Commerce Plaza Office Complex Sold for $125M

The Blackstone Group is selling Commerce Plaza, a three building, 515,005 square foot office complex in Oak Brook, Illinois, for $125 million to Chicago-based Zeller Realty. When completed, this will be the biggest suburban office deal of 2016 and the largest since Blackstone and Wells Fargo bought Deerfield's Corporate 500 Centre from GE Capital Real Estate for $154M last year, according to a Bisnow report. Full terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Blackstone was represented by CBRE in the deal. The building was previously owned by Arden Realty Inc.

Located at 2001, 2015 and 2021 Spring Road and originally constructed in 1974, Commerce Plaza's seven-story buildings are currently over 95% leased, with TreeHouse Foods leasing roughly 100,000 square feet of space for its headquarters. Conveniently located in the heart of Oak Brook, Commerce Plaza is 20 minutes west of downtown Chicago and 15 minutes south of O’Hare International Airport. The property features interconnected buildings surrounded by landscaped grounds with a courtyard focal point and an attached covered parking structure and plenty of surface parking. Zeller also has a deal to buy Woodfield Preserve Office Center in Schaumburg for about $74 million, according to Chicago Business; the acquisitions are Zeller's first in the Chicago suburbs since 2007.

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JOSS Buys Napa Square for $39M

New York-based JOSS Realty Partners announced that it has purchased Napa Square, one of Napa, California's largest commercial complexes with offices and two restaurants, for $39.25 million. The 65,858 square foot boutique office property was sold by Napa Square Associates LLC, which partnered with Napa owner/developer, CDI, LLC to develop the three building property from 2006-2008, delivering in 2009; the complex cost an estimated $25 million to build.

The timing is right to try to sell, said Harry Price, Napa Square spokesman, in November. "It's a very strong investment market. We were very impressed with the team at JOSS Realty. They have a very fair and transparent approach to real estate. I think they will be good stewards of the property."

"Napa Square is one of two Class A office properties in downtown Napa, which is undergoing an urban transformation around its core industries, wine, and tourism," said Larry Botel, managing partner of JOSS Realty Partners, in a press release. "With Napa Valley long considered the anchor of U.S. wine manufacturing and the top producer of wines sold internationally, downtown Napa is coming into its own by becoming one of the best destinations for live, work, and play."

Napa Square was 90% leased at the time of sale, with major tenants including Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab, and several restaurants and retailers, such as Oenotri, Norman Rose Tavern, Studio M Fine Wines, and pureCru Tasting Room. The property features private subterranean parking, marquee ground floor retail, and modern Class A office space with private office balconies on the upper floors. JOSS' plans include investing in the property and developing new leasing initiatives to further attract new tenants.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

Dallas' Triwest Plaza Sold

A fund represented by New York-based HighBrook Investment has sold the 17-story high-rise known as Triwest Plaza at 3030 LBJ Expressway in Dallas to Triwest Green LP, a Delaware limited partnership, for an undisclosed sum. In 2006, Centennial Real Estate Corp. of Dallas sold the building to Argus Realty Investors LP for $37.7 million. Terms of the acquisition were undisclosed, though the Delaware company did disclose that they used HFF to secure funding through Wells Fargo.

Built in 1984, the 369,025-square-foot TriWest Plaza building was 75% leased at the time of sale with ClubCorp as a major tenant. ClubCorp signed a long-term lease in 2013 for four floors of the building, or roughly 80,000 square feet of space, to accommodate about 300 of its employees. ClubCorp CEO Eric Affeldt said he was swayed to stay in the building at the time because of the recent acquisition of the building in 2013 by HighBrook Investors, who invested capital into the office building before selling it.

