HKMA Buys Stake in NYC Skyscraper for $1.2B

Real Summit Investment, an investment fund of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Exchange Fund (HKMA), has purchased a 49% stake in 1095 Sixth Avenue from Ivanhoe Cambridge and Callahan Capital Partners for $1.15 billion. Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate investment arm of Quebec's public pension plan, and Chicago-based fund manager Callahan, originally acquired the tower — also known as the Salesforce Tower New York and 3 Bryant Park — for $2.2 billion from Blackstone Group in January 2015, according to a report from The Real Deal. The new transaction values the office tower at $2.35 billion. Eastdil Secured brokered the transaction; terms of the deal were not disclosed.

HKMA — whose mission is to control the exchange rate of the Hong Kong Dollar — apparently made the move to control the exchange rate of the Hong Kong Dollar whose value is linked to the US Dollar by government policy. "To diversify risks, we decided to allocate, in a prudent and incremental manner, a small portion of the Exchange Fund to alternative asset class comprising global private equity and overseas real estate," the HKMA's deputy chief executive Eddie Yue said in a December speech.

The 1.2 million-square-foot office tower at 1095 Sixth Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets was 97% leased at the time of sale. "The opportunity to acquire a truly iconic property like Three Bryant Park is extremely rare," said Ivanhoe Cambridge's executive vice president Arthur Lloyd. He added that acquiring the office tower "represents a cornerstone of our expanding U.S. office platform."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Citigroup Buying Back HQ from SL Green for $2B

In its fourth quarter investor calls, SL Green Realty Corp. disclosed that Citigroup, Inc. has exercised their option to purchase 388-390 Greenwich Street for $2.0 billion. The closing is scheduled for December 2017. On Thursday, SL Green executives on a quarterly conference call with analysts said the deal would be profitable for the company. "It allows us to close out a very profitable position, investment position, we took in the asset," said Marc Holliday, SL Green's chief executive. He also noted the transaction "will result in a reduction of indebtedness."

Citigroup previously sold the two-building, 2.6 million-square-foot Tribeca complex to SL Green and Ivanhoe Cambridge, a unit of the Société immobilière Trans-Québec (SITQ), for $ 1.58 billion in 2007. Citigroup continued to lease space after the sale through a 15-year leaseback arrangement, and occupies the complex as the headquarters for Citigroup's divisions of Global Wealth Management and Global Trading. 388 Greenwich Street, originally called the Shearson Lehman Plaza, and more recently the Travelers Building, is a 496-foot, 38-story postmodern office building completed in 1988 and designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox. 90 Greenwich Street comprises 10 story building covering a total area of over 2.6 million square feet.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Ivanhoe, Blackstone Buy Stake in Australian Office Tower

Ivanhoé Cambridge announced this week that in partnership with Blackstone Property Partners Asia the company has acquired a 25% interest in Liberty Place, a 42-story office tower in the heart of Sydney's Midtown. According to a Bloomberg Business report, Canada’s Ivanhoe Cambridge has made its first direct investment in Australia, joining with Blackstone Group LP to buy a stake in a Sydney office complex for A$240 million ($182 million). Ivanhoé and Blackstone are buying their stake from LaSalle Investment Management on a yield of about 5.6%, according to the Australian Business Review. It is the first major office tower deal in Sydney to be struck this year without a development angle, the publication said.

"We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to invest in Australian real estate", explained Rita-Rose Gagné, Executive Vice President, Growth Markets, for Ivanhoé Cambridge. "Blackstone's strong knowledge of the Australian market and its established presence in Australia have been key to the success of this transaction. Ivanhoé Cambridge continues to explore the possibilities of increasing our investments in Australia and in other parts of the Asia-Pacific region in 2015."

Christopher Heady, Senior Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Asia at Blackstone said: "This is our first investment in Asia as part of Blackstone Property Partners' Core+ strategy. Liberty Place fits the Core+ strategy extremely well as a high quality, well-leased asset in a global gateway city. We are pleased to have partnered with Ivanhoe Cambridge on this transaction."

Completed in 2013, 161 Castlereagh Street is the Sydney headquarters of the ANZ Bank, and was 97% leased at the time of sale. Liberty Place was developed on the site behind the Sydney Hilton, spreading from Pitt Street to Castlereagh Street. It occupies 60,176 square meters of office space and 4425 square meters of retail area.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Blackstone Sells Three Bryant Park for $2.2B

Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of Canadian pension fund Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, and its partner, Callahan Capital Properties, announced this week that it had purchased Three Bryant Park at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in New York City for $2.2 billion. The Blackstone Group sold the asset for the second highest price ever paid for a single U.S. office building, just behind the June 2008 sale of the GM Building at 767 Fifth Ave. in New York City for $2.8 billion, according to a CoStar report. The U.S. office portfolio Ivanhoé Cambridge is building with Callahan now totals almost 5 million square feet in New York City and more than 10 million square feet nationally, Callahan chief executive officer Tim Callahan said.

"The opportunity to acquire a truly iconic property like Three Bryant Park is extremely rare," said Arthur Lloyd, Executive Vice President, Global Investments Ivanhoé Cambridge in a press release. "As we redeploy capital that has been rotated out of non-core assets globally, Three Bryant Park represents a cornerstone of our expanding U.S. office platform. The property is 97% leased for the long term to a roster of high-credit quality tenants. It fits perfectly into our investment strategy of building a diversified portfolio of top-quality office properties in gateway U.S. office markets."

"When we considered the quality and unique characteristics of this property, along with the continued enhancements in the immediate area around Three Bryant Park, it was clear this is a compelling long-term investment opportunity," added Tim Callahan, Chief Executive Officer of Callahan Capital Properties. "We continue to be very pleased with the progress we have made in expanding our U.S. office platform with Ivanhoé Cambridge, which now totals almost 5 million square feet in New York City and over 10 million square feet nationally."

Three Bryant Park is located at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in midtown Manhattan between 41st and 42nd Street. The 41 story 1.2 million-square-foot office building, completed in 1972, occupies a 1.4-acre site and has direct access to New York City's major transit hubs. The property was 97% leased at the time of sale with major tenants including MetLife, Verizon and Dechert LLP.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.