Mesa West Capital Secures $55M Loan for Newport Beach Office

Mesa West Capital, a Los Angeles-based lender, announced this week that it had originated the first loan from its Mesa West Real Estate Income Fund III, providing a $55 million first mortgage debt to an affiliate of Emmes Asset Management. Jonathan Firestone and J.P. Leveque at Eastdil Secured arranged the financing. Emmes will use the loan to recapitalize 4000 MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach, CA, has recently completed a multimillion dollar renovation on the Class A office complex.

"Emmes was able to acquire an institutional quality asset in a top Southern California location and is repositioning it to take advantage of a lack of large contiguous blocks of quality space and an improving rental market in Orange County," said Jason Bressler of Mesa West Capital. "They have a tremendous track record in realizing the investment potential in transitional assets, especially here in Orange County."

Originally built in 1979, the 376,000 square foot office complex is under lease management with Jones Lang LaSalle. The recent renovations on the two 10-story buildings, also known as Koll Center, include a redesign of the building lobby and entry, a new full-service cafe and outdoor patio, major improvements to the building systems and upgrades to common areas.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Lake View Center in Ontario Sold to BH Properties

BH Properties, a Los Angeles-based commercial real estate investment company, announced this week that it had acquired Lake View Center in Ontario, CA for $13.8 million. The three story, 106,345 square foot office property was sold by PCCP and The Muller Companies, with representation from Kevin Shannon, Darla Longo and Phil Woodford of CB Richard Ellis.

"This Class A property is well located in a market that is showing signs of recovery," said Executive Vice President of BH Properties Steve Jaffe. "The company is very excited about our recent acquisitions in the Los Angeles basin. After an 8-year hiatus from California purchases, this property (along with the other two recent transactions) marks a new acquisition strategy for the company – while still seeking value-add type assets, we now are looking to acquire higher quality properties in more densely populated areas."

Lake View Center, built in 2004, sits at 3257 and 3237 E. Guasti Road. The property was 62% leased at the time of sale, with major tenants including East West Bank, T-Mobile and University of La Verne.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Amazon Grabs More Seattle Space

The online retail giant Amazon.com continues to grow in Seattle as it takes another 150,000 square feet of space at 1800 Ninth Avenue, an office building owned by Talon Private Capital, according to a Kidder Mathews report. Amazon has been a titan in the Seattle real estate market in recent years, buying three city blocks from Seattle's Clise family in January of last year to build a 3.3 million square foot office complex, then following that acquisition nine months later by purchasing the South Lake Union headquarters campus it had been leasing from developer Vulcan Real Estate. It's also rumored that Amazon will be leasing 136,000 square feet of space in Metropolitan Park North at 1220 Howell Street.

"Amazon is the undisputed heavyweight champion of downtown Seattle," said Kip Spencer, president of The Spencer Companies, a Seattle real-estate consulting firm.

"In the 25 or 30 years I've been around downtown Seattle, I've never seen anything remotely like what Amazon has done to the market," says Dale Sperling, former president and CEO of Seattle's Unico Properties.

A joint venture of Talon and Prudential Real Estate Investors bought 1800 Ninth in December 2011 from Regence Blue Shield, which leased back about 30% of the space. The 1800 Ninth building is about three blocks from the nearest building Amazon already occupies.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

McCarthy Building Breaks Ground on Springfield Rehab Hospital

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. broke ground this week on a new $28 million rehabilitation hospital for Mercy and Centerre Healthcare in St. Louis, Missouri. Duke Realty Corp. will own the 63,000-sq. ft. building, and the health care system will be the tenant. Springfield. Nashville, Tennessee-based Earl Swensson Associates Inc. is the project architect, according to a National Real Estate Investor article. Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital Springfield is a partnership between Mercy and Centerre Healthcare Corporation, a national leader in the development and operation of rehabilitation hospitals. Centerre has partnered with Mercy for similar projects in St. Louis and Oklahoma City.

The new two-story rehab hospital sits across the street from the Mercy Orthopedic Hospital Springfield site, which is also being built by McCarthy for $116 million, and will have 60 beds and provide inpatient rehabilitation for patients recovering from strokes, brain or spinal cord injuries, amputations, complex orthopedic injuries and other conditions. McCarthy expects to deliver the building early in 2014.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Digital Realty Trust Acquires Data Center for $37M

San Francisco-based Digital Realty Trust announced this week that it had completed the acquisition of a 329,000 square foot data center facility in Eagan, Minnesota for $37 million. Structured as a sale-leaseback deal, Digital Realty purchased the facility from Delta Air Lines, which has signed an eight-year, triple net lease with Digital Realty for the facility.

"The acquisition of Towerview further expands our footprint in a key U.S. market and deepens our relationship with an existing customer—a major commercial airline with an extensive domestic and international network," said Michael Foust, chief executive officer of Digital Realty. "We look forward to continuing to work with Delta Air Lines to support their future data center requirements."

"We are beginning to see more enterprise customers, such as Delta, looking to Digital Realty to help them monetize their real estate assets while continuing to support their critical operations with a well-capitalized, long-term data center owner," said Scott Peterson, chief acquisitions officer of Digital Realty. "Our deep financial resources, acquisitions experience, and reputation with customers and sellers enable us to source and structure these complex transactions while achieving an attractive return for our shareholders."

Set on 39 acres of land, 1500 Towerview Road is a three-level facility with approximately 86,000 square feet of raised-floor data center space.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Demo Starts on New $75M Mixed Use Development in Cincinnati

The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority started work this week on the site of the former Swifton Commons in Cincinnati, a $75 million mixed-use project that will help remake Bond Hill. The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority recently finalized the purchase of 25 acres and has begun removing structures, including a 32-foot billboard-style sign that has marked the Reading Road/Seymour Avenue intersection for more than four decades.

"Today is another great day for Cincinnati," Mayor Mark Mallory told about 200 Bond Hill residents, community, business, port authority and city leaders. "This redevelopment represents the City's first investment injection from our new Focus 52 program fund, created just for transformational projects such as this one."

Full demolition on the blighted 250,000-square-foot outdoor shopping center is expected to begin June 1, according to a Cincinnati.com article. In December, the city decided to give $6.2 million to the port authority for redevelopment of the site, at a location once considered the northern gateway into Cincinnati.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Zeller Realty Group Buys Guaranty Bank Building

Zeller Realty Group has made its first move on the Denver market with the purchase of 1331 17th Street, a 13-story office building in the LoDo submarket. The terms of the deal and exact sale price were not disclosed; the property previously sold in 2007 for $69.95 when Hines Interests LP teamed with the California Public Employees' Retirement System and bought the building under an ownership entity called the National Office Partners LP. Mary Sullivan and John Jugl, senior managing directors of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP, represented the seller, Common Wealth Partners LLC, in the transaction.

Los Angeles-based Common Wealth took over for Hines and the building ownership entity was named NOP 1331 17th LLC, according to a Denver Business Journal article. Also known as the Guaranty Bank Building, the 220,287 square-foot building was completed in 1983 and delivered by the a and Denver developer Bill Walters. The building was reportedly 87% leased at the time of sale, with Guaranty Bank occupying 25% of the property.

"Zeller chose the strongest market in Denver for office property ownership, so they know it will be successful," Sullivan said. "They've wanted to be in the market for quite some time and have bid on other assets. They're committed to the Denver market and want to own more assets here."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.