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GE Selling Real Estate, Dismantling GE Capital

Fairfield, CT-based General Electric (GE) announced this week that it is selling the bulk of its GE Capital banking business in an attempt to simplify the conglomerate and concentrate on the best-performing segments. Blackstone and Wells Fargo also announced that they had signed agreements to purchase most of the assets of GE Capital Real Estate in a transaction valued at approximately $23 billion. The transaction breaks down as follows:

• Wells Fargo has agreed to purchase performing first mortgage commercial real estate loans valued at $9.0 billion in the United States, UK and Canada.
• Blackstone's latest flagship global real estate fund, BREP VIII, has agreed to purchase the US equity assets for $3.3 billion. These assets are primarily office properties in Southern California, Seattle and Chicago.
• Blackstone's European real estate fund, BREP Europe IV, has agreed to purchase the European equity real estate assets, for €1.9 billion. These consist of office, logistics and retail assets, largely in the UK, France and Spain. The logistics assets will be integrated into Blackstone's European logistics platform, Logicor, and the retail assets into its European retail platform, Multi.
• BREDS, Blackstone's real estate debt fund, has agreed to purchase performing first mortgage loans in Mexico and Australia for $4.2 billion.
• BXMT, Blackstone's publicly traded commercial mortgage REIT, has agreed to purchase a $4.6 billion portfolio of first mortgage loans primarily in the US with Wells Fargo providing the financing.

Jon Gray, Global Head of Real Estate for Blackstone, said, "We are delighted to partner with GE on another major transaction and we thank them for their confidence in us. We also thank Wells Fargo for our longstanding relationship, and for their swift execution on this investment. This transaction clearly demonstrates the unique scale and reach of our real estate platform."

Mark Myers, Head of Commercial Real Estate for Wells Fargo, said, "This is an important transaction in the commercial real estate industry and Wells Fargo is pleased to be working with our colleagues at GE Capital and Blackstone. The portfolio of performing loans we've purchased is a strong addition to our commercial real estate platform in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, which are all active lending markets for us."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Bridge Point - Port 95 Sold for $27M

The Bridge Point - Port 95 Industrial Complex in Dania Beach, Florida traded hands this month as the developer, Bridge Development Partners, sold the new industrial property for $26.6 million. The 535,200-square-foot property was purchased by MSG Dania Beach, led by Saul Gilinski, formerly a director of Premier Asset Management. Cushman & Wakefield marketed the property and represented the seller in the transaction; full terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to a South Florida Business Journal article, Bridge Development paid $7.55 million in May 2013 for the 12.3-acre site and secured a $13.9 million loan from Wells Fargo Bank to launch construction.

"The Port 95 area is the best location in Broward County. Located in Southeast Broward, it is the tightest industrial submarket with a 3Q14 vacancy rate of only 4.2%. The reason why Port 95 is so desirable is its close proximity to Port Everglades and the Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. In addition, there is immediate access to I-95, I-595 and Florida's Turnpike, with I-75 and the Sawgrass Expressway only minutes away," Chris Metzger of C&W said.

The two Class A buildings are institutional quality, 32-foot clear industrial facilities, and were designed to accommodate tenants ranging from 20,000 - 100,000 SF.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Amazon Shopping NYC

Amazon will open its first retail outlet in New York City on 34th Street for the holidays this year, a block east from Macy's flagship at Herald Square, according to a CNBC report. The experimental pop-up store at 7 W. 34th Street, across from the Empire State Building, will function as a small warehouse, holding limited inventory for same-day deliveries only in New York. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment to CNBC about the project, except to say, "We have made no announcements about a location in Manhattan."

The New York Times' David Streitfeld and Charles V Bagli report that while sources indicate Amazon is indeed "taking over [the] entire building," — once the site of an Orbach's department store — "whether there will be an Amazon store any time soon on 34th Street seems an open question."

Opening a physical location is "about marketing the Amazon brand," said Matt Nemer, a Wells Fargo analyst. "Same-day delivery, ordering online and picking up in store are ideas that are really catching on. Amazon needs to be at the center of that." Other primarily online retailers have opened physical storefronts, including clothier Bonobos Inc., eyeglasses purveyor Warby Parker, and subscription beauty-products service Birchbox.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Wells Fargo Buys Minneapolis Development for $217M

Wells Fargo & Co. announced this week that it had paid developer Ryan Companies $217 million for land in downtown Minneapolis near the new Vikings Stadium and the two office towers yet to be built at the site. The development project planned by Ryan Companies will provide office space for approximately 5,000 team members in two 17-story office towers, which are part of a $400 million mixed-use development known as Downtown East, giving the company room to relocate current Wells Fargo employees.

