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.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

JLL Picks Up Valencia Industrial Portfolio for $65M

JLL Income Property Trust, an REIT advised by LaSalle Investment Management Inc. and sponsored by Chicago’s commercial real estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., announced that it had acquired a five-building warehouse portfolio in the Greater Los Angeles submarket for approximately $64.5 million. The multi-tenant portfolio was sold by Clarion Partners with representation from JLL; full terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"Acquiring high quality, well-located warehouses in select, primary markets with high barriers to entry, like the Greater Los Angeles market, is a core component of our investment strategy," said Allan Swaringen, CEO and President of JLL Income Property Trust. "This portfolio's prime infill location in close proximity to Interstate 5 should allow us to attract and retain tenants and capture this market's strong rent growth potential. This marks our third industrial investment closed this year, and twenty-third property acquired in the warehouse sector over the last three years, growing our industrial allocation to over $430 million and 25% of our overall portfolio."

The Valencia Industrial Portfolio was full leased at the time of sale to eight different tenants. With an overall market vacancy rate of less than 2% (its lowest level in fifteen years), and new construction pipelines delivering less than 1% of existing stock, the industrial property market fundamentals of Greater Los Angeles are some of the strongest across all property types and markets in the country, according to JLL. The properties in the portfolio include:

28150 West Harrison Parkway: 87k square feet
28145 West Harrison Parkway: 114k square feet
28904-28912 Avenue Paine: 117k square feet
24823 Anza Drive: 31.3k square feet
25045 Avenue Tibbitts: 142.4k square feet

"The Valencia Industrial Portfolio offered quality assets occupied by credit tenants in a market with great connectivity," explained Bo Mills of JLL. "With a limited supply of Class A warehouse product in Southern California and in-place rents below market value, this deal represented a prime opportunity for both the buyer and seller."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Hines Sells Wilshire Office Tower for $225M

Douglas Emmett, Inc., a California based REIT, in partnership with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) announced the acquisition of a Class A office building in Los Angeles for $225 million, or $616 per square foot. The 19-story building was sold by a fund managed by Hines; Hines acquired the property from Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management for the same amount in 2007 on behalf of its U.S. Office Value Added Fund II, L.P. Douglas Emmett will manage the joint venture and expects to retain a 20% to 30% equity interest, with the remainder held by institutional partners. Eastdil Secured handled the transaction.

Designed by Tracy Price Associates, 12100 Wilshire Boulevard was completed in 1985 and is located at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Bundy Drive in the Brentwood submarket of West Los Angeles. The building features ocean views starting from the second floor, outdoor balconies on the top two floors and an above-market parking ratio. Including known move-outs, the property will be 77% leased at the time of closing, with major tenants including Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman, Akana (formerly SOA Software Inc.) and Regus.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

C-III Capital Partners Acquires Resource America for $207M

Resource America, Inc., a Philadelphia real estate investment and finance firm, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by C-III Capital Partners LLC, a New York-based real estate investment company, for a total of approximately $207 million, or $9.78 per share. Resource America's Board of Directors unanimously approved the agreement, which is expected to close late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter of 2016, pending approval by Resource America stockholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. C-III said in a statement that it intends to retain the leadership and staff of Resource America's asset management businesses. Proskauer represented C-III Capital Partners in the acquisition while Evercore served as exclusive financial advisors to Resource America.

"We are very pleased with this transaction, which we believe provides excellent value to our shareholders and positions the businesses that we have created for further growth," said Jonathan Cohen, President and CEO of Resource America. "C-III is a highly regarded real estate services and investment management organization with outstanding leadership, deep commercial real estate expertise and a management team, led by Andrew Farkas, that has a 30-year track record of acquiring and enhancing businesses and helping them flourish. This transaction should enable Resource America to focus on reaching a new level of excellence, which will benefit our employees, customers and partners."

Resource America is the external manager of one publicly traded REIT, four non-traded REITs and two other registered investment companies and focuses on capital-raising activities through the independent broker-dealer network. The combined company will manage over $25 billion of gross assets, and will be the owner or manager of over 70,000 apartment units across the U.S., the companies said.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Broadstone Acquires Nationwide Offices for $54.6M

Broadstone Net Lease, an REIT managed by Broadstone Real Estate, LLC, announced the purchase of two office buildings in Pennsylvania from Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company in a $54.6 million sale-leaseback deal. The two properties are located in Harrisburg and Harleysville, Pennsylvania with 384,797 square feet of space on 65 acres, all of which is tenanted under one master lease for an initial term of 12 years, supporting numerous Nationwide business units, including underwriting, claims processing, and information technology. The deal was brokered and sourced by Steve Marzullo at CBRE.

