Ventas Acquiring NHP for $7.4B

Ventas, Inc. and Nationwide Health Properties, Inc. (NHP) announced that both companies have unanimously approved a definitive agreement under which Ventas will acquire all of the outstanding shares of NHP in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $7.4 billion according to a Forbes article. The new company will be the largest health care REIT, operating 1,300 assets in 47 states, the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces. The new company is expected to have pro forma equity value of roughly $17 billion and pro forma enterprise value of $23 billion. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.

"The combination of Ventas and [Nationwide] increases the scale and diversification of the combined company, the strength and flexibility of the company's balance sheet and the quality and geography of the assets," said Ventas Chairman and Chief Executive Debra Cafaro in a statement.

"For [Nationwide] shareholders, Ventas is the right partner, bringing the right value at the right time," said Douglas Pasquale, Newport Beach, Calif.-based Nationwide's chairman and CEO, in a statement. "Our shareholders, property operators and tenants will all benefit from our expanded strength, diversification and capabilities."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

DCT Buys Miami Property for $7.5M

DCT Industrial Trust Inc. purchased 8551 NW 30th Terrace in Miami this week for $7.5 million according to Citybizlist South Florida. Constructed in 1994, the 100,000 square foot distribution building sold for approximately 10% below estimated replacement cost at $75 per square foot. The current lease expires in March 2011 and DCT Industrial is pursuing several opportunities to lease the facility to either a single tenant or multiple users. The Class A facility has been recently renovated and offers a private and secured truck court.

"We are very excited to have this opportunity to expand our presence in Miami's Airport West submarket. The market has recovered rapidly from the economic downtown and leasing activity has been very strong," said Todd Watson, Vice President, Regional Market Representative of DCT Industrial. "With this recovery, we are starting to see a more competitive marketplace and I am confident in the strong team we have in place to pursue and quickly close new opportunities as we find them."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

NAR Says Vacancy Rates to Decline, Rent Recovery Delayed

The National Association of Realtors has released its latest Commercial Real Estate Outlook with projects for the real estate markets and indicates that there's a stabilizing trend underway in the commercial real estate markets. From the first quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012 NAR expects that the vacancy rates will decline 0.5% in the office sector, and that office rents are forecast to fall 1.8% this year "before turning higher by 4% in 2012." Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, suggested that a pullback in construction is helping to stabilize the market. "Very limited construction of new commercial real estate over the past few years has essentially fixed the supply of available space," he said. "This means vacancy rates could fall quickly from any increase in demand for commercial space."

A summary of the Office Markets outlook:

• Vacancy rates in the office sector are forecast to decline from 16.5% in the first quarter of this year to 16% in the first quarter of 2012.
• The markets with the lowest office vacancy rates currently are New York City and Honolulu, with vacancies in the 8-9% range.
• In 57 markets tracked, net absorption of office space, which includes the leasing of new space coming on the market as well as space in existing properties, should be 14.5 million square feet in 2011.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Downtown Markets to Recover More Quickly Than Suburban Counterparts

A new Wall Street Journal article titled "Suburban Office Markets Trail Downtown Rivals" takes a look at the recovery and growth of the office markets in different areas, observing that it's likely going to take a longer time for suburban-office-building owners to rebuilt their tenancy rates compared to properties in downtown areas. According to data from Reis Inc., suburban office properties accounted for 70% of the 135 million square feet of previously occupied space that went vacant since the real estate downturn; many owners have tried to fill these gaps by sharply cutting rates to entice new tenants. Victor Calanog, research director of Reis, noted that "combined with more job functions being outsourced or mechanized, demand for suburban-office space will just not be as strong as before, unless landlords lower rents significantly. All of these factors imply lower returns for REITs focused on suburban-office space."

An excerpt from the article:

Fourth-quarter earnings reported by publicly traded real-estate companies over the past few weeks reinforced a trend that has been taking shape since economic recovery began: Vacancies continue to rise in some suburban buildings even as downtown properties fill up.