The transaction is one of the largest involving downtown Minneapolis commercial property in recent history, according to a Star Tribune article. Last year, Florida-based Beacon Real Estate Services acquired the 57-story IDS Center, said to be the tallest building in Minnesota, for $253 million.

"The investment in this project – more than $300 million – represents our continued commitment to downtown Minneapolis and to the state of Minnesota," said Dave Kvamme, CEO for Wells Fargo Minnesota. "We look forward to finalizing the plans and creating this additional space to better accommodate our teams, and add to the vibrancy that the Ryan project will bring for the east side of downtown."

"The commitment from Wells Fargo is a critical step in moving the Downtown East project forward," said Rick Collins, vice president of development for Ryan Companies, "and we are pleased to be partnering with a great corporate owner. We are one step closer on a project that will bring renewed energy and ongoing development momentum to the surrounding area. We continue making progress toward groundbreaking in April 2014."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

SNH Buys Seaport Towers for $1.1B

Senior Housing Properties Trust (SNH), a Newton-based REIT, announced this week that it had agreed to acquire two waterfront towers in Boston's premier Seaport District that house the headquarters of the biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. SNH purchased the 15-story biotech medical office buildings in part with a term loan commitment for $800 million from Jefferies Finance LLC and Wells Fargo Bank. The deal, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the first half of 2014, according to a NASDAQ report. The sale comes about a week after Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a global biopharmaceutical company which relocated from Cambridge, formally opened its new home office in the Seaport District.

"The acquisition of this state-of-the-art property, which is ideally located in Boston's fastest growing downtown submarket and one of the nation's top investment markets, represents a unique opportunity to further diversify SNH's portfolio and increase our exposure to the medical office building segment," said David Hegarty, President and Chief Operating Officer of SNH.

Developed and owned by The Fallon Company, the buildings include biomedical research facilities, corporate office space, structured parking and street-level retail totaling 1.65 million total gross square feet. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a global biopharmaceutical company, occupies 96% of the property, with a remaining lease term of approximately 15 years for this new corporate headquarters. Approximately 1,300 Vertex employees from the company's 10-building Kendall Square complex in Cambridge are moving to the new headquarters by the end of March, according to a Banker & Tradesman article.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Bay Area AT&T Campus Sold for $250M

In a joint venture with MetLife Inc., Sunset Development Company has purchased the two million square foot AT&T campus in San Ramon — that it originally sold as an undeveloped property to Pacific Bell in 1983 — for more than $250 million in a sale-leaseback deal. AT&T has agreed to remain a tenant in about the half of property at 2600 Camino Ramon in San Ramon where it will continue operating its regional headquarters; the length and terms of the lease were not disclosed. Sunset Development also has plans to develop City Center, a 500,000-square-foot shopping and entertainment development with 500 housing units, across the street from the AT&T building, according to a San Francisco Business Times article.

"This acquisition recaptures a well-developed property in the heart of Bishop Ranch," said Alex Mehran Jr., president and chief operating officer of Sunset Development Company. "It provides us with a significant lease from AT&T along with one million square feet of office space that is available and of the highest quality in the Bay Area. Over the longer horizon, the project's adjacency to Bishop Ranch's City Center and San Ramon's North Camino Ramon Specific Plan area provides numerous master-planning opportunities that will benefit all tenants and visitors of Bishop Ranch."

Dallas-based AT&T said last year that it's open to the sale of some of its peripheral assets, including wireless towers, according to a Businessweek article. Sunset Development and New York-based MetLife, the largest U.S. life insurer, plan to redevelop the complex to attract additional tenants starting this year. The sale was financed by Wells Fargo, with Eastdil Secured advising Sunset Development on the acquisition and in arranging debt and equity capitalization.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Wells Fargo Breaking Ground on $125M Expansion

Wells Fargo is breaking ground on a 410,000 square foot expansion of its Chandler campus along the Price corridor in Arizona, a $125 million expansion project that will double the size of its footprint in the area. The Chandler expansion will provide space at 2600 S. Price Road for approximately 2,500 employees, adding two four-story buildings, a four-story parking garage, event center plus a café. Future phases of campus development could add another 920,000 square feet of office space and additional parking.