"We are thrilled to acquire these two Nationwide properties, and to commence a new 12-year lease via this sale leaseback transaction," said Amy Tait, Chairman and CEO of Broadstone Real Estate, in a statement on the deal. "BNL has assembled a fully-leased portfolio of 348 properties, and this acquisition serves to further bolster the credit strength of our portfolio."

The properties have seen upgrades in recent years as Nationwide has worked to centralized its regional operations after the acquisition of Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co. and Harleysville Group Inc. While Nationwide will continue to keep its regional headquarters in Harleysville, the company disclosed that it will transfer all 100 jobs from its investment management unit in King of Prussia to its corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, by the end of this year.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Maryland Office Portfolio Trades for $240M

Rockville, Maryland-based Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRE) announced that it has sold all six of its suburban Maryland office properties for $240 million in two separate contracts to an affiliate of Brookfield Property Partners. The REIT retained Cushman & Wakefield to market its suburban portfolio holdings at the beginning of the year, shifting its focus to urban, Metro-accessible sites in Greater Washington. In a press release on Q1 financials, WRE said it expects the transactions to close in Q2 and Q3 of 2016, and that it is also under contract to sell a parcel of land at Dulles Station in nearby Herndon, Virginia.

Properties in the portfolio include:

6110 Executive Boulevard, 10-story 202,000 square foot office building in Rockville

One Central Plaza at 11300 Rockville Pike, a 267,000 square foot 13-story office building (acquired by WRE for $44M in 2001)

600 Jefferson Plaza in Rockville at 5 stories tall with 113,000 square feet of space

The West Gude Drive complex at 20, 30, 40, 50 West Gude Drive, 277,000 square feet over 5 stories

The 21-story 51 Monroe Street office building with 223,000 square feet of space

and Wayne Plaza at 962 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring with 99,000 square feet over 9 floors

Washington REIT CEO Paul McDermott had said during the October 2015 earnings call that the properties had significant upside for buyers willing to invest in them. West Gude, for example, is "definitely a sales candidate that has opportunity to it," while "600 Jefferson would probably be another opportunity for someone else to improve and allocate capital to, same with Wayne Plaza." Earlier this month, WRE placed a nine-story, fully leased office building on the market that serves global headquarters for Booz Allen Hamilton and is near the Greensboro Metro Station in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Physicians Realty Trust Buying $725M Medical-Office Portfolio

Physicians Realty Trust, a self-managed healthcare properties REIT that conducts its business through an UPREIT structure in which its properties are owned by Physicians Realty L.P., announced that is buying a portfolio of 52 medical office facilities owned by Englewood, CO-based based Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) for approximately $724.9 million. The purchase price includes $32.9 million of future capital improvements, the majority of which should be completed within 5 years. The buildings are controlled by regional health systems affiliated with CHI, and because of CHI's sponsorship by the Catholic church, the deal requires Vatican approval, according to a Healthcare Finance News report.

"Today we announce what we believe to be one of the largest and most important medical office facility relationships established by a REIT directly with a major healthcare system," John Thomas, President and Chief Executive Officer at Physicians Realty Trust, said in a statement. "We are honored and humbled to be selected to monetize these facilities and enhance CHI's healthcare real estate service delivery platform through this partnership. Our investment provides substantial liquidity to CHI. More importantly, we are helping to free CHI executives, management, physicians, providers and staff to focus on their primary Mission, to nurture the healing ministry of the Church, supported by education and research, while we provide real estate capital, management, and strategic intellectual support to enhance their existing facilities, physician recruiting and outpatient strategies."