Downtowns are performing better partly because the suburbs were hit harder by the housing collapse, which caused the closings of mortgage lenders, home builders and other small businesses that tend to be in the suburbs. Also, there was more construction in the suburbs than downtowns during the boom.

Demand in some cities has improved, thanks to their success in revitalizing entertainment districts and attracting new retail and residential development.

For more news and information visit Bumberg Capital Partners.

Intel to Build $5B New Facility

Intel Corporation President and CEO Paul Otellini announced this week during a visit by President Barack Obama at an Intel facility in Oregon that the company will be investing more than $5 billion to build a new facility at its site in Chandler, Arizona. Construction on the new factory, dubbed Fab 42, is expected to begin later this year and is earmarked for completion in 2013, creating thousands of construction and permanent manufacturing jobs within the company. Otellini also said that the company has plans to spend $6-$8 billion over the coming years to upgrade several existing facilities in in the U.S. and build a new development plant in Hillsboro according to a CoStar report.

"The investment positions our manufacturing network for future growth," said Brian Krzanich, senior vice president and general manager, Manufacturing and Supply Chain for Intel. "This fab will begin operations on a process that will allow us to create transistors with a minimum feature size of 14 nanometers. For Intel, manufacturing serves as the underpinning for our business and allows us to provide customers and consumers with leading-edge products in high volume. The unmatched scope and scale of our investments in manufacturing help Intel maintain industry leadership and drives innovation."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

One Loudoun Project Revived with New Team

One Loudoun, a mixed-use project proposed in September 2007 when Miller & Smith held a groundbreaking ceremony, was a project that found itself in trouble with the real estate downturn when the company and its partners stopped construction on the project after falling deeply underwater on a loan from Goldman Sachs. This week, however, Sekisui House Ltd. — headquartered in Osaka, Japan and one of the world's biggest homebuilders — is partnering up with Miller & Smith to buy the Goldman Sachs note and foreclose on the previous ownership group, kickstarting the massive project in Ashburn, Virginia, just outside the Beltway from Washington, DC.

The new development is a 358-acre master-planned community in Loudoun County that will feature 1040 residential homes, 702,000 square feet of retail space, 3,000,000 square feet of office space, a community center, and an amphitheater -- all surrounded by approximately 150-acres of public land and miles of walking trails. One Loudoun will also be home to the World Trade Center Dulles Airport, projected to generate up to 14,000 new jobs.

Satoshi Yoshimura, president and Chief Operating Office for Sekisui House's North American unit, said the Washington area was one of the American markets the company had targeted because of the federal government's expansion and the diverse range of the area's employers in a Washington Post article. "D.C. is not so much damaged by the financial markets crisis," he said.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

IRS Moving to 999 N. Capitol

The Internal Revenue Service will be moving from 1750 Pennsylvania Avenue in DC to 999 North Capitol Street, a recently renovated project from the CIM Group and managed by Akridge. The IRS is expected to occupy 100,500 square feet in the Union Square office complex by January 2012 under a new 10-year lease according to a Washington Business Journal article. CIM bought Union Square, which also includes 899 N. Capitol and future development rights, from J. P. Morgan in 2007. The lease marks Union Square‘s second major government lease – the DC Department of Health claimed 150,000 square feet in the development’ssouthern building, 899 North Capitol, last Spring.

Union Square consists of two Class A office buildings in the North of Massachusetts Avenue ("NoMa") district of Washington DC. Together the buildings provide 609,540 square feet. of office space. The two 9-story buildings are linked by a common center plaza. The property offers convenient access to transportation, including Metro, Amtrak, bus, and commuter rail, as well as ample underground parking. The buildings were constructed between 1969 and 1973 and fully renovated in 1999. A third building of more than 260,000 square feet could be built on the plaza in the future.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Google Buys Tallest Building in Dublin

Google purchased the Montevetro Building this week, the tallest building in the city of Dublin, for €99.9 million (roughly $136 million U.S. dollars) from Real Estate Opportunities (REO) and The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) according to a Wall Street Journal article. Google bought the 15 story, 210,000 square foot Montevetro development on Barrow Street to house about 2,000 staff members and accommodate new business activities that are currently in development. Real Estate Opportunities redeveloped the building, and its chairman, Ray Horney, said the sale is one of the largest commercial real estate deals Ireland has ever seen reported the San Francisco Chronicle. Nama, which acquired the Montevetro building as security for a loan that transferred from a participating institution in April 2010, advance the necessary working capital to complete the development.