"The buildings will provide room for 2,500 additional team members, giving us the ability to relocate team members and the flexibility for growth," Lori Brown, a local Wells Fargo spokeswoman, said in an email to the Phoenix Business Journal. Wells Fargo employs about 13,000 people in the Valley, about 2,500 of whom work at the Ocotillo Corporate Campus on Price Road, Brown said. The bank is the fourth-largest employer in Chandler, according to the city's website.

Wells Fargo has had a corporate office on the Price Corridor since 2004, but did not want to build until it had sufficient staff, so most of the employees that would move to the new section are working in temporary locations elsewhere, Leo Bauman, vice president and manager at Wells Fargo, said in a Maguire Co. study conducted earlier this year.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Tryperion Partners Buys St. Louis Portfolio

The suburban St. Louis headquarters of Energizer Holdings and Panera Bread were among six properties acquired by Tryperion Partners in a St. Louis suburban office portfolio purchase announced this week. While the transaction amounts and terms of the deals were not disclosed, Tryperion did reveal that the acquisition was completed in two separate transactions – two buildings totaling 252,000 square feet in the prominent Maryville Centre office campus in Town and Country were acquired with financing from John Hancock Life Insurance Company, and four buildings totaling 385,000 square feet in Sunset Hills and Maryland Heights were acquired with financing from Wells Fargo. CBRE has been engaged to manage the portfolio, with Tom Ray and Art Kerckhoff of CBRE selected as listing agents for the Maryville assets, and Jay Holland and Piers Pritchard of Cassidy Turley for the Sunset Hills and Maryland Heights assets.

"We are excited about this move into St. Louis. This acquisition fits our strategy of investing in cash flowing assets in secondary markets with strong fundamentals," said Tryperion partner Eliot Bencuya of the acquisition. "The caliber of tenants, and the investments they have made in their headquarters locations, is an affirmation of the quality of this portfolio."

According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, Tryperion acquired the properties through its Tryperion RE Fund 1 LP, a $50 million fully discretionary commingled fund closed in May. The portfolio was over 90% leased at the time of sale, with long-term leases including the national headquarters for Energizer Holdings and Panera Bread, and regional headquarters for Equifax and New Balance.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

JV Sells Irvine Spectrum HQ Facility

A joint venture between CT Realty Investors and Artemis Real Estate Partners Fund I announced this week that it had sold the 123,000 square-foot corporate headquarters building at 6 Whatney in Irvine, California for $11.8 million. An unnamed buyer, an owner/user, was represented by Ryan Swanson and Phil Cohen with the Lee & Associates Irvine office. The CT Realty/Artemis joint venture represented itself. Wells Fargo provided the financing.

"This Irvine Spectrum property represented an attractive investment valued below replacement cost in keeping with our risk-adjusted investment strategy," said Carter Ewing, managing partner of CT Realty Investors. "As the South Orange County industrial market improved, the opportunity to dispose of the asset immediately following the acquisition led to exceeding our exit value in only three months of owning the property."

In December 2012, the CT Realty/Artemis joint venture acquired the facility, with plans to renovate the facility through a capital improvement campaign and then market it as a corporate headquarters. However, immediately following the acquisition, the CT Realty/Artemis joint venture sold the industrial property after only three months of owning the property.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Oxford, Crown Purchase Interest in Olympic Tower with $250M Wells Fargo Loan

A joint venture between Oxford Properties Group, the real estate arm of the OMERS Worldwide Group of Companies, and Crown Acquisitions Inc. announced a joint acquisition of a "significant interest" in New York's Olympic Tower. The JV purchased the interest in the Midtown property from Williston SA, a company controlled by the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation. According to a Commercial Real Estate Direct report, Wells Fargo provided the $250 million loan against the 500,000-square-foot Olympic Tower mixed-use complex on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The fixed-rate loan was used to refinance a $250 million mortgage that had been provided by Deutsche Bank earlier this year.

