DALLAS — AECOM (NYSE: ACM) will relocate its global headquarters from Los Angeles to Dallas, the engineering and infrastructure consulting giant said in a statement earlier this week. Beginning on Oct. 1, select corporate leaders, including CEO Troy Rudd, will join the 1,200-plus employees who currently work at AECOM’s Dallas office at 13355 Noel Road, as well as the firm’s other offices across Texas. About 2,500 employees will continue to work in the California offices, including Los Angeles. The company cited the market’s talent pool for engineering and infrastructure consulting as a key factor in its decision to relocate, while also crediting the “additional benefits as a corporate hub” that Dallas offers. AECOM, a Fortune 500 company, accrued $13.2 billion in revenue in its 2020 fiscal year. The company’s stock price closed at $63.19 per share on Wednesday, Aug. 18, up from $38.19 per share a year ago.
BENTONVILLE, ARK. — Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has seen an increase in revenue during its fiscal second quarter of 2021, which ended on July 31. Walmart’s total revenue was $141 billion, an increase of 2.4 percent year-over-year. According to Refinitiv, the discount retailer’s earnings per share was $1.78 adjusted, while it was expected to be $1.57, and the company’s revenue was $141.05 billion, higher than the $137.17 billion expected. The retailer revised its 2021 forecast and is now predicting its earnings per share to range from $6.20 to $6.35. Walmart’s net income declined to $4.28 billion from what it was a year prior at $6.48 billion. Walmart reported an increase in its grocery sales with 6.1 percent of revenue from groceries. The company’s food sales grew $2.4 billion more than a year ago, which CNBC attributes to customers being attracted to the cheaper food prices at Walmart. Additionally, the retailer’s e-commerce sales grew by 6 percent. Walmart predicts its global e-commerce sales will go up to $75 billion this year. CNBC also reports that grocery sales and e-commerce has slowed compared to when the pandemic first started and everyone was rushing to buy enough food, toilet paper and …
HERMOSA BEACH, CALIF. — Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, has brokered the $275 million sale of two adjacent multifamily properties in Hermosa Beach, a beachfront city in Los Angeles County. The 285-unit Playa Pacifica sold for $162.5 million, while the 169-unit The Gallery sold for $112.5 million. Built in 1972, Playa Pacifica was partially renovated in 2015 and 2016. The average unit size is 590 square feet. Amenities include two solar-heated pools, a fitness center, business center, clubhouse, spa and outdoor lounge with barbecue area. The Gallery was built in 1971 and partially renovated in 2003 and 2004. Units average 831 square feet. Amenities include a pool, fitness center, spa, sauna and covered parking. Both communities are located near Hermosa Beach Pier. Neighborhood attractions include The Strand and Greenbelt Park, along with beachfront nightlife and restaurants. Kevin Green, Greg Harris and Joseph Grabiec of IPA represented the seller, an institutional investor, and procured the buyer, Prime Residential. Previously, the IPA team brokered the sale of the properties in 2006 for $133 million. “The sale represents the acquisition of 24 percent of the entire apartment stock in Hermosa Beach and nearly 70 percent of the like-kind …
HUMBLE, TEXAS — Greystone has provided a $27.6 million HUD-insured loan for the refinancing of Willowbend Apartments, a 228-unit multifamily complex located in the northern Houston suburb of Humble. Built in 2016, the 10-building property features one-, two- and three-bedroom units and amenities such as a pool, fitness center, business center, pet park and an outdoor kitchen with grilling areas. Eric Rosenstock of Greystone originated the financing, which was structured with a fixed interest rate and a 35-year term and amortization schedule, through HUD’s 223(f) program on behalf of the borrower, Partin Properties LLC.