"We are at capacity in our EMEA headquarters in Barrow Street and the additional space will allow us to relocate some teams to Montevetro and to create an even more spacious working environment for Googlers in our existing building," said John Herlihy, head of Google in Ireland.

Nama chairman Frank Daly comment that "the successful completion of the Montevetro development and its sale again reflects the positive potential of Nama to support the commercial property market in Ireland without compromising its objective of recovering monies owed to the taxpayer."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Duke Realty Unloads Portfolio for $97M

A joint venture managed by Smith/Hallemann Partners has purchased a five-building office portfolio for $97.5 million from Duke Realty Corporation according to a Cincinnati.com article. The portfolio includes two Cincinnati Class A buildings with about 609,275 square feet of space and three Nashville Class A buildings covering around 379,264 square feet. Duke Realty is reportedly repositioning its portfolio with these disposals and has exited certain markets in an attempt to concentrate in areas where it already has a strong presence. The JV includes individual investors and a fund managed by Harbert Management Corporation.

The Nashville properties include a three-building plaza near the airport and known as One, Two and Three Lakeview Place in the Century City Office Park. Current tenants of the plaza include Thomas Nelson Publishers, CNA Insurance, Vista-Pro, Amerigroup and Hartford Insurance. The Cincinnati properties includes The Enquirer Building and an additional building in the city's central business district; tenants include Mitsui Marine, The General Services Administration and Harland Financial Solutions.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

CBRE Buying ING Real Estate for $940M

CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. and ING announced this week that CBRE would be acquiring most of the real estate investment management business of ING Group NV for $940 million in cash according to a Boomberg report. The acquisitions include substantially all of the ING Real Estate Investment Management (ING REIM) operations in Europe and Asia, as well as Clarion Real Estate Securities (CRES), its U.S.-based global real estate listed securities business. CBRE will also acquire approximately $55 million of CRES co-investments from ING and potentially interests in other funds managed by ING REIM Europe and ING REIM Asia.

"ING REIM, when combined with our existing Global Investment Management operations, will provide us with a significantly enhanced ability to meet the needs of institutional investors across global markets with a full spectrum of investment programs and strategies," said Brett White, CB Richard Ellis’ chief executive officer. "Our firms fit together well and our investment program offerings are highly complementary. The combined enterprise will further diversify our revenue sources and as the global market leader, we will redefine success in real estate investment management."

In a separate transaction, ING has agreed to sell the private market real estate investment manager of its US operations, Clarion Partners, to Clarion Partners management in partnership with Lightyear Capital LLC for $100 million.

"We are pleased to have found in CB Richard Ellis, and Clarion Partners management together with Lightyear, dedicated and solid partners to build on the leading positions of these REIM businesses and ensure continuity of investment teams in managing client assets in their best interests," said William Connelly, CEO of ING Commercial Banking.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

KBS Pays $54M for Carlson Center Tower

KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II has closed on the purchase of 601 Tower at Carlson Center, Minnetonka, Minnesota for $54.4 million plus closing costs according to a GlobeSt.com article. CB Richard Ellis represented the seller, New York-based TIAA-CREF; the transaction officially closed on February 3. According to Hennepin County property records the property's market value was $42 million in 2009.

"The 601 Tower at Carlson Center is widely recognized as one of the most prominent suburban trophy assets in the Minneapolis market … and expect its unique blend of quality, location, architectural significance and park-like amenities to result in strong long-term tenant retention," said KBS' Bill Rogalla.