"The acquisition of Olympic Tower is consistent with Oxford's U.S. investment strategy," said Blake Hutcheson, President and CEO, Oxford Properties Group. "We seek large scale, world class mixed use assets with long term partners and we are very excited to join Crown Acquisitions and the Onassis Foundation in this exceptional opportunity. We believe in New York, We believe in this real estate and we believe in our partners."

Anthony Papadimitriou, president of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, said: "This partnership will enhance the positioning of our retail and office interests along Fifth Avenue and will most certainly add value over time. This transaction falls within our strategy of diversification of our real estate portfolio and I look forward to working with Crown and Oxford."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Westcore Secures $70M in Financing for California Properties

Westcore Properties, a San Diego-based owner and operator of institutional industrial and office properties, announced that it had secured $70 million in permanent financing for four recently purchased properties in California. According to a San Diego Business Journal article, terms of the deal were not disclosed, though a company statement said financing packages were arranged through Bank of America, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank.

According to Don Ankeny, Westcore Properties' president and CEO, "The acquisition and immediate financing of these projects totaling almost 1 million square feet is a significant accomplishment for our company which is aggressively working to double in size over the next 12 months."

The financed projects, totaling nearly 1 million square feet, included Central Plaza, a three-building, 150,000-square-foot industrial project in Union City that was acquired for $13 million; Westlake Center, a 45,000-square-foot office building in Encinitas purchased for $6.8 million; Salt Lake Industrial Park, a 132,000-square-foot project in City of Industry purchased by Westcore in a short sale for $9.5 million; and Kato Industrial Park, a 625,000-square-foot, four-building industrial park in Fremont that was just purchased for $45.6 million.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

$$230M Loan Secured for 100 Church Street

Cushman & Wakefield Equity, Debt and Structured Finance announced this week that it had arranged a $230 million senior mortgage loan for 100 Church Street in New York, New York on behalf of SL Green Realty Corp. The ten year fixed rate financing, provided by Wells Fargo and bearing interest at a rate of 4.675%, will be used for general corporate purposes according to a Commercial Property Executive article.

"The leasing market remains pretty strong (in Manhattan), and I think the pace is consistent with historical averages," David Schonbraun, co-chief investment officer at SL Green, told Commercial Property Executive.

SL Green also announced that the City of New York renewed its lease covering 372,520 square feet for offices of the law division at 100 Church Street, the 21-story, 1.05 million square foot building located in downtown Manhattan. "We are delighted to have the City of New York as our anchor tenant. The City's decision to extend its commitment is testament to the quality of our recently completed redevelopment of 100 Church Street," said Steven Durels, Executive Vice President and Director of Leasing and Real Property for SL Green. Mr. Durels continued, "This early renewal is consistent with our firm's proactive management of future lease expirations which has led to consistently high portfolio occupancy."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Wells Fargo Establishes New REIT Finance Group

Wells Fargo & Company announced this week that it had formed the REIT Finance Group, a team of professionals from within Wells Fargo dedicated to serving publicly-traded REITs in the CRE industry. Acorrding to a Washington Business Journal article, the new group will provide corporate banking services, lines of credit, term loans and construction loans to REITs while also working with Eastdil Secured LLC, a Wells Fargo subsidiary, for real estate investment banking services, and with Wells Fargo Securities for capital markets needs.

Rex Rudy, based in Charlotte and formerly Managing Director of Real Estate Syndicated Finance at Wells Fargo Securities, has been appointed as Managing Director and head of the REIT Finance Group. Rudy will report to Chip Fedalen, executive vice president and head of the Wells Fargo Commercial Real Estate Institutional and Metro Markets Group.

"Rex has devoted his career to the REIT industry and I know his wealth of experience and widely-respected reputation will be beneficial to our clients," said Fedalen. "This new team will further enhance our ability to provide our broad platform of commercial real estate products and services to REITs."

