CWCapital Marketing $2.1B in Assets

CWCapital Asset Management (CWCAM), a subsidiary of Bethesda, MD-based CW Financial Services, announced today that it's marketing a $2.12 billion portfolio of real estate and commercial mortgage loan assets in its capacity as special servicer. The portfolio covers properties throughout the country, many in major markets such as New York City, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles/Orange County, Houston and Phoenix with the balance located in secondary and tertiary markets. The assets securing the portfolio total nearly 4.7 million square feet of office space, 3.5 million square feet of retail, 1.1 million square feet of industrial plus 4,700 multifamily units and 2,100 hotel rooms; the remainder of the portfolio consists of mixed-use, hospitality and industrial assets.

According to a press release from CWCAM, brokerage firms including CBRE, Eastdil Secured, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, Mission Capital, and Marcus & Millichap, are overseeing the marketing of 20 assets with an unpaid principal balance of $1.38 billion. Additionally, 71 assets with an unpaid balance of approximately $740 million are currently being marketed via Auction.com.

In October 2013 when CWCAM marketed a portfolio of 134 assets with a unpaid principal balance of $3.43 billion, the vast majority of the assets eventually closed with overall recoveries averaging $0.66 on the dollar of the unpaid principal balance, according to a GlobeSt.com article.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Old Town Pasadena Portfolio Sold for $42M

A two-property portfolio in Old Towne Pasadena traded hands this week as Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, arranged the sale for $42.6 million. The portfolio was sold by and purchased from separate private investors, with full terms of the deal left undisclosed.

"The seller felt that the market timing was right to attract strong offer activity and achieve a good price," Ron Harris, an EVP at Institutional Property Advisors, told GlobeSt.com. According to Harris, the sale drew interest from "a true mix of institutional buyers, private buyers with institutional equity and pure private buyers." The buyer to win the bid was in the latter group. "Interest was particularly high because of the location of the property—an A+ location just of the "main-on-main" corner of Colorado Blvd. and Fair Oaks," Harris says.

"This transaction is a meaningful example of the power that private capital has in the current marketplace," added IPA director Paul Darrow. "The assets' location and vintage, plus the rarity of the offering, attracted a great deal of serious interest from both private and institutional capital. Normally, institutional investors who are, generally speaking, more competitive and better capitalized, purchase opportunities of this size. In this instance however, a high-net worth private investor was extremely competitive and acquired the property."

The portfolio includes 91 residential units, 22 West Green St. and 65 West Dayton St., and two freestanding retail buildings, 60 West Green St. and 70 West Green St. Built in 2003, the four-story, 48-multifamily unit building at 22 West Green St., called "Palermo," is on the southwest corner of West Green Street and South Fair Oaks Avenue. The five-story building located between South De Lacey Avenue and South Fair Oaks Avenue at 65 West Dayton St., called "Messina," was constructed in 2004.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Eight El Camino Real Corridor Redevelopment Sites Sold

Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services announced this week that it had facilitated the sale of eight key Silicon Valley redevelopment sites along the El Camino Real corridor in separate transactions for a total of $71.1 million. Last month, the company arranged the $12.35 million sale of a 2.5-acre redevelopment site located at 302 North Fair Oaks Ave., 318 North Fair Oaks Ave., 617 Arques Ave. and 627 Arques Ave. in Sunnyvale, California. Since March 2012, Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services has facilitated the sale of six additional El Camino Real corridor properties totaling $43.9 million. In August, they arranged the sale of a 1.6-acre parcel at 881 East El Camino Real and a 0.6-acre parcel at 865 East El Camino Real in Mountain View, California.

"The employment gains and flow of venture capital dollars that returned in earnest to Silicon Valley in 2010 created a strong combination of factors that brought about double-digit multifamily rent growth, robust demand for office space and contributed to the ongoing recovery in the hotel sector," says Steve Seligman, vice president and regional manager of Marcus & Millichap's Palo Alto office. "This growth also initiated a flurry of construction in the region and investors continue to pursue development opportunities in the area's under-utilized locations."

"Marcus & Millichap's Palo Alto office is closely acquainted with this submarket and two of our senior investment specialists, Kirk Trammell and J.J. Taughinbaugh, have been particularly successful in identifying redevelopment project sites for clients," added Seligman.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Marketplace at Edgewater Sold for $20.6M

Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services announced that it has arranged the sale of Marketplace at Edgewater in Edgewater, New Jersey for $20.6 million, or roughly $232 per square foot. Mark Taylor, Dean Zang and Christopher Munley, all in Marcus & Millichap's Philadelphia office, represented the seller, a private investor.

The new owner, Capstone Realty Group, plans to launch a multi-million dollar improvement plan for the 88,902 square-foot center, including new facades and enhancements to the property's boardwalk overlooking the Hudson river. "We plan to upgrade and modernize the Edgewater Marketplace and aggressively seek high quality tenants for the vacant space," said Rob Friedberg, managing partner at Capstone, in a CoStar article.

Marketplace at Edgewater was built in 1990 on approximately 6.4 acres at 725 River Road. It is anchored by Trader Joe's, which leases the pad site; other tenants include Animal General, Binghamton Bagel, Chase Bank, Fast Frames, H&R Block, PetValu, River Pet Resorts and Scerbo Physical Fitness. Capstone said that it has retained Curtis Nassau at Ripco Real Estate to lease the remaining 14,000 square feet of space.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Third-Quarter 2010 Real Estate Investment Outlook Report

A new report titled Third-Quarter 2010 Real Estate Investment Outlook: Investors Go On Offense, finding that Improving capital markets spark renewed interest across property types, has been released by National Real Estate Investor, Retail Traffic, and Marcus & Millichap. Earlier this year the groups invited private investors and developers of commercial real estate to participate in a survey to gather market opinions; the majority of respondents were private investors (36%); private partnerships (19%) or developers (16%) with an average of $35.8 million invested in commercial real estate. The full report can be read here. An excerpt:

The exclusive National Real Estate Investor/Marcus & Millichap Investor Sentiment Index shows that investor confidence has taken a major step forward in the past year. After bottoming out in 2009 with an index rating of 91, investor sentiment rose to 113 in the first quarter and 119 in the third quarter of this year. Although the index shows that sentiment is still well off the high of 148 that occurred in 2005, the positive trend over the past year is an encouraging sign that investor confidence is returning.

The index takes into account survey responses related to expected changes in property values for various real estate sectors, as well as plans to increase or decrease total real estate holdings. The baseline of 100 indicates neutral sentiment for the industry. The trajectory shows that investor sentiment reached its high in 2005, followed by a dip to a trough in 2008 and 2009, and is now showing signs of an upswing in 2010.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.