The purchased buildings amount to nearly 3.2 million square feet of rentable space in 10 states, and are 94.4% leased with an average of 8.6 years left on their leases. Leases at the properties are expected to bring in $43.5 million of net operating income, according to a Law360 report. Physicians Realty Trust expects to close the acquisition in two tranches; the first tranche is expected to close in April 2016, for a total purchase price of approximately $202 million. The second tranche, expected to include most, if not all of the remaining properties, is expected to close before the end of the second quarter of 2016, for a total purchase price of approximately $490 million. Thomas added that the company continues to see additional opportunities for growth in the second half of the year, and has, therefore, increased its investment guidance to $1.0-1.25 billion of total investments for 2016, from a range of $750 million-1.0 billion.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

BioMed Picks Up University Towne Center Buildings for $55M

BioMed Realty, a San Diego-based self-advised REIT, announced that it has purchased a two-building laboratory and office property in San Diego's University Towne Center (UTC) market for $55 million. W.P. Carey, a leading global net-lease REIT, sold the buildings. While terms of the deal and represenation were not disclosed by either company, Jones Lang LaSalle has both properties listed on their marketing website. The transaction marks BioMed's first acquisition since being acquired by affiliates of New York-headquartered Blackstone Group in an $8 billion transaction that closed in January.

"This acquisition in the UTC life science hub of San Diego greatly expands our presence within one of the most vibrant innovation communities anywhere," said Tracy Murphy, senior vice president, west coast leasing at BioMed Realty. "We strive to provide our tenants with the best opportunities to grow and collaborate, and acquiring these premier buildings in the heart of UTC allows us create a true campus environment with our 4570 Executive Drive building in order to attract and retain more of San Diego's leading biotech companies here."

The acquisition of 9360 and 9390 Towne Centre Drive adds another 144,300 square feet of presence for BioMed in the UTC life science market, where it already owns another two buildings in the 9800 block of Town Centre Drive. The UTC Campus offers companies a mix of office and lab space situated around a reflecting pond, with ingress and egress access points to both the I-5 and I-805 freeways. Originally built in 1989, 9360 Towne Centre Drive features 71,390 rentable square feet of space with an existing 100% office build-out, while 9390 Towne Centre Drive offers a 65% office/35% lab split across 72,921 square feet. Each three-story building contains its own lobby area, secured underground parking, a commercial kitchen, fitness center and large conference rooms.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners

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.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

JV Buys $1.34B Los Angeles Office Portfolio

Douglas Emmett, Inc., the California-based REIT, announced that in a joint venture with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) it had acquired a 1,725,000 square foot office portfolio in Westwood for $1.34 billion, or approximately $777 per square foot. The JV secured a a non-recourse $580 million interest-only loan with a seven-year term in connection with the acquisition. The interest rate is floating at Libor plus 1.40%, which has been fixed at 2.37% annually for five years through an interest rate swap.

Douglas Emmett indicated that it plans to retain 20-30% of the equity in the joint venture, with the remaining interests being held by institutional partners. With this purchase, Douglas Emmett controls 74% of the Westwood Wilshire office corridor, where it already owned One Westwood, 10960 Wilshire, The Tower, 10880 Wilshire, Westwood Place and Westwood Center.

For QIA, this joint venture represents another step in its plans to significantly expand its US investment portfolio, and follows other large investments in real estate, such as in New York City last year. In 2015, QIA announced plans to invest $35 billion in North America over five years.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Brookfield to Acquire Rouse Properties for $2.8B

Rouse Properties Inc. announced that it has agreed to be acquired by an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. in a deal valued at approximately $2.8 billion. Rouse has entered into a definitive agreement at $18.25 per share in an all-cash transaction; Brookfield, which already owned about a third of Rouse, originally proposed to acquire the group mid-January of this year of about $2.54 billion in a deal that valued Rouse at $17.00 per share. BofA Merrill Lynch is acting as financial advisor and Sidley Austin LLP is acting as legal counsel to the Special Committee of Rouse Properties, Inc.

"The Rouse team has built a great company with a strong platform and differentiated assets," said David Kruth, chairman of the Special Committee of the board of Rouse Properties, which unanimously approved the deal. "After careful consideration, the Special Committee determined that Brookfield's increased proposal provides shareholders with compelling value as well as a high degree of execution certainty, further validating the strength of the platform that Rouse has built. We are pleased to have reached this agreement, which we believe benefits all Rouse shareholders."

Rouse Properties is among the U.S.'s largest publicly traded regional mall owners. The REIT's portfolio includes 35 malls and retail centers in 21 states encompassing approximately 24.1 million square feet.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

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.