"The REITs have held up amazingly well and clearly have an access to capital that most private clients don't have today," said Rudy in a REIT.com article. "But, like everyone else, the economic environment has had an impact on all of these properties, so we are all hoping for a more robust economic recovery."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Wells Fargo Buying $3.3B in Loans

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, has agreed to sell a portfolio of 61 performing loans worth $3.3 billion to Wells Fargo & Co. according to an Orlando Business Journal article. Wells Fargo said it closed on 25 of the loans, with a face value of $1.5 billion, last week and expects the balance of the loans to close in the fourth quarter.

Wells Fargo is Central Florida's third-largest bank, with 59 branches and $5.9 billion in deposits. Wells Fargo and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc also sold about $1 billion of bonds backed by commercial mortgages after relative yields on the debt fell reported Businessweek at the beginning of the month.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Wells Fargo Expands CRE Lending

The end of August was busy for Wells Fargo with the Anglo Irish Bank deal, which followed the purchase of about $1.4 billion in U.S. loan holdings from the Bank of Ireland and roughly $500 million in loans bought from Allied Irish Banks PLC earlier this year. The Wall Street Journal has written an article looking at Wells Fargo's marked expansion in CRE titled Wells Fargo Jumps on Commercial Deals. An excerpt from the article:

Wells Fargo had emerged as the leading holder of commercial mortgages among banks, according to Trepp LLC, which tracks commercial property lending. During the second quarter, Wells Fargo's loan holdings grew by $3.3 billion, bringing its total to $100.2 billion, according to Trepp. The data exclude construction loans.

"We like the risk-return of the business," said David Hoyt, who heads wholesale banking for Wells Fargo.

The amount of commercial property loans held by the next five largest commercial real-estate lenders after Wells Fargo decreased by $1.3 billion, according to Trepp. While many of these banks are making new commercial real-estate loans, old loans have been maturing or have been sold off at a faster pace than new loans have been made.

Still, Wells Fargo has been far more aggressive than other banks, partly because it was less wounded by commercial real estate than many competitors, some of which virtually shut down lending in the sector through much of the downturn.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Anglo Irish Bank Sells $9.5B US Loans

Wells Fargo & Co, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Lone Star Funds were the winning bidders on the $9.5 billion pool of U.S. commercial real estate loan sold by Anglo Irish Bank Corp. with debt related to some 250 properties, including marquee names ranging from the Apthorp, a landmark Manhattan residential building, to a Beverly Hills, Calif., shopping center to the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago according to a Wall Street Journal article. Other bidders included Blackstone Group LP, TPG Capital, Starwood Capital Group, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG. The sale marks one of the biggest since the downturn in U.S. commercial real estate four years ago.

Anglo Irish Bank had been looking to unload the portfolio since the Irish government took control of the bank in January 2009. The bank had reported last week that it lost €101 million in the six months ended June 30th, far below the €8 billion loss it recorded for the same period last year.

According to Bloomberg, the trio will take on the portfolio of $9.65 billion in U.S. loans. It wasn't disclosed what the consortium bid for the assets, though some speculate 80 cents on the dollar would be a good price. "If you're looking at quality assets in good, strong markets, I'd say 80 cents on the dollar sounds pretty reasonable," said Tom Craig, founder of TSC Realty Partners, a commercial-property broker in Seattle who wasn't involved in the sale. "One of the barriers to entry on a big deal like this is how many people can put the capital together to buy this and close quickly."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Wells Fargo Wins Bid for $1.4B CRE Portfolio

Wells Fargo & Co. had the winning bid for the Bank of Ireland's commercial real estate portfolio, consisting of 25 loans for properties in Boston, New York and DC, picking up the portfolio for $1.4 billion according to a Wall Street Journal report. The loans were sold near their face value. The sale is part of Bank of Ireland's deleveraging efforts; in March Bank of Ireland was ordered by the country's financial regulator to cut its portfolio by a quarter after hitting financial difficulty

A spokesman for Wells Fargo declined to comment, as did a broker for HFF LP, which handled the Bank of Ireland sale according to the WSJ. This is the second acquisition this year by Wells Fargo of an Irish bank's CRE loan portfolio. The San Francisco-based financial services institution had previously teamed with Blackstone Group LP to buy approximately $1 billion in CRE loans from Allied Irish Banks PLC.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.