CoStar: REITs Will Be Big Sellers in 2016

CoStar Group has reviewed over 80 year-end and fourth quarter earnings reports, along with 2016 outlines, for publicly traded REITs and is projecting a majority of the nation’s publicly traded REITs and real estate companies expect to be big sellers of properties this year, according to a new article. With three times as many REITs projected to be net sellers compared to net buyers, the reviewed companies have disclosed an expectation to sell more than $20.7 billion in properties this year, while only anticipating $9.8 billion in acquisitions.

"Even though the year started with choppy financial markets, we continue to benefit from a very strong real estate market and we expect 2016 to be another very good year," said Bill Hankowsky, chairman, president and CEO of Liberty Property Trust, citing "strong demand from the investment buyer universe."

"Our overall disposition efforts have resulted in a significant reduction of our non-core holdings in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Richmond and Northern Virginia," stated Gerard Sweeney, Brandywine Realty Trust's president and CEO. "In addition, these transactions significantly increase our financial capacity, reduce debt and provide ample liquidity for our development pipeline."

"We expect to complete, including the pending investments announced today, between $750 million to $1 billion of total real estate investments in 2016, subject to favorable capital market conditions," said John Thomas, president and CEO of Physicians Realty.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Liberty Property Sells Orlando Industrial for $36M

Malvern, PA-based Liberty Property Trust announced that it has completed the sale of a 713,585 square foot industrial property at 8201 Chancellor Drive for $35.5 million, marking one of the largest deals in the Orlando-area market in five years. Liberty originally purchased the 713,585 square foot warehouse distribution facility for a total investment of $23.6 million in September 2010, when the drugstore chain CVS had the building 100% leased; Liberty completed a long-term renewal of the lease with the tenant last year. Frank Fallon, Mike Hines and David Murphy of CBRE represented Liberty in the transaction; the unnamed buyer was advised by Exan Capital LLC.

"Liberty remains very committed to the Orlando market and we continue to focus on growing our industrial portfolio," said Stephen Whitley, senior vice president and city manager for Liberty in Orlando. "We have just developed two new buildings and there are more in the planning stages." Liberty, an $8 billion, publicly traded REIT, currently owns and manages 3.6 million square feet of industrial space in Orlando.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Liberty Property Makes $93M Buy in TX

Liberty Property Trust, the Malvern, PA-based real estate investment trust, announced this week that it had purchased three buildings and 139 acres of additional land in La Porte, Texas for approximately $93 million. The property was sold by Port Crossing Commerce Center, a joint-venture of National Property Holdings and ML Realty Partners, which developed the complex together with leasing handled by Colliers International. Liberty purchased the 139 acres of land with plans to add an additional two million square feet of development to Port Crossing Commerce Center. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Strategically, it's been our goal to expand our presence in the southeast/La Porte submarket. We see strengthening fundamentals in this submarket due to one, the positive downstream impact that low oil prices have had on the petrochemical industry, and second, the significant investment and expansion in Houston's port facilities." said Jay Kraft, vice president and city manager for Liberty Property Trust's Houston region in a press release. "With the additional land that will be acquired, we will have the opportunity to leverage our company's expertise in development on the site."

The three 100% leased buildings consist of two rail served and a cross dock building, totaling 921,196 square feet. Phase I development for the 139 acres, which could include a 408,000 square foot cross dock building and a 105,000 square foot rear load building, could commence in 2016.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Philadelphia Navy Yard Project Breaks Ground

The $13 million joint venture project between Liberty Property Trust and Synterra Partners broke ground this week as the partners turned dirt on a fully pre-leased flex building at The Navy Yard. The 75,000 square foot building at 4000 S. 26th Street is 100% pre-leased to three international tenants that will occupy the building upon delivery this December. When complete, the 40-acre Navy Yard Commerce Center will include roughly 525,000 square feet of additional space to the western side of The Navy Yard in Philadelphia.

"We are excited to announce that prior to putting a shovel into the ground, this new building is 100% pre-leased," said Brian Cohen, Liberty Property Trust Vice President and City Manager, at the groundbreaking ceremony. "The appeal for high quality flex space centrally located in the region continues to attract new companies to The Navy Yard, in this case from as far as China, Australia and the United Kingdom. With all five flex buildings in The Navy Yard at capacity, we will continue to meet this growing demand with plans already underway for our sixth flex building."

