atlanta market has an abundance of capital looking to be deployed, prices are being driven up significantly and cap rates driven down. Multifamily has outperformed many other commercial real estate sectors during the pandemic, considered a “hot-ticket asset class” by investors, which leads to new capital swarming the Atlanta apartment market. Many multifamily properties are now routinely trading at a sub-4 percent cap rate, indicative of the vast amount of available capital and the confidence that investors have in the product type. However, rather than clearing the market and searching for as many prospective buyers as they can, sellers are looking at a smaller subset of dominant, well-known investors that they know will deliver and get the transaction done. They are seeking six to 12 well-recognized, established players that can execute a deal at top prices. It is an extremely competitive process, and all buyers know they have to swing high on pricing. Oftentimes, no one broker is selected …