DALLAS — CBRE Group Inc. (NYSE: CBRE) has entered into an agreement to acquire a 60 percent interest in Turner & Townsend, a project management and advisory firm based in the United Kingdom, for $1.3 billion. Upon the closing of the deal, which is expected to occur in the fourth quarter, Turner & Townsend’s executive management team, led by chairman and CEO Vincent Clancy, will continue to run the company’s day-to-day operations and retain a 40 percent equity stake. In addressing the motivating factors behind the deal, Turner & Townsend cited the opportunity to expand its service offerings in the United States via the Dallas-based real estate giant’s platform of occupier and investor relationships. Bob Sulentic, CBRE’s president and CEO, added that with public and private infrastructure investment at the top of the current U.S. political agenda, there are major growth opportunities in project management. “Turner & Townsend is by far the best firm to help us realize our ambitions for this business,” he says. CBRE’s stock price opened at $91.35 per share on Wednesday, July 28, the first full day of trading after the deal was announced. Shares were trading at a high of $96.96 per share during the …
ATLANTA — Cousins Properties (NYSE: CUZ) has acquired 725 Ponce, a 372,000-square-foot office property in Midtown Atlanta, for $300.2 million. The seller, New City Properties, completed development of the 12-story asset in late 2019. Located on the Atlanta BeltLine and directly across from popular mixed-use development Ponce City Market, 725 Ponce is fully leased to tenants such as BlackRock, McKinsey & Co. and Chick-fil-A. The $140 million development includes an adjacent 60,000-square-foot Kroger grocery store, which replaced a former Kroger that was built in 1986. As part of the transaction, Cousins also acquired a 50 percent ownership interest in an adjacent land site for an additional $4 million that can accommodate 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of development. Atlanta-based Cousins is a self-managed REIT that primarily invests in Class A office buildings within Sun Belt markets. The company’s stock price opened at $40.04 per share Friday, July 30, up from $30.49 per share one year ago. Cousins recently sold One South at the Plaza, a 40-story office tower in Uptown Charlotte, for $271.5 million. Additionally, Cousins and New City recently unveiled plans to develop a mixed-use project known as Neuhoff in the Germantown submarket of Nashville. Plans call for 448,000 …
SEATTLE — Boston Properties Inc. (NYSE: BXP) has entered into an agreement to acquire Safeco Plaza, a 50-story, Class A office tower located at 1001 Fourth Ave. in Seattle’s Central Business District, for $465 million. The seller in the transaction was undisclosed. The REIT is acquiring the 800,000-square-foot property through a joint venture with one of the participants in its recently announced co-investment program with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and GIC. Boston Properties will own a 51 percent interest in the building. Safeco Plaza was developed in 1969 by the Howard S. Wright Construction Co. and features a two-story lobby, five-level subterranean parking garage, a large outdoor plaza and 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The LEED Platinum-certified property offers views of the Seattle skyline, Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains and is located adjacent to stops for Seattle’s Link light rail and Metro bus lines. Safeco Plaza was 90 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including Safeco Insurance, Bank of America, Corr Cronin LLP, Fox Rothschild, Helsell Fetterman and Interior Architects. Hines has managed the asset since 2016. Boston Properties is one of the largest publicly traded developers, owners and managers of Class A …
AURORA AND LOMBARD, ILL. — Old Second Bancorp Inc. (Nasdaq: OSBC) and West Suburban Bancorp Inc. have signed a definitive merger agreement under which Aurora-based Old Second will acquire Lombard-based West Suburban in a cash and stock transaction valued at $297 million. Under the terms of the merger agreement, which was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, Old Second will pay 65 percent of the purchase price in stock and the remainder in cash. According to a news release, the merged company will have approximately $6.2 billion in assets with 70 branches and will create the largest community bank under $10 billion in assets in the Chicago market. The merger is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.