The 15-story, 288,458 square foot property is part of a master-planned office park along Interstate 394. At the point of sale the building was reportedly 90% leased with major tenants including One Beacon Insurance, Conopco, Wachovia, RBC Capital Markets, Robert Baird, Pine River Capital and HQ Global Workplaces. Built in 1989, 601 Tower was the recipient of the 2009 BOMA International Building of the Year award.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

PWC Takes 140,000 SF in Atlanta

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC US) has announced that it will be moving its Atlanta office to a new midtown location at 1075 Peachtree, assuming 140,000 square feet of space at the 18-story building. PwC signed a 16 year lease deal for the office space at the mixed use development of 12th & Midtown and expects to move in mid-2012 according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. The company currently occupies roughly 112,000 square feet at the Millennium in Midtown located on the northeastern corner of 10th and West Peachtree Streets, less than five minutes from its new location. The full terms and costs of the lease were not disclosed, but it was noted that PwC will be represented with marquis signage at the top of the 1075 building. Other major tenants include The Boston Consulting Group Inc. and Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

"Our business and culture are based on building relationships, delivering value and winning in the global marketplace. 1075 Peachtree supports those elements locally for both our clients and our people," said PwC Market Managing Partner Gary Price. "The new building's impressive amenities and features, stunning architecture and prime Midtown location were too compelling to pass up," Price added.

"PwC embodies the international leader we envisioned occupying the space in 1075 Peachtree," said Doug Guedry, vice president of office leasing for Daniel Corp. "The firm's reputation for outstanding performance and exceptional innovation is in line with our mission to bring value to Midtown, and we look forward to collaborating with PwC as they build out a world-class office environment."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Bloomberg Signs Lease for More NYC Space

Bloomberg L.P. announced this week that it has reached an agreement to lease 16 floors, totaling more than 400,000 square feet of office space, at 120 Park Avenue in New York according to a New York Times article. The company said that it expanded its presence in the former Philip Morris building, across from Grand Central Terminal, to accommodate the company’s rapid growth. Bloomberg will continue to maintain its headquarters space of about 900,000 square feet at 731 Lexington Ave.

"This new location is ideal as we build upon our record-setting year in 2010 and position ourselves for future growth," said Peter Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg L.P. "We continue to hire in New York and we expect that to continue as we expand our businesses and move into new markets worldwide," said Daniel Doctoroff, President of Bloomberg L.P.

The new space at 120 Park Avenue is owned by Eastgate Realty Corporation, with CBRE representing Bloomberg in the transaction. Terms and pricing for the lease were not disclosed, but Bloomberg said it expects to begin occupying the new offices in late 2011 after renovations to the space.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Facebook Moving HQ to Menlo Park

In the biggest lease deal in Silicon Valley since 1991 when Apple signed an 865,000-square-foot lease agreement, Facebook held a news conference at Menlo Park City Hall on Tuesday explaining that the crowding in their current location pushed the move to a larger space in Menlo Park where the social networking company will assume multiple office buildings to serve as its headquarter campus according to a CNN article. The company will begin moving its employees this summer and said that it would be renovating the campus to make it a fun place to work.

"There are very few opportunities for a city to have an 'it' company," Mayor Richard Cline said of Facebook after the press conference. "And we also have facilities that are vacant. This solves a big problem." Facebook will rent the one million square feet, nine building campus from Deutsche Bank AG’s RREEF in a 15-year sale-leaseback deal; RREEF purchased the 57-acre property from Sun Microsystems owner Oracle Corp. for an undisclosed amount. The property was built between 1993 and 1995 and was the corporate headquarters for Sun Microsystems until it was acquired by Oracle.

Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman noted that Facebook has the option to buy the property in five years. The company also bought an adjacent 22-acre property, connected to the new site by a tunnel, for future development.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Strategic Storage Trust Secures $29.1M CMBS Loan

Citigroup Global Markets Realty Corporation, a CMBS lender, provided a $29.13 million loan to Strategic Storage Trust for the refinancing of 11 of its properties in various locations throughout the United States according to National Real Estate Advisor. The ten year loan was set at a fixed interest rate of 5.77% and a 30-year amortization. CBRE Capital Markets arranged the financing.

