Clarion Adds to Austin Office and Retail Portfolios

Clarion Partners has expanded its Austin portfolio with the acquisition of Mira Vista and The Overlook, an office portfolio, and a single tenant retail property occupied by Whole Foods Market Inc. The office portfolio was purchased from Houston-based The Lionstone Group, while the retail building was developed and owned by Austin-based Endeavor Real Estate Group in partnership with RREEF, now known as Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management. HFF represented the seller for both transactions; terms of the deals were not disclosed.

"We're excited to expand our portfolio in Austin," said Brian Watkins, a Managing Director at Clarion Partners. "This is one of the strongest major metropolitan markets in the country and we believe the strong location and proximity to amenities make these assets an excellent addition to our portfolio."

The 171,872 square foot, two-building office portfolio is currently 98.2% leased across a variety of professional service industries. Mira Vista and The Overlook were developed in 2002 and 1999, respectively, and are occupied with a strong tenant roster across varied industries including finance, real estate, legal, education and technology. Whole Foods has a long-term lease for the 60,000-square-foot property at 11920 Domain Drive.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

KBS Sells Millennium Tower in Dallas

KBS Realty has sold the 351,683 square-foot Millennium Tower, one of the most prestigious and recognizable office properties in Far North Dallas, to Gaedeke Group, a Dallas-based real estate firm. KBS Realty, which was represented in the sale by the CBRE team of Gary Carr, John Alvarado, Erick Mackey, and Robert Hill, acquired the building in 2008 from RREEF. The sale price and terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Carr, CBRE vice chairman, said the property was highly sought-after by institutional and private investors nationwide. "Millennium Tower is one of the highest quality suburban assets in the city," he said. "We are pleased to see Gaedeke buy it because of the quality of the ownership. This building has always been owned by quality investors."

"We have looked at many buildings through the years, but this one stood out as a premier class office building," says Glenn Lickstein, president of Dallas-based Gaedeke Group. "This is an excellent addition to our existing portfolio of class A office properties."

The 14-story, 351,683-square-foot office building at 15455 N. Dallas Parkway has been institutionally owned since its completion in 2000 by Dallas developer Wynn Jackson. As of January 2014, the property will be 97.8% occupied, with major tenants including Dresser Inc., a subsidiary of General Electric Co. Going forward, leasing will be handled by Belinda Dabliz, vice president at Gaedeke, according to a D Real Estate Daily report. On-site property management will be led by Debra Spears, who previously oversaw Banner Place.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Equity Office Sells Two CA Complexes for $359M

Equity Office Properties has sold two of its business complexes located in San Jose and Sunnyvale, CA to two separate institutional investors. According to a CoStar report, the portfolio totals nearly 1 million square feet of space that traded for an estimated $359 million. CBRE's Joseph Moriarty, Mark Schmidt, and Bob Steinbock in San Jose represented Equity Office Management in the two deals.

Deutsche Bank's Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (formerly Rreef) purchased Oakmead West, a seven-building, 431,490-square-foot campus near the intersection of Highway 101 and Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale, according to a deed filed Wednesday. In a separate deal that closed Thursday, KBS Realty Advisors picked up the eight-building, 615,233-square-foot Corporate Technology Centre, near the intersection of Highway 237 and Zanker Road in North San Jose. The property contains seven office/R&D buildings and one Tier III data center, according to a Silicon Valley Business Journal article.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Facebook Moving HQ to Menlo Park

In the biggest lease deal in Silicon Valley since 1991 when Apple signed an 865,000-square-foot lease agreement, Facebook held a news conference at Menlo Park City Hall on Tuesday explaining that the crowding in their current location pushed the move to a larger space in Menlo Park where the social networking company will assume multiple office buildings to serve as its headquarter campus according to a CNN article. The company will begin moving its employees this summer and said that it would be renovating the campus to make it a fun place to work.

"There are very few opportunities for a city to have an 'it' company," Mayor Richard Cline said of Facebook after the press conference. "And we also have facilities that are vacant. This solves a big problem." Facebook will rent the one million square feet, nine building campus from Deutsche Bank AG’s RREEF in a 15-year sale-leaseback deal; RREEF purchased the 57-acre property from Sun Microsystems owner Oracle Corp. for an undisclosed amount. The property was built between 1993 and 1995 and was the corporate headquarters for Sun Microsystems until it was acquired by Oracle.

Chief Financial Officer David Ebersman noted that Facebook has the option to buy the property in five years. The company also bought an adjacent 22-acre property, connected to the new site by a tunnel, for future development.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

RREEF Picks Up Miami's London Square for $95.25M

RREEF, the real estate investment management business of Deutsche Bank's Asset Management division, purchased London Square in Miami for $95.25 million on behalf of an institutional client according to a CoStar article. WMD London Square, LLC, an affiliate of Boca Raton-based Woolbright Development, sold the property. The purchase was financed by a $44.1 million mortgage from ING Real Estate Finance.

"The acquisition of London Square, a high-quality mixed use property, provides our client with diverse, stable cash flow with long term growth potential," said Brian McAuliffe, RREEF Americas' Head of Transactions. "We are pleased to have identified this strong investment and believe that it further underscores the value of our global platform and local investment expertise for our clients."

London Square is a 299,103-square-foot property at the southeast corner of SW 120th Street and SW 137th Avenue. Built in 2008, the mixed use complex is 99% leased with major tenants including TJ Maxx/HomeGoods, Ross Dress For Less, and Miami Children's Hospital. The property covers 299,103 square feet including 60,665 square feet of Miami office space for lease.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

CalPERS Transfers $1.9B Portfolio

The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) has transfered its CalEast Global Logistics industrial real estate portfolio, valued at $1.9 billion, to GI Partners and RREEF according to a CoStar report. "We have confidence in GI Partners and expect excellent performance from the CalEast portfolio going forward, given their strong returns since they joined our real estate program in 2001," said Ted Eliopoulos, CalPERS Senior Investment Officer, Real Estate. "RREEF's success with CalWest and their global breadth and expertise will be valuable in managing CalEast's European assets."

CalPERS made the transition as part of a strategy to restructure its real estate and shift assets to managers. CalEast was previously managed by LaSalle Investment Management while RREEF has managed CalWest Industrial Properties for CalPERS since 1998.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.