PHILADELPHIA AND IRVINE, CALIF. — Independence Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: IRT), a publicly traded apartment REIT based in Philadelphia, has agreed to acquire Irvine-based Steadfast Apartment REIT Inc. On a pro-forma basis, the combined company is expected to have a total enterprise value of approximately $7 billion and be equally owned by shareholders of both firms. Post-merger, the company will operate under the Independence Realty Trust banner and trade under the same stock symbol. The portfolio will total 131 apartment communities comprising approximately 38,000 units across 16 states. The combined company’s 10 largest markets by unit count would be Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Oklahoma City, Louisville, Columbus, Indianapolis, Raleigh-Durham, Houston and Memphis. According to an investor presentation, the portfolio averages $1,231 in effective rent per month and is 96.2 percent occupied. The combined company would rank at No. 26 on the National Multifamily Housing Council’s (NMHC) 2021 ranking of the top 50 apartment owners. Neither Independence Realty Trust nor Steadfast Apartment REIT is on the NMHC Top 50 Owners ranking for 2021. Both companies expect the transaction to close during the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval of both companies’ stockholders. The boards of directors …
NEW YORK CITY — A joint venture between L&L Holding Co. and Columbia Property Trust (NYSE: CXP) has received a $1.2 billion construction loan for the redevelopment of the historic Terminal Warehouse building in Manhattan’s West Chelsea neighborhood. The property was originally built in 1891 as the first major New York City facility with direct access to the river, streets and rail lines. A set of twin rail tracks runs through the center of the facility and originally offered a direct connection from the Hudson River’s docks to the freight lines operating at street level along 11th Avenue. Today, Terminal Warehouse consists of 1.2 million square feet of office, retail and self-storage space. The partnership plans to develop the property’s 550,000 square feet of self-storage space into modern, Class A office property and reimagine the ground-floor retail common areas. COOKFOX Architects is leading the design of the redevelopment. In addition, as part of the project plan approved by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the floor area will be removed to make room for a new courtyard, a series of double-height interior spaces throughout the western portion of the building and six new office levels with floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking …
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN), a medicine manufacturer known for its COVID-19 antibody cocktail, plans to invest $1.8 billion over the next six years to support the expansion of its life sciences headquarters in Tarrytown, about 25 miles north of Manhattan. Located in Westchester County on the east bank of the Hudson River, the project will expand Regeneron’s research, preclinical manufacturing and support facilities, while creating an estimated 1,000 new full-time jobs. “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of continued and long-term investment in the biopharmaceutical industry, and Regeneron is proud to pursue life-changing science and technology from our labs and manufacturing facilities in New York State,” says Leonard Schleifer, president and CEO of Regeneron. The project is expected to encompass up to eight research and development buildings, three parking garages and a central utility plant totaling approximately 900,000 square feet. Regeneron has indicated that road infrastructure improvements will be necessary to support the new buildings, which will come on line in two phases. Construction planning will begin this summer and project construction is scheduled for completion in 2027. No members of the project team were disclosed. The life sciences firm chose to expand in Tarrytown following site …
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Retail Federation (NRF) reports retail sales rose 0.8 percent in June over the prior month on a seasonally adjusted basis — not including automobile dealers, gas stations and restaurants — and were up 12.1 percent unadjusted year-over-year. The NRF’s June report confirms the organization’s revised predictions made at the beginning of July. NRF revised its retail sales forecast for 2021 retail sales to increase between 10.5 and 13.5 percent over 2020 to a range of $4.44 trillion and $4.56 trillion. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that retail sales have increased year-over-year every month since June 2020, including May, which had a decline of 1.7 percent month-over-month and a growth of 27.6 percent year-over-year. The Washington, D.C.-based trade association also reports that there was a big increase in sales during the yearly Amazon Prime Day promotion on June 21 and 22, but that hot temperatures and tropical storms like Hurricane Elsa may have negatively impacted retail sales. The NRF expects an increase in back to school shopping as children head back to school, some for the first time since before the pandemic. Clothing and accessory stores increased 2.6 percent month-over-month and increased 49.4 percent year-over-year. Also, …
INDIANAPOLIS — Slate Grocery REIT has acquired Glenlake Plaza in Indianapolis for $8.5 million. Concurrent with the acquisition, the REIT has secured a new long-term lease with the property’s anchor tenant, Kroger, for 15 years. The shopping center spans 104,679 square feet of gross leasable area and features an occupancy rate of 85 percent. An owner and operator of grocery-anchored real estate, Slate Grocery REIT’s portfolio comprises $1.4 billion of assets across major U.S. markets. The company trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
INDIANAPOLIS AND CHICAGO — Kite Realty Group Trust (NYSE: KRG) and Retail Properties of America (NYSE: RPAI) have entered into a merger agreement valued at $7.5 billion that will create a new shopping center REIT with a portfolio of 185 assets totaling approximately 32 million gross leasable square feet. Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based KRG will acquire Chicago-based RPAI in an all-stock transaction. The $7.5 billion valuation puts the newly formed company in the top five of shopping center REITs in terms of total enterprise valuation, according to company officials. Specifically, each share of RPAI common stock will be converted to 0.623 shares of KRG common stock. This rate represents a premium of 13 percent over RPAI’s closing share price of $20.83 per share on July 16, 2021. The new company will trade under the KRG ticker symbol and remain headquartered in Indianapolis. In terms of leadership, KRG’s board will be expanded to 13 trustees via the addition of four new members from the existing RPAI Board. Following the closing of the deal, KRG shareholders are expected to own approximately 40 percent of the combined company’s …