"This financing was our first time utilizing a CMBS execution since the 2007 change in the market," said H. Michael Schwartz, CEO of Strategic Storage Trust, Inc. "Despite the more constrained documentation and extensive due diligence requirements of the new CMBS programs, the CBRE team did an excellent job helping us navigate our way through the process and closing the financing. The low 10 year fixed interest rate will be accretive for our FFO going forward as the money is invested in new acquisitions." The 11 facilities are located in Metro Chicago, Las Vegas, Alpharetta, Biloxi, Florence, Gulf Breeze, New Jersey, and West Mifflin for a total of 7,785 units and 944,500 square feet.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

CoStar Sells DC HQ, Makes $60M Profit

1331 L Street in the heart of Washington's Business District traded hands this week as CoStar agreed to sell the 169,430-square-foot building to GLL L-Street 1331, a subsidiary of GLL Real Estate Partners. The sale of the headquarter building of CoStar is scheduled for close later this month for $101 million - a $60 million profit for the company according to the Washington Post. CoStar bought the Class A building last year from the Mortgage Bankers Association for $41.3 million with the help of a $6.1 million, 10-year tax abatement from the city that was contingent on the publicly traded company hiring 100 District residents.

"We nailed the bottom and are getting out while we go into the recovery," said CoStar's chief executive, Andrew Florance. The seller was represented by executive managing directors, Paul Collins and William Collins, senior managing director, John Flood and senior vice presidents, James Cassidy and Judson Ryan of Cassidy Turley Commercial Real Estate Services.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

WMAP Picks Up Atlas Park for $53.75M

A newly-formed group called WMAP, LLC acquired The Shops at Atlas Park in Queens this week for $53.75 million. The beleaguered center was unveiled in 2006 as an outdoor "lifestyle center," but went into foreclosure in February 2009. WMAP iincludes Macerich, a Chicago-based development corporation that specializes in revitalizing ailing real estate, as well as Walton Street Capital according to TrafficCourt. The financier, Socié́té́ Gé́né́rale, was still owed $119 million at the time of the sale. The sale is expected to close within 30 days.

"They're just really excited, eager to basically have a rebirth," said attorney Boris Sorin, who represents eight Atlas Park shops.

"We can finally move forward with developing Glendale's own shopping center," said Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley. "The community welcomes the new leadership with open arms and is eager to help Atlas become an engine for economic growth."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Colony Picks up $817M FDIC Portfolio

A consortium of investors organized by Colony Capital has acquired two portfolios of distressed assets from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for about $193 million. The loans, which were for residential and commercial property acquisition, development and construction, had a total unpaid principal balance of $817 million. Los Angeles-based Colony, led by Chairman Tom Barrack, already has won four other portfolios of FDIC mortgages valued at more than $3 billion, making it the largest winner of multiple deals according to a Wall Street Journal article.

Colony, which put some money in the purchase, will be in charge of disposing of the assets, working out settlements with the borrowers, foreclosing or reselling the loans. Colony said it acquired the two portfolios of 1,505 residential and commercial loans for 23.6 cents on the dollar.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Tishman Speyer Sells DC Office Building for $137.4M

Carr Properties, in a joint venture with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and MetLife Real Estate Investments, has purchased the Floyd Akers Building from Tishman Speyer for $137.4 million according to a CoStar report. Tishman originally acquired the building at 1255 23rd Street, NW for $107.88 million from Blackstone/CarrAmerica in 2006 as part of a larger portfolio.

The Floyd Akers Building was developed in 1983 by The Oliver Carr Company and is a 341,443-square-foot, Class A office property in the West End submarket of Washington, DC. At the time of sale the building was nearly 95% leased with major tenants including Mercer LLC, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Chronicle of Higher Education. CoStar reports that the asking rent per year is roughly $40 per square foot.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.