Five Columbus Circle Gets $55M Refinance Loan

1790 Broadway Associates, the owners of Five Columbus Circle in New York, NY, has secured a $55 million refinancing loan on the office and retail property. Meridian Capital Group negotiated the senior loan, provided by a national balance sheet lender and featuring a 10-year term with full-term interest-only payments and an interest rate of 3.45%. 1790 Broadway Associates, LLC, an entity controlled by the Ionian Group, run by Sofia Milonas and Claire Milonas, and The Red Apple Group, run by John Catsimatidis.

"There was tremendous liquidity in the market for this transaction given its location and stable operating history," said Meridian Managing Director, Aaron Appel. "The lender won the deal by offering a competitive interest rate and at the same time providing structural flexibility rarely seen in long term fixed rate debt products."

Five Columbus Circle is located at 1790 Broadway and features 8,700 square-feet of street level retail. The property is 96.5% leased, with major tenants including Columbia Artists Management, Columbia University, Fordham University and HSBC in the retail portion.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

World Class Capital Closes Texas and California CRE Acquisitions

World Class Capital Group (WCCP), an Austin-based private real estate investment firm, announced this week that it had closed on two major commercial real estate acquisitions in Texas and California. The properties include North Oaks Shopping Center, a 450,000 square foot retail center in Houston, Texas, and Andrita Media Center, a 110,000 square foot creative office and studio building in Los Angeles, California.

WCCP purchased the properties for an undisclosed sum from unnamed buyers. It is known, however, that Broadcast Facilities, a media services company led by former Pixar and Fox executive Simon Bax and Bill Tillson, the President of Broadcast Cable Services, Inc., purchased the Andrita Media Center from Playboy Enterprises in April 2008. "Andrita Media Center provided us the opportunity to make a strategic buy on a high-quality asset and enter the Southern California market," said Nate Paul, President and CEO of WCCP.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Blumberg Grain in the News

Blumberg Grain was featured in a Ghana Business & Financial Times article titled Blumberg Grain Joins GGC to Improve Grain Storage featuring the company's advancements and partnerships in the developments of the West Africa Manufacturing Plant and Export Hub. An excerpt follos:

As a leader in the industry, Blumberg Grain will provide state-of-the-art food safety and security systems to consolidate efforts of the WRS for increased efficiency in the grain industry through strategically targeted interventions along the grains value chain. The GGC, a non-profit private sector organization funded by the USAID/ADVANCE, established the WRS aimed at helping in the efficient storage and marketing of grains.

Dr. Christian Rath, Senior Vice President of Blumberg Grain, said the company sees its partnership with GGC as an impressive strategy for West Africa — specifically to develop a West Africa Manufacturing Plant and Export Hub to fabricate and distribute their warehousing systems across the region.

Dr. Rath pointed out that Ghana and Nigeria are the finalists for the West Africa Hub location and Blumberg Grain is seeking to reach a selection decision before the end of June.

"If Ghana is selected as the location for the West Africa Manufacturing Plant and Export Hub, it will improve the lives of Ghanaian farmers significantly, create additional employment, increase exports, foster higher education, and help Ghana to become the agribusiness Hub for West Africa," he adds.

To read the full article, click here. For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Starwood Buys Blue Back Square in CT for $106.3M

Starwood Capital Group and affiliate Starwood Retail Partners announced this week that they had purchased a large mixed-use center from a developer joint venture for $106.3 million. Developers Ronus Properties, Street-Works and JDA Development sold the 450,000 square-foot property, dubbed Blue Black Square, after originally delivering the complex in 2008 for $158.8 million.

"Blue Back Square is a fundamentally strong, infill asset in an attractive market with limited new supply that generates strong cash-on-cash returns and presents an excellent opportunity for Starwood and its investors," said Ethan Bing, vice president at Starwood Capital Group.

According to Starwood, the property was 96% leased at the time of sale, with major tenants including REI, Crate & Barrel, The Cheesecake Factory Inc. and Barnes & Noble. The live-work-play complex also includes condos and apartment rentals, medical space that houses the Hartford Hospital, and office space that is taken up by professional services and law firms.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Marriott Business Park Sold to JV

The Marriott Business Park, an office/R&D business park totaling 427,500 square feet in Santa Clara, California, traded hands this week as HFF closed the sale of the property. Legacy Partners, in joint venture with AllianceBernstein U.S. Real Estate Partners, purchased the property for an undisclosed amount. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler marketed the property on behalf of the seller, a joint venture composed of two unnamed global investment managers.

"Investors were attracted to the stable in-place occupancy with substantial upside potential from near-term rollover of currently occupied suites, which were leased at rates significantly below-market, allowing the new owner to capitalize on the surging office market," said HFF managing director Steven Golubchik. "Furthermore, the property offered investors increased site density should the new ownership seek redevelopment in the future."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Forest City Sells Portfolio Interest for $330M

Creating a joint venture portfolio valued at $2.05 billion, Forest City Enterprises, Inc. announced this week that it had signed an agreement to for joint ventures with QIC to recapitalize a retail portfolio of eight U.S. malls in return for $330 million of liquidity. According to a Cleveland Sun Press article, Forest City confirmed last month that it had hired New York investment bankers to explore sale and joint-venture opportunities for the Avenue shopping mall, the Post Office Plaza building and the Skylight Office Tower. Weeks later the company announced that QIC, one of the largest institutional investment managers in Australia, will acquire 49% of Forest City's current ownership interest in the portfolio for cash. Forest City will be the managing member of the individual joint ventures and continue to be responsible for management of the properties. Closing of the joint ventures is expected to occur before the end of the fiscal third quarter.

"We are pleased to partner with QIC, an experienced global investor, to invest in and enhance these strong retail centers," said David J. LaRue, Forest City president and chief executive officer. "This is another example of our strategy of securing strategic capital partners to invest with us in both existing assets and new opportunities. The transaction clearly demonstrates the tremendous value of these properties. Unlocking a portion of that value allows us to advance our deleveraging efforts while also reinvesting in our portfolio and new development. I want to thank our entire transaction team, led by James Ratner, Duane Bishop and Frank Wuest, as well as everyone involved from QIC, for achieving this great outcome."

Preliminary priorities for the joint venture will be renovation and/or expansion of four malls: Galleria at Sunset in Henderson, Nevada, Antelope Valley Mall in Palmdale, California, Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Virginia, and South Bay Galleria in Redondo Beach, California. The other properties included in the joint venture are Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, California, Charleston Town Center in Charleston, West Virginia, Mall at Robinson near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Promenade in Temecula, California.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

RFR Secures $100M Financing for 345 Park Avenue South

RFR Holding GmbH (RFR), a real estate investment firm owned by the RFR Group, announced this week that it had closed on $100 million in financing for 345 Park Avenue South. Through the 10-year CMBS transaction arranged by Citibank, RFR will decease existing debt on the property while taking advantage of low interest rates to reduce its cost of capital going forward, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

"This transaction exemplifies several trends we're seeing in the financing marketplace," said Jason Brown, Head of Acquisitions for RFR. "With strong sponsors like RFR, lenders are now willing to extend the term of the financing beyond the terms of existing leases. There's an understanding that groups with a track record of retaining and attracting tenants are likely to maintain stable performance in the future."

345 Park Avenue sits on a full city block with the front on Park Avenue, the back on Lexington Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets in New York. Completed in 1969, the skyscraper stands 634 feet tall and and has 44 floors. Emery Roth & Sons designed the building, which is the 64th tallest in New York. The office floors are 100% occupied by Digitas, a leading digital marketing firm owned by international advertising and public relations company Publicis Groupe.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.