Hines Buys Goodyear Crossing II, Amazon Distribution Center

Hines Global REIT II, Inc. announced that it has entered into a contract to acquire Goodyear Crossing II, a 820,384 square foot industrial property in a Phoenix, AZ submarket, for $56.2 million. The property is being sold by RT Goodyear, LLC, which formed in 2009; it's unclear when RT Goodyear took ownership of the property, which was included in a 2013 Quarterly Report list of assets under Gramercy Property Trust. In July 2009, CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust purchased the warehouse through a joint venture with Duke Realty for $45.26 million. Hines Global II expects to fund the acquisition using proceeds from its public offering, borrowings from its credit facility with Hines Interests Limited Partnership and a secured mortgage from a third party, according to SEC filings. The REIT funded a $1 million earnest money deposit in connection with the purchase agreement and expects the acquisition to close on August 23rd.

Goodyear Crossing II is situated in the Goodyear Crossing Industrial Park and was constructed between 2008 and 2009. Located at 16920 W. Commerce Drive, the Class A industrial warehouse is 100% leased to Amazon, which first announced its intent to build the property in 2008. "As we continue to expand selection for customers across all product categories, we’re excited to be opening a new facility in Goodyear to allow us to serve customers more quickly and efficiently," Mike McKenna, vice president, Amazon fulfillment services, said at the time.

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Align Buys Comcast Office Center for $59M

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. (HFF) announced that it has brokered the sale of the Comcast Office Center campus in Livermore, California that serves as the regional headquarters for the cable company. HFF represented the seller in the transaction, Gramercy Property Trust, which originally acquired the property in June 2009 for $49 million. The three building portfolio was sold to San Francisco-based Align Real Estate for $59 million. The sale is part of Gramercy's previously announced plan to dispose of select single and multi-tenant office assets, which has so far disposed of approximately $722.5 million of single and multi-tenant office assets at a weighted average 6.1% exit cap rate.

The Comcast Office Center was 100% triple net leased to Comcast at the time of sale. Located at 3011, 3055 and 3077 Comcast Place in the Tri-Valley Technology Park, the Comcast Office Center is a 26-acre office campus that includes two single-story buildings and one two-story office building less than one mile north of the I-580 freeway, the primary transportation artery in the submarket. Comcast consolidated its operations from multiple facilities in the Tri-Valley area in the late 2000s so that the campus would serve as Comcast's regional headquarters, call center, and technical operations center. The campus is within 10 minutes of the Pleasanton BART station servicing San Francisco and the greater Bay Area and close to the future Livermore BART station and planned surrounding developments.

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Berkeley Buys MA Office Building for $22M

Boston-based Berkeley Investments announced the purchase of the office building at 200 Exchange Street in Malden, Massachusetts for $21.686 million,or about $70 per square foot. The 314,176-square-foot office building was sold by an affiliate of KBS Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc., which was advised by Gramercy Property Trust in the transaction. Full terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Malden Center is currently undergoing a dramatic transformation as a downtown redevelopment is underway that will reconnect streets, relocate City Hall, and introduce hundreds of new residential units along with numerous new retail destinations," said Ben Sayles at HFF, which represented the seller and procured the buyer in the transaction. "With a lower price point than other close-in suburbs and with immediate T access, Malden is emerging as a new residential and commercial hub for the region and 200 Exchange Street is well positioned to both contribute to and benefit from this transformation."

Built in 1985, 200 Exchange Street was originally constructed as an operations center for Bank of Boston; due to its original use, the building currently has the power and redundancies necessary for data center tenants that are cost prohibitive to install on a speculative basis. Berkeley has already engaged Stantec to renovate the 4-story building, completing renovating the interior spaces and turning it into a mixed-use asset with street level retail, a state-of-the-art data center, and nearly 200,000 square feet of creative office space. The building is in Malden Center, directly across from the Malden Center T stop with service to and from downtown Boston in minutes.