CHICAGO — Hyatt Hotels Corp. (NYSE: H) has agreed to acquire Apple Leisure Group (ALG), a Pennsylvania-based firm that specializes in third-party operations of luxury wellness resorts, for $2.7 billion. The transaction comes as part of the Chicago-based hotel giant’s initiative to sell off $2 billion in real estate holdings by the end of 2024 and focus its growth strategy on the operations side of the hospitality business. Hyatt expects to sell $1.5 billion of its real estate assets by the end of this year, which would result in more than $3 billion in sales since the strategy was announced in 2017. Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt president and CEO, notes that under this strategy, he expects that 80 percent of the company’s revenue stream will be fee-based earnings by the end of 2024. “The addition of ALG’s properties will immediately double Hyatt’s global resorts footprint,” says Hoplamazian. “ALG’s portfolio of luxury brands, leadership in the all-inclusive segment and large pipeline of new resorts will extend our reach in existing and new markets, including Europe, and further accelerate our industry-leading net rooms growth.” ALG’s operations portfolio spans 33,000 rooms across 100 properties in 10 countries. ALG’s resort brand management platform AMResorts provides …
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Walker & Dunlop: Excess Capital Makes for Competitive Lending Environment
The third quarter of 2020 was the beginning of a significant rebound for capital markets in commercial real estate. After banks and other lenders slowed their activity during the pandemic, lenders and equity investors regained their momentum — particularly in multifamily and industrial — a trend that has continued through the third quarter of 2021. It’s a good time to be a borrower, explains Mark Strauss, managing director of capital markets, and Rob Quarton, senior director of capital markets, with Walker & Dunlop’s Irvine, California, office. Vigorous Lending Markets Currently, Quarton explains, “Banks are really competitive. Debt funds are also aggressive — their funding mechanisms, like collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), have come back strong. Further, insurance companies are under allocated to real estate, which increases their annual volume targets and desire to win more business. Consumers have been purchasing more life insurance policies and insurance in general post pandemic, which provides dry powder for insurance companies to invest. In general, lending markets are very robust today, with ample options for lenders up and down the capital stack.” “Lenders have yearly production quotas, and I don’t think any of them hit their quotas last year,” adds Strauss. “This caused an overhang of …
NEW YORK CITY — Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. (BREIT) has entered into an agreement to acquire Toronto-based WPT Industrial REIT for a cash price of US$3.1 billion. That figure includes the assumption of the publicly traded Canadian REIT’s corporate debt. Under the terms of the deal, shareholders of WPT Industrial will receive US$22 for each share of common stock they own. That figure represents a premium of 17 percent over the closing price of WPT Industrial’s stock on Friday, Aug. 6, the last day of trading prior to the merger announcement. The price per share also marks a 19.5 percent premium over the Canadian REIT’s weighted average unit price for the 30-day period that ended on Aug. 6. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. “Logistics continues to benefit from strong tailwinds driven by e-commerce,” says David Levine, senior managing director at Blackstone. “We look forward to expanding our logistics presence across key U.S. markets with the acquisition of this high-quality portfolio that WPT has built.” WPT Industrial owns, develops and manages warehouse and distribution facilities throughout the United States. The company’s U.S. footprint consists of 109 properties totaling approximately 37.5 million square feet of …
NEW YORK CITY — MSCI (NYSE: MSCI), a New York City-based global finance firm, has entered into an agreement to acquire Real Capital Analytics (RCA) for $950 million in cash. The deal is expected to close in the late third or early fourth quarter. MSCI’s products and services include providing equity, fixed-income debt, stock market indexes and multi-asset portfolio analysis tools. Founded in 2000, New York City-based RCA provides a range of data and research services for commercial real estate owners and investors on a global basis. MSCI executives noted that the acquisition would significantly bolster the firm’s suite of real estate-based products and solutions by leveraging RCA’s platform that tracks more than $20 trillion in commercial transactions and features more than 200,000 lender and investor profiles. “With the addition of RCA’s wealth of commercial real estate data and analytics, investors will be better supported to access the opportunities that exist within this sector at scale, informed by industry-leading insights and the premier global database capturing the global commercial real estate footprint,” says Henry Fernandez, chairman and CEO of MSCI. “Our primary goal has always been to bridge the information gap between commercial real estate and other asset classes across …
NEW YORK CITY AND LAS VEGAS — VICI Properties Inc. (NYSE: VICI), MGM Growth Properties LLC (NYSE: MGP) and MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) have entered into a definitive agreement under which VICI will acquire MGP for a total consideration of $17.2 billion, including the assumption of approximately $5.7 billion of debt. MGM Resorts is the controlling shareholder of MGP. Upon completion of the merger, VICI will have an estimated enterprise value of $45 billion representing 43 properties in 15 states. The deal will add 15 Class A entertainment resort properties across the country to VICI’s portfolio, comprising 33,000 hotel rooms; 3.6 million square feet of meeting and convention space; and hundreds of food, beverage and entertainment venues. The deal represents an estimated 30 to 40 percent discount to replacement cost. The move will solidify VICI as the largest experiential net-lease REIT, while also advancing its goals of portfolio enhancement and diversification, according to the company. Following the transaction, approximately 55 percent of VICI’s rent base will be generated by market-leading regional properties, while the remaining 45 percent will come from properties on the Las Vegas Strip. Simultaneous with the closing of the transaction, VICI will enter into an amended …
INDIANAPOLIS — Total retail sales for the month of June at Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG) assets were equal to pre-pandemic levels, according to the Indianapolis-based company. Sales were up 80 percent compared with June 2020. Simon’s net operating income (NOI) increased 16.6 percent in the second quarter of 2021 compared with the same period one year ago. As of June 30, occupancy at Simon’s U.S. malls and premium outlets was 91.8 percent. “I am pleased with the profitability and substantial improvement in cash flow that were generated in the second quarter,” says David Simon, chairman, CEO and president. “We are encouraged by the increase in our shopper traffic, retailer sales and leasing activity. Based upon our results to date and expectations for the remainder of 2021, we are again increasing our full-year 2021 guidance and again raising our quarterly dividend.” Following the second-quarter earnings report, Simon’s stock price jumped to $129.79 per share Monday, Aug. 2, up from $126.53 per share on Friday, July 30.