Lincoln Partnership Re-Acquires 915 Wilshire

Lincoln Property Company has partnered with affiliates of Rockwood Capital, LLC for the purchase of a 22-story office tower in downtown Los Angeles that it previously sold to Brickman Associates in 2007. Lincoln originally purchased the property in 2003 for $49.2 million, or $128 a square foot, from TIAA-CREF, selling it to Brickman for $117 million, or just under $300 a square foot. The price Lincoln Property paid this time was not released, but sources tell GlobeSt the building probably sold for $130 million. Kevin Shannon, currently with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, brokered the deal; terms were not disclosed.

"Lincoln has a lot of history with this property, and we're thrilled to bring it back into our portfolio once again," said David Binswanger, Executive Vice President of Lincoln Property Company. "We really believe in downtown LA, and with this particular building, we were attracted to its potential for renovation. We look forward to executing our vision to create a more modern, inviting space for current and future tenants of 915 Wilshire."

Originally built in 1979, 915 Wilshire is a 390,312 square foot steel frame Class A office building complete with a storage penthouse, emergency equipped helipad, exterior terraces at the 7th and 8th floor northern exposure, and a parking garage. The Skidmore, Owings and Merrill design was constructed by Turner Construction and developed by Cabot, Cabot & Forbes. After selling the property to Brickman in 2007, Lincoln has stayed on as a property manager and leasing agent. The Lincoln partnership said in a press release that it has plans to renovate the property for the first time in over a decade, to include upgrades to the lobby and valet area, redesigning the outdoor patio, and replacing the elevators. The building was 88% leased at the time of sale, and is across the street from the Wilshire Grand Center, a $1 billion mixed-use project being built by Hanjin Group that's expected to be completed in July 2017.

"We are very excited to be partnering with Lincoln on the renovation of 915 Wilshire," said Tyson Skillings, Managing Partner at Rockwood Capital, LLC. "This property, already in high demand by tenants, is located in the heart of the most vibrant area for redevelopment in downtown LA. It will become even more attractive with the nearby addition of a new, world-class hotel tower, restaurants, nightlife and retail. This is a prime example of Rockwood's investment approach."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

NYL Buys Culver City Property for $131M

New York Life Real Estate Investors, a division of NYL Investors LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of New York Life Insurance Company, announced this week that it had closed on the acquisition of a two-building office property in Culver City, California for $131.25 million, or $296 a square foot. The property was sold by Chicago's Pearlmark Real Estate Partners, who originally purchased the property for $275 per square foot in 2008 from Arden Realty Inc. Bob Safai of Madison Partners represented Pearlmark in the transaction, while New York Life represented itself.

"The 400 and 600 Corporate Pointe properties represent an excellent opportunity to invest in two high quality assets. We plan to upgrade and re-position the two buildings so that they will continue to attract top tier tenants from within the Los Angeles market," said Chris Hunt, senior director at New York Life Real Estate Investors.

"Once refreshed, these buildings will be well-positioned to take advantage of the tremendous demand from technology, media and content companies expanding in the Playa Vista area," added David Binswanger of Lincoln Property Company who will manage the properties for New York Life Investors.

Situated in the prime Lower Westside market area and constructed in 1987 and 1989, 400 and 600 Corporate Pointe consists of two separate, class A office towers totaling 443,705 rentable square feet, along with two on-site parking garages offering a total of 1,584 parking spaces. 400 and 600 Corporate Pointe have a diverse rent roll with notable national, regional and local tenancy including ADP, Sony, Schwarzkopf Professional, ITG Software, Premier Office Centers, Colonial Life, and Antioch University.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Biltmore Commerce Center Sold for $58M

A joint venture between Lincoln Property Company and Oaktree Capital Management has purchased the Biltmore Commerce Center in Phoenix, Arizona for $58 million. Denver-based DPC Development Company sold the 258,348-square-foot Class A office building after purchasing it in 2013 for $42.77 million and deploying a major face-lift of the property.

"Phoenix has the lifestyle, the labor and the commercial real estate to generate upside value, drive demand and respond to tenant needs at almost any point of the real estate cycle," said Lincoln Property Company's Executive Vice President David Krumwiede, who directed the Biltmore Commerce Center investment purchase. "It's an exciting dynamic to work in, particularly when you have a team that can see potential at any given point in the cycle, and use their investment, development and management skills to build on that potential. It leads to a lot of opportunity in many venues, including this latest, great portfolio addition."

"One of the many strengths of Biltmore Commerce Center is the subterranean parking, which provides quick and direct access to all tenant floors via two separate elevator banks," added Mark Jacobs, Managing Director with Oaktree Capital Management. "Tenants can go from their car to their office in less than 60 seconds, compared to five or 10 minutes for most buildings within the submarket. In addition, the location offers great visibility while providing quick and easy access without the high traffic congestion that other projects often experience."

The Biltmore Commerce Center was constructed during the mid 1980s real estate boom at the northeast corner of 32nd Street and Camelback Road. It sits on a 7.5-acre site and includes a six-level parking garage. The property is currently 93% leased to a diversified group of established tenants including HDR Engineering, Lee & Associates, United Way, Greystar, North American Title Company and Miller Russell & Associates.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

American Realty Buys Shoemaker Distribution Center

American Realty Advisors announced this week that it had acquired the Shoemaker Distribution Center, a 175,000 square-foot Class A industrial warehouse in Santa Fe Springs, California. The property, located at 15050-15066 Shoemaker Ave, adjacent to I-5 on the west side of Carmenita Road and south of Rosecrans Avenue, was sold by an entity controlled by Lincoln Property Company; terms of the deal were not disclosed. American Realty Advisors represented itself in this acquisition, while the seller was represented by Barbara Emmons, Darla Longo, Rebecca Perlmutter, and Laird Perkins of CBRE.

