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.

Hines Building Bryant Park Office Tower

Hines announced this week that it would partner with Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, Inc. to develop a new office tower at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 40th Street, across from Bryant Park according to a CoStar report. The 450,000 square foot tower is expected to begin construction next year and be ready for occupancy as early as 2014. Designed by architects Henry N. Cobb and Yvonne Szeto of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the 28 story building will offer a "singular opportunity for mid-sized tenants in the midtown market," said Hines Senior Vice President Tommy Craig, head of the firm's New York/Tri-State region.

Pacolet Milliken President Richard C. Webel added, "Our Company and its ownership families are proud to be part of a project that we believe will contribute to the Bryant Park environment. We are equally proud that the building responds to the challenge from Roger Milliken, our founding chairman, to create a uniquely distinguished design that reaches for a high level of sustainability."

According to Cobb, "The building was conceived in response to the extraordinary circumstance of its location at the corner of Bryant Park. The hourglass façade detail will be a lens through which building occupants can view the park with dramatic and alluring immediacy."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Tempe Mixed Use Property Sold For $4M+

Castle & Cooke Inc. sold a mixed-use office/retail complex in Tempe, Arizona for nearly $4.1 million to a joint venture between Via West Properties LLC and Southwest Value Partners according to a Phoenix Business Journal article. Cushman & Wakefied of Arizona Inc. represented both sides in the transaction.

The three-building complex at Kyrene and Elliot roads includes 96,600 square feet of office space, currently vacant, and 15,360 square feet of retail space, now 55% occupied with tenants including FedEx Kinko's and Edward Jones Investments. "We are very excited about the ability to acquire such a high quality and functional asset at a basis that enables us to be very aggressive in our leasing efforts," said Via West Managing Partner Steven Schwarz.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Dallas Office/Retail Crescent Complex Gets $205M Loan

Crescent Real Estate Equities LLC, a real estate company owned by Barclays Capital and Goff Capital based in Fort Worth, has secured a new $205 million mortgage loan for its office and retail complex in Dallas known as The Crescent, marking one of the largest real estate loans in Dallas in years according to a Dallas Morning News report. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. provided the loan for The Crescent; Crescent Real Estate Equities also recently took out a loan from Northwest Mutual Life Insurance for $93 million for it's Trammell Crow Center in Dallas.

The Crescent, located on the edge of Dallas' Central Business District, totals 1,134,826 square feet of rentable space in 3 contiguous buildings with a 19-story center structure and two adjoining 18-story structures. Major tenants of the property include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, SmithBarney, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan. The complex, originally built in 1986, also includes the Crescent Court Hotel, and reportedly cost an estimated $400 million to develop.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Kingdom Holding Moves Forward with World's Tallest Building, Kingdom Tower

Kingdom Holding Company, the investment firm led by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, announced this week that it has signed a 4.2 billion riyal ($1.23 billion) deal a deal to build the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, selecting Saudi Binladen Group to build the structure according to a Daily Mail article. Kingdom Tower, expected to stand at least 3,280 feet tall (the exact final height is still a closely guarded secret), will loom larger than Dubai's Burj Khalifa making it the world's tallest building upon completion. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, designed the 5.7 million square foot building; Adrian Smith, previously of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, also designed the Burj Khalifa.

Smith told the Huffington Post of the project that "there's something very special about being the world's tallest building. Everyone wants to be able to do one. I think in this situation there is a development going around the tower -- a $29 billion development -- and this tower acts as a catalyst for that development. Putting such a tall tower in first actually increases the land value around the tower, so even if you don't make a lot of money on the tower itself you'll make money on the land."

"Building this tower in Jeddah sends a financial and economic message that should not be ignored," Prince Alwaleed told reporters. "It has a political depth to it to tell the world that we Saudis invest in our country despite what is happening around us from events, turmoil and revolutions even."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Ashburn Technology Park Lot Sold for $17M

St. John Properties sold a 38-acre land parcel in the Ashburn Technology Park in Ashburn, VA for $17 million according to a Washington Business Journal article. The Baltimore-based developer sold the land to Sabey Data Center Properties, privately owned data center developers and operators based in Seattle, WA.

Ashburn Technology Park currently consists of six research and development /office buildings comprising more than 320,000 square feet of space. Sabey announced in June that it has plans to build a 490,000 square foot data center campus within the complex with construction to begin late this summer. The campus will feature three buildings and will be served with over 70 megawatts of power, accommodating tenants with varying design challenges and power requirements.

"Ashburn Technology Park offers the perfect confluence of electric power, Internet network fiber, water and by-right use for this customized operation, and the business community is positioned in the middle of the Northern Virginia hi-tech employment base with close proximity to Dulles Airport and Washington, D.C.," said Larry Maykrantz, President of St. John Properties. "Sabey Data Center Properties is a well recognized and highly regarded company, and their significant investment of resources will stimulate tremendous growth opportunities for our existing tenants, as well as the Northern Virginia business marketplace."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

San Francisco's Hawthorne Plaza Sold to Manulife Real Estate

A joint venture of Hines and RREEF sold Hawthorne Plaza in downtown San Francisco to Manulife Real Estate, the real estate arm of Manulife Financial Corporation, at the close of last month according to a CoStar report. While the price of the sale was not disclosed, CoStar did reveal that the JV originally acquired the property in December 2007 for $186 million, or approximately $416 per square foot.

"We are truly delighted to add a property as significant as Hawthorne Plaza to Manulife's global real estate investment portfolio," said Kevin Adolphe, Chief Operating Officer of Manulife Financial's Investment Division and President and CEO of Manulife Real Estate. "San Francisco is one of the target growth areas for our Company's real estate business. The acquisition of Hawthorne Plaza is the latest step in our ongoing strategy to invest in core office properties to complement our growing portfolio across the United States, Canada and Asia."

The 441,000-square-foot office complex at 75 Hawthorne St. achieved LEED-EB Gold Certification in May of 2009 and is targeted to undergo significant renovations with an aim to pursue LEED-EB Platinum status. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the property's anchor tenant occupying approximately 285,000 square feet for the agency's Southwest Regional Headquarters.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.