Colony Capital Moving Forward on $1.6B Industrial Deal

Santa Monica, California-based Colony Capital LLC is buying a 291-building industrial portfolio from Irving, Texas-based Cobalt Capital Partners according to several reports this week. Commercial Mortgage Alert reported Friday that GE Capital has agreed to provide $1.2 billion of the portfolio’s purchase price via a floating-rate loan for the 291-property industrial portfolio. The terms of the loan are now being finalized, with Colony weighing a menu of options from GE that include varying amounts of proceeds tied to the degree of leverage, according to people familiar with the process.

Colony has agreed to pay about $1.6 billion for the 29.5 million-square-foot portfolio, which contains mostly light-industrial buildings of less than 250,000 sf in 18 markets across the U.S. The 291 buildings are 85% leased by more than 650 tenants. Eastdil and CBRE are jointly brokering the sale on behalf of Cobalt, CM Alert reported. CoStar reported last week that Colony, which is about to see a merger of two affiliated entities, beat out such would-be buyers as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the Blackstone Group and TPG. Blackstone is itself preparing to sell its IndCor Properties industrial platform, Bloomberg reported last week.

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Time Warner Sells Manhattan HQ for $1.3B to Related Cos.

Time Warner Inc. announced this week that it had sold its 1.1 million square foot headquarters building in Manhattan for $1.3 billion to a venture of Related Companies, an entity owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and GIC in a sale-leaseback deal. While Time Warner will continue to lease its current office space until early 2019, the company has plans to relocate to 30 Hudson Yards in the office development by Related and Oxford Properties Group, expecting to acquire more than one million square feet and occupy the space by the end of 2018. Eastdil Secured's Douglas Harmon, Adam Spies and Kevin Donner represented Time Warner in the transaction with the Abu Dhabi fund. Studley is representing Time Warner and CBRE is representing Related and Oxford with respect to Time Warner's planned acquisition of space in Hudson Yards for its new corporate headquarters.

"We see significant upside in leasing the high quality office space following Time Warner Inc.'s planned relocation to 30 Hudson Yards. We believe strong demand for this first-rate office property will translate into a stable income stream which suits GIC as a long-term investor," said Tia Miyamoto, regional head of Americas at GIC Real Estate. "Time Warner Center is one of the premier mixed-use projects in the country."

Oxford Chief Executive Officer Blake Hutcheson said, "Time Warner has shown incredible vision not only in its core business of storytelling, but also in its commitment to establishing a collaborative and creative space. We are very excited to partner with Time Warner alongside Related, and to deliver a business community in which Time Warner will simply thrive."

Time Warner Center is a 2.8 million-square-foot mixed-use complex at the southwest corner of Central Park, which, in addition to office and flex space, also houses a Mandarin Oriental hotel, Jazz at Lincoln Center and some of the city's most expensive condominiums. The long-anticipated Time Warner Center purchase works out to about $1,182 per square foot, according to a CoStar report.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.