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Pacific Corporate Park Sold for $145.5M

Gramercy Property Trust, the New York-based global investor and asset manager, announced this week that it has sold the Pacific Corporate Park complex just a few miles north of Dulles International Airport for $145.5 million, or $209 per square foot. Terry Reiley, Robert Faktorow, Thomas Cleaver and Daniel Grimes of CBRE handled negotiations on behalf of Gramercy Property Trust, according to a CoStar report. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Troutman Sanders LLP spokesperson told Law360 that it had represented Gramercy Property Trust in the deal.

The sale is part of the Gramercy Property Trust's previously announced plan to dispose of select single and multi-tenant office assets. Since the sale plan was announced, Gramercy has exited $646.3 million of office assets at a weighted-average cap rate of 5.7%, with another $70 million of properties are under contract and $250 million that are currently on the market the majority of which are expected to close in the first half of 2016.

Pacific Corporate Park was put on the market last December by Chambers Street Properties, close to the same time that it and Gramercy Property Trust were finalizing their merger. The New York City-based REIT acquired the 696,377-square foot property at 22110, 22260, 22265 and 22270 Pacific Boulevard in Sterling, Virginia from AOL Inc. for $144.5 million in 2010. The four-building office campus is located right next to AOL's Dulles headquarters outside of Washington, DC. Three buildings in the campus serves as the headquarters for Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems, which has occupied the property since 2009, and is scheduled to remain in the park until 2026; the fourth building is partially rented to Strategic Federal Credit Union.

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Gramercy Sells NJ Office Buildings to Spear Street for $299M

Gramercy Property Trust announced that it had closed on the sale of two office buildings in Jersey City, New Jersey for $299 million, or $349 per square foot, to San Francisco-based Spear Street Capital. Commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield brokered the sale of 70 Hudson Street and 90 Hudson Street, marking the largest New Jersey office deal this year. Before closing, Gramercy prepaid the mortgage debt on 70 Hudson, and Spear Street assumed the outstanding loan of $101 million on 90 Hudson.

"These are unique, irreplaceable assets, and this transaction is clearly the most significant deal to date in 2016,"said Andrew Merin, Vice Chairman within Cushman & Wakefield of New Jersey, Inc., who notes that his team had orchestrated a previous sale of the subject properties in 2011. "This is the only office availability greater than 200,000 square feet and the largest contiguous availability along the Hudson Waterfront. The new ownership will be able to capitalize on the market's strong leasing momentum and cyclically improving rents compared to Manhattan."

70 Hudson Street is a 409,272 square foot, 12-story office building originally constructed in 2000 and is currently vacant after Barclay's recent departure; Cushman & Wakefield are handling the leasing assignment of the property. 90 Hudson Street is also 12 stories tall and covers 418,046 square feet of space; occupancy information was not disclosed. The sale of both properties is part of Gramercy Property Trust's previously announced plan to dispose of select single and multi-tenant office assets.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

101 Independence Center Sold for $108M

A corporation affiliated with Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, one of the largest global real estate investment managers and member of the MassMutual Financial Group, picked up the 20-story 101 Independence Center office tower in uptown Charlotte for $107.75 million this month, according to public records. HFF orchestrated the sale on behalf of KBS Real Estate Investment Trust and asset manager Gramercy Property Trust Inc., which originally put the property on the market in December 2014 seeking to get $120 million for the building. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"101 Independence Center received very strong interest from the marketplace attracting a deep bench of investors. Charlotte has truly evolved into a dynamic market for institutional capital," said Ryan Clutter, senior managing director with HFF. "Charlotte has truly evolved into a dynamic market for institutional capital. Given the strong investor appeal of Charlotte currently, we anticipate a very active selling environment through the remainder of 2015 with many notable institutions seeking quality investments in the city."

Located at 101 N. Tryon St., the building houses about 565,000 square feet of office space and is 83% leased, with Bank of America as the largest tenant. Northeastern University opened a satellite campus in the building in 2011. The construction of the building was completed in 1983 and sits on the site of the former site of the Independence Building at Charlotte's Independence Square.

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