Douglas Emmett Buying 4 LA Towers for $1.34B

Santa Monica, CA-based Douglas Emmett, a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT), released its Fourth Quarter 2015 Earnings Results this week, which included the disclosure that the company has agreed to buy a four building office portfolio for $1.34 billion, or $779 per square foot. The portfolio of four Class A multi-tenant office properties in Westwood are being sold by an unnamed owner and are currently 89% leased.

"As has been our plan, these assets will be purchased by an institutional joint venture that we will manage," Douglas Emmett noted in the earnings report. "We expect the acquisition to close in the first quarter of 2016." The properties in the portfolio include:

— 10960 Wilshire Boulevard, a 24-story tower with 543,804 rentable square feet
— 10940 Wilshire Boulevard, a 24-story tower with 222,066 rentable square feet built in 1988
— 10880 Wilshire Boulevard, a 24-story Class A building offering over 580,000 square feet of office space
— 1100 Glendon Avenue , a 22-story tower with 328,514 square feet built in 1965

The deal would be one of the largest office acquisitions in Los Angeles in recent years and give Douglas Emmett a 74% market share in L.A.'s high-profile Wilshire Westwood Corridor, according to a CoStar report. For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Boston Properties' Back Bay MU Project

Boston Properties, Inc., an REIT that focuses primarily on the Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco markets, and Whitehall Street Real Estate Limited Partnership IX, an affiliate of
Goldman, Sachs & Co., announced that they have submitted a letter of intent with Prudential Insurance Company of America to acquire the commercial property and development rights associated with the Prudential Center located in Boston's "Back Bay" office and residential neighborhood. MassDOT approved long-term leases of the four air and ground parcels at 145 and 165 Dartmouth St. to Boston Properties in December 2014; Boston Properties and Whitehall are seeking approval for development rights that would allow approximately 1.75 million gross square feet of new commercial construction, with two office buildings totaling 1.72 million net rentable square feet, a 477,000 net-rentable-square-foot retail complex and a parking garage with 2,700 spaces.

The letter is, of course, non-binding and doesn't ensure that an agreement will be reached to move forward with the companies' plans, but Prudential officials noted in a press release that the decision to move into exclusive negotiations now with Boston Properties and Whitehall was made for "strategic reasons." Brian Murphy, Managing Director for Prudential general account real estate investments, said, "From the beginning of this marketing process, we have been interested in alternatives to a straight cash sale. We believe in this property's potential for favorable investment returns well into the future, and we want to participate by retaining a stake -- directly, indirectly or both." David Raszmann, Prudential Vice President in charge of the property, added, "Prudential Center is indisputably the hub of Boston's Back Bay, and is one of America's best-recognized landmarks. Neither we, nor generations of Bostonians want that to be disrupted. The name Prudential Center will remain as part of the final deal."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

DRA Buys Inland Real Estate in $2.3B Deal

Inland Real Estate Corporation (IRC) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by DRA Advisors in a deal valued at about $2.3 billion, including the assumption of existing debt. International law firm Proskauer represented Inland Real Estate in the deal, which, as of September 30, 2015, owned interests in 135 fee simple investment properties, including 36 owned through its unconsolidated joint ventures, with aggregate leasable space of approximately 15 million square feet. Inland's board has unanimously approved the merger, expected to occur in the first half of 2016, though it is contingent upon customary closing conditions, including the approval of stockholders, who will vote on the deal at a special meeting. Under the terms of the merger agreement, funds managed by DRA will acquire all issued and outstanding common stock of IRC for $10.60 per share in cash; upon completion of the transaction, IRC will become a privately held REIT.

"The Board has been focused on the options available to address the long-term discount at which the Company's shares have traded versus private market valuations and its shopping center REIT peers," said Thomas P. D'Arcy, non-executive chairman of Inland Real Estate Corporation. "The Board unanimously believes this all-cash offer is the best course of action to address this valuation gap and provide our stockholders with strong relative value for their investment."

IRC said it expects to pay regular monthly cash distributions of $0.0475 per share on the outstanding shares of its common stock until the merger closes. In addition, the company will pay monthly cash dividends of $0.169271 per share on the outstanding shares of its 8.125 percent Series A cumulative redeemable preferred stock and and $0.144791667 per share on the outstanding shares of its 6.95% Series B cumulative redeemable preferred stock.