The Shoemaker Distribution Center is 100% occupied in a market with just two percent vacancy at the end of the fourth quarter of 2014. Major tenants include Fortune 500 Company J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Altaquip LLC, Pacific Diving Academy USA, Inc., Spartech Corporation, and Sysonic USA, Inc.

"We have a very strong focus on industrial assets throughout the United States in key distribution markets, and 40% of trade in the United States comes through the west coast ports, of which Los Angeles is the largest," Gary Steinhardt, director of the investment group at the firm, told GlobeSt.com. "We believe that the robust tenant and investor demand for functional in-fill distribution assets will continue, making this investment well positioned for long-term growth. Shoemaker offers many of the attributes desired by tenants in Santa Fe Springs, a market which can efficiently serve the entire Los Angeles and Orange County regions. These attributes include ample dock-high and drive-in loading, excess trailer storage and 24' or greater ceiling heights. Basically this is a strong income-producing property that is consistent with American Realty Advisors' ongoing investment strategy to identify core assets in well located, supply constrained markets."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Griffin Towers in Santa Ana Sold for $129M

An affiliate of Blackstone, the global investment and advisory firm, completed the purchase of the Griffin Towers in Santa Ana, California for $129 million, making it the largest commercial office transaction to take place in Orange County this year. A joint venture between Lincoln Property Company and Angelo, Gordon & Co. sold the property with representation from CBRE while Blackstone represented itself. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Our acquisition and subsequent sale of the Griffin Towers is representative of Lincoln's value-add strategy as an owner, operator and manager of Class-A office space across Southern California," said Kevin Hayes, Senior Vice President at Lincoln Property Company. "We identified a trophy asset in financial distress, invested energy and capital into alleviating deferred maintenance, and took a hands-on approach to improving occupancy in a challenging leasing environment."

The twin 12-story office buildings at 5 and 6 Hutton Centre Drive was previously purchased by the Lincoln-led JV in 2010, which then made thorough upgrades to the common areas, improving the occupancy rate from 71% to 88%. The buildings' largest tenants include Corinthian Colleges, one of the largest post-secondary education companies in North America; CH2M Hill; Ultimate Software; and Premier Business Centers.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

DivcoWest Picks Up One Kendall Square in Boston for $395M

Rockwood Capital and Related Beal announced that their joint venture had completed the sale of the One Kendall Square office, lab and retail complex in Cambridge. San Francisco-based Divco­West purchased the nine-building, 670,000-square-foot campus and a 1,500-car garage in two separate sales totaling $395 million. According to a press release, Rockwood and Related Beal originally acquired the property from Lincoln Property Company and JER Partners for $211 million in 2006.

Joe Gorin, Managing Director at Rockwood Capital said, "We believe One Kendall Square is a great example of our ability to create value in a property, and we are proud of the site's transformation into the city's premier science and technology address. The Boston area will continue to be a key target market for Rockwood."

"We could not be more pleased with the performance of the asset, including this significant transaction. Our partner Rockwood Capital shared a consistent vision with us for what One Kendall Square could be, the most successful mixed-use campus in East Cambridge, and to see it through to execution is very rewarding," said Stephen Faber, Executive Vice President of Related Beal. "Success did not just happen; it was born from a lot of hard work from the entire ownership and management team."

One Kendall Square is a modern mixed-use campus offering a variety of lab, office and retail space for lease in the epicenter of science and technology in the heart of Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Over the course of their ownership, Rockwood and Related Beal invested $75 million in the property's base building infrastructure, public spaces and tenant improvements. One Kendall Square houses more than 50 tenants, including Twitter, Liberty Mutual, Staples and Cambridge Brewing Co., according to a Lowell Sun article.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Energy Square in Dallas Sold to JV

Younan Properties announced this week that it had completed the sale of Energy Square in Dallas, Texas for an undisclosed amount. Real estate sources previously said that Energy Square could trade north of $100 million according to a Dallas Business Journal article. The property was acquired by Champion and Lincoln Property Company in a joint venture with Long Wharf Real Estate Partners. Jones Lang LaSalle's Capital Markets team of Evan Stone, Jack Crews and John Alvarado represented Younan in the sales transaction.

Energy Square is a three building Class A office complex built in 1974, 1980 and 1986 with major tenants including Davaco, Homecare Homebase, Reeder Energy, Hartline Dacus Dreyer, New York Life and Jacobs Engineering. The complex covers 953,622 square feet of office space in the North Central Expressway submarket of Dallas and has an average occupancy of 82%.

"There's plans to do a good deal of capital improvements," said Michael Elizondo, executive managing director at Long Wharf. "We're solidifying our ownership and we plan to bring capital to the table."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Energy Crossing I in Dallas Trades Hands

M&I Bank unloaded the deed for Energy Crossing I in Dallas, Texas to Lincoln Property Company, acting for a public pension fund. The sale price was undisclosed, but Lincoln acquired the building free and clear with Holliday Fenoglio Fowler and Stream Realty Partners representing the seller in the transaction according to CoStar.

The 239,166-square-foot office building at 15021 Katy Freeway, developed by Opus West, is currently 20% occupied and claims KBC Advanced Technologies Inc. and Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA as two of its long-term tenants. Energy Crossing I is a Class A, six-story office structure with a four-story, 900-space parking garage on 5.3 acres in the Energy Corridor submarket.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.