"We are thrilled to join with our partners to break ground on this incredible new flex space at The Navy Yard," said John Grady, President of PIDC, Philadelphia's city-wide economic development corporation. "A dynamic, vibrant, and growing campus, The Navy Yard continues to attract global companies to Philadelphia. This new building will add to the variety of unique and flexible spaces that can accommodate growth and expansion. We are pleased to support these three companies' expansions, and we welcome them to The Navy Yard."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Comcast Building Even Bigger Philadelphia Skyscraper for $1.2B

Comcast Corporation and Liberty Property Trust announced this week that they will be jointly developing a new $1.2 billion 59-story tower across the street from the Comcast Center, the current tallest building in Pennsylvania and global headquarters for Comcast Corporation. The new 1,121-foot tower on the 1800 block of Arch Street in Center City Philadelphia will stand nearly 150 feet higher than Comcast Center and become a dedicated home for the company's "growing workforce of technologists, engineers, and software architects," as well as the base of operations of local broadcast television stations NBC 10/WCAU and Telemundo 62/WWSI.

"This is yet another historic moment for Comcast," said Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation. "We continue to be proud to call Philadelphia our home, and are thrilled to build a world-class media, technology and innovation center right in the heart of the City, to bring NBC 10 and Telemundo 62 downtown, and to create thousands of jobs and further drive economic activity in the region. We have assembled an incredible design and development team to expand our vertical campus, and I am more excited than ever about the future of Comcast in Philadelphia."

Liberty Property Trust Chairman and CEO William Hankowsky said, "Liberty is thrilled to again have the opportunity to develop a transformative project for the city of Philadelphia, a project that will significantly contribute to the continuing renaissance of Center City as a forward-looking yet uniquely livable urban environment."

Designed by Lord Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, the 1.517 million rentable square foot project will include a new Four Seasons hotel and a block-long lobby with a glass-enclosed indoor plaza accompaniment to Comcast Center's existing outdoor plaza. The new mixed-use tower is expected to be the tallest building in the United States outside of New York and Chicago and will be the largest private development project in the history of Pennsylvania.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Liberty Property Trust Sells Portfolio for $368M

Liberty Property Trust, a Malvern, PA-based real estate investment trust, announced today that it had sold of 49 properties in three states for a total of $367.7 million. These transactions are all part of a previously announced strategy to dispose of a total of 97 properties in the company's portfolio; the sale of the remaining properties are scheduled for late next month for $329.6 million.

The properties included in this disposition include 1.9 million square feet of office properties, 1.8 million square feet of flex properties and 274,000 square feet of industrial properties. Liberty Property has successfully sold its Jacksonville, FL portfolio in its entirety, a portion of the Fort Washington, PA portfolio, and flex properties located in Minnesota.

In October, Liberty Property sealed the $1.475 billion buyout of Cabot Industrial Value Fund III that enhanced its industrial platform by 23 million square feet, according to a Zack's report. The company gained 177 properties in 24 new and existing Liberty industrial markets. Simultaneously, Liberty Property is making concerted efforts to lower its exposure to the suburban office properties market.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Liberty Property Trust Buys Cabot Industrial Portfolio for $1.5B

Liberty Property Trust, a Pennsylvania-based industrial landlord, announced this week that it had entered into an agreement to buy the operating partnership of Cabot Industrial Value Fund III for $1.475 billion. The purchase price consists of the assumption of approximately $230 million of outstanding mortgage debt with a weighted average maturity of seven years with the remainder payable in cash. Liberty, which currently owns 662 properties, said it will fund the deal with a combination of real estate sales, debt and equity financing, according to a Businessweek article. The company also announced that it plans to sell 21 million shares.

"With approximately 58% of this portfolio located in Liberty's current markets and approximately 21% in the target markets of Atlanta, Dallas and Southern California, we are expanding into three of the top five national industrial markets," William Hankowsky, chief executive officer of Liberty, said in a statement.

Expected to close in October of 2013, the transaction will increase Liberty's industrial platform by approximately 23 million square feet and will add 177 properties in 24 new and existing Liberty industrial markets. Of the total portfolio, approximately 13 million square feet are located in 14 of Liberty's existing 15 industrial markets, including Chicago, South Florida, Houston, New Jersey, Maryland and Central Pennsylvania.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Navy Yard Corporate Center Project Breaks Ground in Philly

The Navy Yard Corporate Center, an integrating office and residential development with, retail shopping, restaurants, a conference center and a marina in Philadelphia, saw a groundbreaking on Monday on two of three planned flex buildings. The first two buildings will total 103,137 square feet of space. The facility at 4020 S. 26th Street will offer 51,560 square feet while its sister building at 4050 S. 26th Street will provide 51,577 square feet. A third building, which is expected to begin development once leasing of the first two is well underway, will expand the capacity by an additional 82,863 square feet. Liberty Property Trust and Synterra Partners also announced the signing of the project's first tenant as The Fretz Corp., an appliance wholesale distributor,agreed to lease 22,391 square feet, taking nearly half of the 4050 S. 26th Street building according to a CoStar report.

"The expansion of The Philadelphia Navy Yard as a growing center of business has been a smart investment for the city, developers and the companies that do business there. These two, new buildings will help the city to attract businesses that are new to the region or expanding within the city," said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. "I would like to thank PIDC, Liberty Property Trust and Synterra Partners for investing in the Naval Yard."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.