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.

Agellan Sells Odenton Warehouse for $11.3M

Agellan Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust announced this week that it had sold a 70,000 square foot single-tenant industrial building located at 8271 Anderson Court in Odenton, Maryland for $11.3 million. The property is currently fully leased to Domino's Pizza, which signed a 10-year lease this past October. Agellan did not identify the buyer of the property at 8271 Anderson Court, but said it was a "third-party purchaser", according to a Baltimore Business Journal article.

"The REIT intends to redeploy the capital from this single tenant building disposition into higher yielding multi-tenant investments with upside potential," said Frank Camenzuli, the Chief Executive Officer of Agellan Commercial REIT. The sale is consistent with Agellan's strategy of recycling capital by selling assets in certain markets that are no longer aligned with its core strategies in order to fund new investment opportunities. Agellan intends to focus on multi-tenant properties that provide enhanced diversity.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Omega Acquires Aviv to Form $11B REIT

Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc., the Maryland-based REIT, announced that it had completed it's acquisition of Aviv REIT, Inc. in a stock-for-stock merger, forming a combined company with a total market capitalization of approximately $11.1 billion. According to a company press release, the combined company will be the premier publicly traded REIT focused principally on skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), with a diversified portfolio of investments including over 900 properties located in 41 states and operated by 81 different operators. Pickett will continue in his role as CEO, while Aviv's former president and chief operating officer was appointed chief corporate development officer. Aviv's former chairman, as well as two former directors, received seats on the board, according to a Baltimore Sun article.

"We believe that the combination with Aviv and the expertise and proven track records of the combined management team firmly positions Omega to continue as the leading consolidator in the large, highly fragmented SNF industry," said Taylor Pickett, Omega Healthcare Investor's Chief Executive Officer.

Craig M. Bernfield, Aviv's former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated: "I am confident that our vision to substantially grow Aviv's platform of high quality properties and operators will be implemented through the combination of these two outstanding companies, and I believe that our combined industry knowledge, experience and relationships will be the key to our future success."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

COPT Buys Baltimore Office Building for $64M

Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT), an office REIT that focuses primarily on serving the specialized requirements of U.S. Government agencies and defense contractors, announced this week that it had purchased 250 West Pratt Street in Baltimore for $63.5 million, or $172 per square foot. The building's seller, Dallas-based Tier REIT Inc., was represented by Cushman & Wakefield of Maryland Inc. in the transaction; Tier acquired the 24-story tower for $51.8 million in 2004.

"This acquisition enhances the quality of our regional office portfolio by increasing our ownership of urban, in-fill buildings in amenity- and transportation-rich submarkets," Roger Waesche, Jr., COPT's President and Chief Executive Officer, said in a press release.

Located in Maryland's Pratt Street Corridor near the Inner Harbor, the 368,200 square foot building has quick access to light rail, I-395, the MARC Train's Camden Yards station and is walking distance from the subway. The property was 95% leased at the time of sale and will soon become home to Pandora Jewelry LLC, which is moving its Americas headquarters and hundreds of workers to the property from Columbia in the next several weeks.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Reston Office Building Back on the Market

Columbia Property Trust, the Atlanta-based REIT, announced this week that it would be targeting 14 assets for disposition during 2015; the first to go will be 1881 Campus Commons Building in Reston, VA. Columbia Property Trust acquired the office building this January in a three-building portfolio that was purchased for $436 million. According to a JayRicky.com report, the portfolio purchase was funded with a $300 million bridge loan, a $140 million draw under Columbia's unsecured credit facility, and $148 million of cash on hand, primarily generated by 2014 disposition activity.

1881 Campus Commons is a transit-oriented, Class-A office building located in Reston, Virginia, one of Washington D.C.'s largest submarkets. The recently renovated 5-story property features a state-of-the art fitness center and on-site café. SOS International and Siemens Government Services are both service and solution providers for the public and private sectors.

Other local assets it wants to sell include 1580 West Nursery Rd. in Baltimore, Maryland -- a two-building Class-A office complex that serves as the corporate headquarters for the Electronics Systems Sector of Northrop Grumman; and 800 North Frederick in Gaithersburg, Maryland, according to a GlobeSt.com report.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.